Comments on: Who Will Ride the York University Subway?

By: Martin Cleaver

Martin Cleaver — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 16:58:53 +0000

Rather than tunnel for $6bn, why not just use the existing Go Train lines? Steve: Of the entire Transit City scheme, the major tunnel section is on Eglinton from roughly Laird Drive (eastern Leaside) to Keele (City of York). Another shorter section will probably be needed for the Don Mills line from the Danforth subway north to the Don Valley. GO rail services and the lines they do or might run on are very much core-oriented while Transit City is a network intended to serve travel among the suburbs. Yes, it will make travel to downtown easier too, but that's not its primary intention. Nobody is going to use a GO train on the Newmarket Sub as an alternative to Jane Street. Nobody is going to travel north to the York Sub (even assuming CN would let GO use it) as an alternative to the Finch West line. There is no railway line providing comparable potential service to the Scarborough network -- the CPR Havelock Sub would make a nice line to downtown from Peterborough as it once did for VIA, but not for local travel within the city as a whole. The bottom line here is that there are two separate networks: one is for commuter traffic from the 905 and outer 416 into the core and the other is for travel over a wide variety of origins and destinations with relatively close station spacings all over the 416. If you want to see better GO service, lobby for it, but don't treat it as a replacement for Transit City.

By: Cam Taylor

Cam Taylor — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 02:56:22 +0000

Another subway boondoggle. I guess that means after this extension is built, there won’t be another one for a long, long time. And since I’m guessing that the Sheppard line is next on the subway expansion books, who knows when it will reach Scarborough Town Centre, let alone even head out west to Downsview station. I guess the Eglinton West line probably won’t be revisted until say….. 50 years from now? It’s a sad time to be a transit enthusiast in Toronto.

By: Brendan

Brendan — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 15:38:58 +0000

There was talk a few years ago about the TTC implementing a BRT from Downsview to York U. However I cannot find any information on these plans since 2004. They had alignments and everything, has the TTC abandoned this? Or are they just not sharing the information?

The BRT was to be an intermediary measure untill the subway was built. If Flaherty decides not to give there share of the funding, the BRT may become the long term solution.

Steve: It took ages for York University to agree to the part of the line on their land, but that was settled and detailed design work is underway.