POLL: What should be the name of Toronto’s proposed Downtown Relief Line?

44 comments

1. The DRL will never get funding from senior levels of government if it’s called the “Downtown Line,” or any name with “Downtown” in it. Look to the new “Canada Line” in Vancouver: the name needs to be as generic and non-urban focused as possible.

2. I don’t understand why “Downtown Loop” is a popular option, given this line wouldn’t form a loop.

3. Ah, the Front Line. It has a great militaristic overtone to it. It goes well with Fort York nearby.

   However, the Union Line was also a good suggestion that isn’t in the poll.

4. I suspect any LOOP suggestions are based on the fact that it won’t go north of Bloor or Danforth for a long time. And the line certainly “loops” back up to the Bloor-Danforth line. While not officially a loop, visually it looks like that on any map.

5. We should just name it Union Station. Flaherty promised funding for Union Station during the budget, and pulling one over him is probably the only way we’ll get the Feds to fund it.

6. Queen-King Line fits better with the Younge-Univeristy-Spadina Bloor-Danforth way or naming things.
   Although you could certainly squeeze a few more names into it. Bloor-Queen-Union-King-Danforth Line?

   I like just Queen Line personally.

7. Without knowing the final alignment, it’s hard to say at this point. An alignment under Pape, the rail-lands and then Wellington is certainly an option, so Pape-Wellington Line would be a good name in that case.

8. Well, it’s a U shape, and “tube” is a synonym for subway, so call it the U-Tube.

   😀

9. Downtowner is the most modern-sounding, to my ear. I can see Ontario being chosen for it’s bland inoffensiveness.

   How about the “Mackenzie Line”? William Lyon Mackenzie seems like a suitably interesting and PC character from history to deserve a big piece of infrastructure carry his name. Rebellion leader, reformer, and first mayor. And only four syllables, compares favourably to the nine of Y-U-S.

10. Let’s call it The Harper so Stevie will front the cash. We can always change it later.

11. Call it the “Pol Pot Express” for all I care, just build it already!

12. We HAVE a loop.

    I propose calling the new loop “The Twop” or “The Twoop”.

13. I’d call it COMPLETELY SWEET!

14. Downtown Relief Line sounds like where you wait in order to get soup if you are homeless.

15. I still prefer “Don Line” for the eastern leg.

16. I like the “Belt Line” or the “Wellington Line”.

17. *Union Line was my idea,(*thanks A.R.) but i’m not distressed that it’s not in this list. The U Line is the closest thing to it I suppose.

    My reasoning for this name is simple, it unites all current existing TTC lines to Union(*which if it happens, will be much larger due to renovations in the future)

    Simple, generic and geographically correct. No Fuzz.

    On a humour note, I also liked Mike’s idea, “The Harper Line” Hey, anything to get his attention right?(haha)

18. Assuming it reaches far enough before turning north east and west, The Liberty-Beach line.

19. The Don-Weston line?

    The Big U is good too (note that YUS isn’t a real “U” since it’s shaped more like a grand piano)

20. Call it the Proposal Line

21. “The DRL will never get funding from senior levels of government if it’s called the “Downtown Line,” or any name with “Downtown” in it. Look to the new “Canada Line” in Vancouver: the name needs to be as generic and non-urban focused as possible.”

    Though the ‘Canada Line’ was initially fundedas the RAV (Richmond-Airport-Vancouver) line and renamed after the shovels had hit the ground.

    I would agree that more information on routing is neccesary before coming up with a name. DRL works perfectly because it perfectly explains the goals of the project. Queen-King has a great ring to it, but wouldn’t make much sense if the line runs along the rail corridor.

22. Queen-King makes sense, given the existence of the University-Spadina and Bloor-Danforth lines, but it doesn’t roll off the tongue as easily of the other two. Sounds like one of those tongue-twisting Chinese name. Dong Wang. Liu Xiaonin. Kveen-King.

23. Coastline

    Also, I’d love to see a stop at Coxwell and Gerrard. There’s even a great big empty lot by the rail overpass that would be an ideal spot for a station.

    Eh, one can dream.

24. For those who are not aware, the TTC already has a route called Downtowner. It’s the 502, which goes along Kingston Rd to Queen and McCaul. Being a minor route that needs a better name, anyway, I’m sure Downtowner could be used for the Subway instead.

