A Grand Plan

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Second Exits, Second Entrances

In response to modern fire safety codes, the TTC has an ongoing program to add secondary exits at many subway stations.  Note that these must be completely separate paths out of the station.  Two stairways leading to a common mezzanine count as one exit because a fire in the common area could block access to the surface from platform level.

As an example, the new exits at Broadview take a path up to the bus and streetcar loop that is not connected to the original path up to the main entrance.

Planning for most of the new exits had assumed that they would be “exit only” facilities as this makes them cheaper to build.  However, access to stations is improved if these exits can also be entrances.  To that end, changes are proposed for five stations.

  • College Station’s original proposed second exit was at Granby Street, one south of Carlton, east of Yonge.  The primary entrance for the station is constrained by existing buildings and cannot be made accessible with elevators.  Therefore, the second exit will be converted to a full entrance including elevators.  An alternative scheme involving connection to College Park is also under study.
  • Museum Station’s original proposal would have surfaced in Queen’s Park, but there is now a proposal for a connection to a new UofT Faculty of Law campus on the northwest corner of Queen’s Park.
  • Dundas Station will have an automatic entrance connection to the new Ryerson University development.
  • Dundas West Station has a rather odd history.  There has been a design for a full connection to GO Transit at this location for years, but for some reason, the TTC had scaled this back to an exit only arrangement.  Given the service GO (and the Air Rail Link) will run in this corridor, it deserves a proper subway connection.  The project is now in Metrolinx’ hands.
  • Wellesley Station will get a new entrance at Dundonald Street (one north of Wellesley).  The population density here is high enough to support two entrances, and this configuration will avoid passengers having to walk through a laneway to reach Wellesley’s main entrance from Dundonald Street and areas to the north.

Frankly, I can’t see why the TTC wouldn’t design second entrances (not just exits) right from the outset, and I hope that this will be the standard from now on.

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Electrifying News for GO Transit

According to today’s Star, Metrolinx will today announce the commencement of a study of electrification.  Although this had been planned sometime in the future, the dates were vague depending on which report one read.  Indeed, GO seemed to be leaning more to continued diesel operation with a mix of local and express trains rather than using inherently faster electric trains for all services.

This is a great victory for the Clean Train Coalition who will release “The Better Move”, a response to Metrolinx’ Regional Plan, “The Big Move”, at a press conference on Wednesday (May 27).

The West Toronto Chapter of the Professional Engineers of Ontario plans to set up a subcommittee to study the electrification issue, and will hold a meeting on the evening of May 27.  Mike Sullivan from the Weston Community Coalition will be speaking.  The meeting is open to the public, but pre-registration is required.  For information, please see the PEO Chapter’s flyer.

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SRT Extension Open House

The City of Toronto and the TTC will hold an open house for the proposed extension of the SRT:

  • Tuesday, June 2, 2009
  • 6:30 to 9:00 pm
  • Sts. Peter & Paul Banquet Hall, 231 Milner Avenue

This open house is described as part of the preliminary planning for an EA for this project.  One important outstanding issue is the question of vehicle technology, and this is far from settled.  For example, the current proposal included in the meeting notice (not yet available on the City’s website) shows a new yard east of Bellamy and Progress.  This yard would not be required if the line is built as LRT because it would share the proposed carhouse for the Sheppard East line.

Also, the station connection at Sheppard will be affected if both routes are LRT because a track connection for carhouse moves will be needed.

Whether these issues are addressed in the presentation materials on June 2 remains to be seen.

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Another GO Transit Grade Separation Project (Updated)

Updated May 14:  The display panels from the April 22 open house are available on GO Transit’s website.

Original post from April 15:

Construction is already underway for the grade separation project at the West Toronto diamond, and the residents are mightly upset about the noise from pile driving.  This project will continue disrupting the neighbourhood until late this year.

GO Transit has announced a public meeting on April 22, 2009 that will kick off another project in the same area, this time to remove the diamond where the Newmarket Subdivision (Barrie GO line) crosses the CPR North Toronto Subdivision.

(Thanks to Vic Gedris for passing along a copy of the notice.)

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Goodbye Metrolinx, Hello Metrolinx

Earlier today I learned that Bill 163, the act to amalgamate GO Transit with Metrolinx and dump the politicians from the new Board, is expected to pass third reading imminently with proclamation shortly thereafter.

This means that the planned Board meeting on May 15 will be the new, wet behind the ears, but ever so non-political board.  Whether they will choose to meet in public much less discuss anything of consequence remains to be seen.  The date is still on the Metrolinx events calendar, but a week is a long time in politics.

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Staging the Electrification of GO Transit

For a good part of today, April 18, a conversation has flown back and forth via email between me, Karl Junkin of TRAC, Mike Sullivan and Rick Ciccarelli of the Weston Coalition, and Robert Wightman (a frequent contributor to comments here and a member of the original Streetcars for Toronto Committee).  I will not attempt to précis all of the threads, but thought it worthwhile to bring the discussion out into a broader context in this blog.

The problem, in brief, is to ensure that the electrification of the Weston/Georgetown corridor happens sooner rather than later and that the number of diesel trains operated on that corridor is kept to a minimum as service builds up to projected levels.

