We wrote the other day about a closed-door meeting about the future of the Scarborough RT. The Scarborough Mirror has a report on it:
Several Scarborough councillors, who met Tuesday with Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) officials in a closed-door meeting to discuss transit options for the area, are now saying that creating a network of LRT lines is the way to go.
“I think today’s meeting is really the death of the Scarborough subway and the birth of massive public transit in Scarborough. And that, for me, is incredibly exciting,” TTC Commissioner and Ward 38 Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker (Scarborough Centre) said following the meeting at the Scarborough Civic Centre….
“We all wanted the subway but I think cold, hard reality has set in,” De Baeremaeker said.
Ward 37 Councillor Michael Thompson (Scarborough Centre) maintains councillors have to be “prudent and practical” when examining options for the future of transit in the area.
“It would be ideal to have the complete network and the subway,” he said, adding that option isn’t financially possible.
Thompson added that TTC staff is recommending a network of services to meet the area’s needs rather than the creation of one costly subway line.
Photo by Calum Tsang from Transit Toronto
17 comments
so like a web of Spadina/St Clair style R.O.W. along Kingston, Markham, Eglinton, Victoria Park, etc? That would be an interesting proposal, I would like to see this more fleshed out though.
It’s been a long time coming…lets hope its as good as it sounds
Awesome. It’s about time Malvern gets better services on off peak times.
I was just reading this in the newspaper and I can see a web of LRT on Sheppard, Finch (Hydro Corridor), Kingston, Malvern, etc. This is what Scarborough really needs (instead of that two stop Subway stuff).
Now they’ve gotta figure out what to do with the Sheppard Subway and Scarborough is all set.
Does this mean streetcars in Scarborough?
The change of attitude from a costly 1 subway line to a multiple LRT network is amazing indeed, and I applaud this new direction. Maybe now Scarborough will finally get it right….and the folks up in Vaughan might want to reconsider their subway plans.
The obvious solution is the one that gets discussed last I guess.
by LRT are we talking rapid transit, or slow traffic causing street cars?
this news brings a smile to my face. A massive network of LRT and BRT lines (new style streetcars and buses in their own, seperated lanes) in Scarborough is just what the doctor ordered, not an expensive and ineffiecient two stop subway. Hopefully other areas of Toronto can get the same treatment, particularly Etobicoke and North York. If the surrounding municipalities (Durham, Halton & Peel) follow York Region’s Viva plan the entire GTA could have an incredibly comprehensive network of intergrated light rapid transit.
If anyone has the time read the TTC’s Ridership Growth Strategy, which is the basis for the LRT/BRT network in Toronto.
http://www.toronto.ca/ttc/schedules/service_reports.htm#ridershipgrowthstrategy
Streetcars will replace the RT and they will run subway style but not on the streets though.
Here is a link to a photo of the streetcars they use in Stockholm. They do a gang-up version, kinda like our double-streetcars on the Queen route. But they end up being longer with more capacity.
http://www.hammarbysjostad.se/service/images/tvarbanan.jpg
If the streetcar solution is to be like the Spadina separated lines it probably would be ok. But if its just to add streetcar tracks on the streets I have to disagree here. I used to live and take transit in Scarborough a few years ago and while it seems that an subway system would be great, the cost reality would be imense.
if the “street”cars are kept off the street then I dont have a problem. I live near Spadina and St.Clair and both of these “speed friendly” ROW lanes only cause more traffic and slower street cars. having lines that are toally unconnected to streets is a good idea, regardless of weather the vehicles traveling on that line are large 6-car subway trains, smaller LRT trains, or streetcars.
some posters here don’t seem to relize that it is CARs that cause traffic. The “slow traffic causing street cars” that snail their way in rush hour, down King and Queen in the core carry more people than the cars they are supposedly slowing down.
If you think that the streetcars are slowing you down on those streets imagine doubling the number of cars.
Boo-yah, Pat!
Yeah, you can’t run subway speed with cars on the streets.
Pat, you’re missing the point. Of course streetcars carry more people than the equivalent amount of carspace would. That’s not being argued here. The question, rather, is where you put those streetcars. If on the street, then they and the cars get snarled up in mutual traffic. If on separated transitways, then they run faster, and the cars run faster.
Giving streetcars their own lanes would also help cut down on incidents where angry, impatient drivers plow by open streetcar doors, ignoring any disembarking passengers, which often include the elderly and young children (the very people most unlikely or unable to drive). I don’t hate drivers, but I absolutely loathe dangerous ones. Their sense of privilege is astounding.