25. i’d go for the Front Line or the Downtowner.

26. I voted “downtowner,” but I can’t help but thinking that this whole process goes to show that there’s a larger problem with the current naming convention of Toronto’s subway lines. Basically, our current subway lines (for the most part) follow streets and are named after said streets. However, that can make for some very cumbersome names (i.e., the Yonge-University-Spadina line). Yet, the DRL, won’t follow any street for very long, so regardless, it’s going to break from the established pattern no matter what it gets named. Which suggests to me that it’s time to just number our subways and forget about names…

    #1 Line – YUS (yellow)
    #2 Line – BD (green)
    #3 Line – SRT (blue)
    #4 Line – SH (purple)
    #5 Line – DRL (another coulour)

    Also, we should label our GO-corridors by letters instead of numbers. Therefore, numbers would always suggest subway lines and letters would equate to regional rail. Paris uses such a system. Perhaps Metrolinx could lead the charge on this.

27. What about “the D” of the D train?

    It stand for downtown but also U / D shape the line cuts?

28. Thanks Jason, had suggested that before, on previous post, but got blown out of the water for the idea.

    How about the Waiting Line.

    Or when it finally gets built, the Bi-Centennial Line.

    But seriously, The Queen-City line. With or without hyphen.

29. I’m thinking that this DRL could be bigger stretching from the airport to Don Mills and Sheppard. Using the money for Blue 22, Transit City and this DRL, we could have a line that would service tons of people (including those who use the 400 series highways) without having to transfer.

    I’m calling it the AIR-DOWN-DON line or DONAIR. But that’s terrible. Any other ideas?

    Let’s push our politicians to think bigger on this.

30. How about “Lakefront Line” – it goes along the Lakefront (at least, the old one) for a good chunk of the line, but that way it doesn’t get confused with Lake Shore Boulevard. And it’s a nice, evocative word.

    That’s if it goes to Union (which I think it should). If it ends up farther north, say along King, then the King line would be obvious.

    I don’t think the variations on downtown or union work all that well because Yonge/Univ/Spadina already goes downtown.

    I also like the idea of just going to colours. Yonge/University/Spadina is already a mouthful (should they add “Allan” onto the end, too? Or, after the extension, “York”?).

31. Peter D. — I assume you mean a stop at Carlaw and Gerrard, not Coxwell?

32. Much as I like the idea of the “Mackenzie” line (LOL), Brent, and much as I like the idea of commemorating my favourite Mackenzie, William Lyon, naming the line “Mackenzie” would be an historic slap in the face for the TTC!

    The name “Mackenzie” also reminds us of Sir William Mackenzie, who operated the Toronto Railway Company, a private company that operated the City’s streetcars after 1891. Torontonians and City Councillors were so fed up with Mackenzie and his cronies that they couldn’t wait to kick him out of town by not renewing his franchise at the end of 30 years. In 1921, the City established the TTC to replace Mackenzie’s operation.

33. Don’t you think we should wait to figure out what the actual route would be before we start figuring out what to name the line?

34. how about

    “the line that will never be built”.

35. “Blue 22” is a really catchy name. Maybe we should name it Blue 22.

    It might get funding that way.

36. The Obama Line.

    Yes We Can.

37. Colours, people, colours. The only way to go in 2009. Or 2029 (when the shovels will finally hit the ground).

    The “Downtown” names are illogical given that the most “downtown” stations are in fact on the Y-U-S line already.

38. as i said previously; none of the above:

    but “urbanXpress”

39. Thanks to that colour schematic reproduced in various media, I think of it merely as the Red line.

40. The DRL Facebook group’s icon aside, isn’t red used by the TTC to denote surface routes? The new line, whatever they decide to call it would probably wind up being orange (the old Harbourfront LRT line was depicted in this colour). Which brings up, will they differentiate the TransitCity lines on the TTC maps somehow other than using the diamond ROW marking?

41. Underline

42. Core Alternate Transit Line: CAT Line

    Immediately known as the Cathether, because it drains the trunk line to the north.

43. Agreed. Underline.

44. If it runs down Don Mills, through King street, it can be the Don King line.