We had quite a discussion about dual mode locomotives with the major points pro and con boiling down to:

  • Bombardier produces a dual mode locomotive which is operating or on order in a few cities.
  • This locomotive could handle a 10-car GO train, but not a 12-car consist.
  • Dual mode would allow electrification to proceed in smaller increments with diesel operation beyond the end of the electrified territory.
  • These locomotives are very expensive, and the added capital spent on them must be weighed against the cost of electrification.
  • They need both diesel power and the power conversion equipment to convert the 25KV distribution voltage for use by the train.  Because there are, in effect, equipment for two power plants, you are always towing around one that isn’t doing anything, but both have to be maintained.

The idea lurking behind this is to maximize the amount of electric operation in the Weston corridor at least as far as the airport in keeping with the desire of communities along the corridor to minimize diesel operation, noise and fumes.

Various links of interest:

Railway Age article (quoted on another site).

Bombardier specification sheets for existing New Jersey and on-order Montreal equipment.

Specification sheets for GO’s current equipment (here and here, similar content).

Recently, I threw a new variation into the discussion by suggesting that there could be two separate fleets of locomotives.  Purely electric locomotives would be used to hall the service on the all-day section of the Lakeshore and Georgetown lines, and diesels would be used for peak period express trips running on the extended routes.

This arrangement would mean that all off-peak service would be electric, and diesel operations would remain only for peak extensions and for lines that had not been converted for electric operation.

There are downsides to this, notably that more infrastructure would be needed to get to the point where electric service could start, but it would achieve much of the goal of reduced diesel operation in the major corridors without requiring electrification to the end of service territory.  It would also eliminate the need for dual mode locomotives — whether this is a “benefit” depends a lot on where you stand on this type of operation.

Finally, all of this assumes that “Blue 22” would be electrified from day 1.  This seems highly unlikely given current arrangements with the proponent, SNC Lavalin, who are not even providing new equipment for their service.  Whether the proposed structures for the airport access tracks can even accommodate future electrification is unknown, and I would not be surprised to hear how we couldn’t possibly force SNC Lavalin to include this in the initial build.

Metrolinx is showing its usual colours on this whole issue saying that the project to get new service on the Weston corridor is far to important to delay, and that electrification is something for the future.  They are not making a lot of friends along the line on this count as well as on other structural issues involving neighbourhood impacts.  I will explore those in a separate post.

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Praxis II Showcase 2009 at U of T

When:  Wednesday, April 15 from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm

Where:  Bahen Centre Lobby, 40 St. George Street

What:  First year engineering students spent half a term identifying and researching issues of usability, accessibility, and sustainability within the TTC system.  This led to 80 “Requests for Proposals (RFPs)” of which the top six were selected as design challenges to be solved during the second half of the course.

Topics:

  • Improving Passenger Safety Near TTC’s Exposed Subway Tracks
  • Solving the Heat Loss Problem
  • Improving Wayfinding Signage on the TTC
  • Service Delays Caused by the inefficiency of Passenger Dynamics Into and Out Of Subway Cars
  • Revising TTC Bus Interiors to Maximise Space and Boost Passenger Satisfaction
  • Improving the Emergency Response System on the TTC Subways to Decrease Delay Time and Increase Safety

For more information, please see the full invitation.

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Weston Corridor Meetings Start Tonight

Metrolinx and GO begin their series of open houses for the expansion of tracks and service in the Weston corridor tonight.  Politically, this project has moved from a concern just in the town of Weston to a growing controversy along the line as neighbourhoods learn of the potential impact on them.

Among the issues are:

  • How many tracks are required to handle the planned service
  • To what degree does the proposed Air Rail link (Blue 22) affect track layouts
  • What pollution will be caused by a high level of diesel-hauled trains in the corridor
  • Why isn’t the line being electrified, and what effect would this have on track and equipment needs
  • What is the effect of increased service on existing grade crossings in Weston and at Strachan Avenue

GO Transit fought a long battle with the Weston Community Coalition over issues in their neighbourhood during an earlier GO-managed study of the line.  GO used the term “NIMBY” in an attempt to marginalize this opposition, and that term crept into recent provincial announcements about the need for an enhanced (read less vulnerable to opposition) transit environmental assessment process.  Sadly GO and their new partner, Metrolinx, do not seem to have learned much about meaningful public participation, but now face opposition from other neighbourhoods and possibly from the City of Toronto itself.

The open house schedule is available at the project website.

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Metrolinx Cancels April Board Meeting

The planned April 24 meeting of the “old” Metrolinx Board has been cancelled.  A May meeting still appears in the events list on the Metrolinx website, but it’s anyone’s guess at this point which version of the Board will exist by then.

Among the long-awaited reports that were expected this month is the Benefits Case Analysis for the Eglinton line.  Meanwhile work continues on design work leading to Transit Environmental Assessments by the City of Toronto and TTC.

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GO Transit Contemplates Customer Satisfaction and Station Design

Today’s GO Transit board meeting (yes, that Board still exists) included presentations on two related items:

  • Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Survey
  • Station Access Strategy

The link between these, although they were separate items on the agenda, is that people who cannot conveniently get to GO services won’t use them.

Board members were in a chatty mood, and asked many questions of the presenter, a Transportation Planner from GO’s staff who acquitted herself well on a variety of topics.  I could not help noticing how many questions with a direct relevance to customer experiences, to feelings people have about GO, to problems of convincing more people to use the system, came from the politicians on the Board.  These are members who have a direct relationship with GO customers and potential new riders.  Other members spoke too, but the preponderance of questions informed by a direct link to constituents and municipal issues was quite striking.

All of this will be lost on the new consolidated Metrolinx board where, we are told, politicians would just get in the way. Continue reading →