[TheTigerMaster]

Complainers gonna complain. To me this looks perfectly normal and consistent with what I saw all over Vancouver and other cities. I thought the skytrain was a model example of the kind of elevated infrastructure and integrated development that some UrbanToronto people wanted to see more of on the Crosstown and elsewhere. But now they're all upset over a single photo, because it turns out grey is the natural colour of concrete, and sometimes the sky happens to be grey too?

Elevated transit is physically intrusive no matter how you design it. There may be ways to mitigate it, but it's still gonna be intrusive. I'm hoping that when construction is complete, the trees, landscaping, public realm and lighting will at least soften this up a bit. As for colour, lets get some artists to paint a mural across the whole thing that celebrates the history and culture of the neighbourhood.


View attachment 220221

Write it off as complaining, sure, but that doesn’t mean that the appearance isn’t detrimental to efforts to get more elevated transit built across Toronto.This will forever be ammunition for NIMBYs wishing to kill other elevated transit projects.

 

[Monarch Butterfly]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1205868627297230849

Could be a worse livery.

From link.

 

[TransitBart]

Could be a worse livery.

From link.

Ouch.

 

[BurlOak]

Complainers gonna complain. To me this looks perfectly normal and consistent with what I saw all over Vancouver and other cities. I thought the skytrain was a model example of the kind of elevated infrastructure and integrated development that some UrbanToronto people wanted to see more of on the Crosstown and elsewhere. But now they're all upset over a single photo, because it turns out grey is the natural colour of concrete, and sometimes the sky happens to be grey too?

Elevated transit is physically intrusive no matter how you design it. There may be ways to mitigate it, but it's still gonna be intrusive. I'm hoping that when construction is complete, the trees, landscaping, public realm and lighting will at least soften this up a bit. And to address the lack of colour, lets get some artists to paint a mural across the whole thing that celebrates the history and culture of the neighbourhood. A quick browse through the twitter account of StreetArtToronto provides many inspiring examples of this from all over the city.



View attachment 220221

Vancouver using a single prestressed box girder is much more elegant than the 4 I-griders used in Toronto. We just used our standard highway bridge design.
Vancouver
Toronto

 

[salsa]

Write it off as complaining, sure, but that doesn’t mean that the appearance isn’t detrimental to efforts to get more elevated transit built across Toronto.

This will forever be ammunition for NIMBYs wishing to kill other elevated transit projects,

No it won't. Literally no one in Davenport or Riverdale that I'm aware of has made a reference to this, but feel free to pore through every NIMBY group on the internet (which I've already done) to see if I'm wrong. On the other hand I've seen all sorts of absurd comparisons with the Gardiner Expressway or cherry-picked sections of the Skytrain (such as this actual example provided by a community group in the east end).

I would argue that the real precedent-setting project will be the Davenport overpass. Unlike this thing which barely had any opposition to begin with, Davenport will be the most extensive piece of elevated infrastructure through a populated area that we've seen in a long time. The future of elevated transit in the city will depend heavily on how well Metrolinx handles the uprising that this has triggered. Will they be sensitive to the concerns of local residents through the duration of the project? How well will they address those concerns and mitigate the impacts? And will they deliver on everything that they promised? Affected residents here and in other parts of the city are watching closely.

Regardless of the outcome, there will always be a substantial number of people who will still fight against this for various reasons. Whether it's because of noise impacts, visual impacts, construction impacts, frequency of trains, vibrations, air quality, loss of trees, loss of greenspace, expropriation, reduced property values, etc. Even with the best planning and design practices, there is only so much that can be done to ameliorate these issues, and that is what will always make this kind of infrastructure a tough sell. But I assure you that if we never see more elevated transit in this city, it will NOT be because of Mt Dennis. So please direct your outrage toward more productive battles that lie ahead.

 

[Tuscani01]

Maybe they're trying to avoid the colours used by the political parties?

In Canada, the official color for the New Democratic Party is orange, while the Liberal Party of Canada uses red, the Conservative Party of Canada uses blue, and the Bloc Québécois uses light blue. The Green Party of course uses green. So none of those colours can be used.

But doesn't grey represent independents? HOW DARE THE EGLINTON LINE SUPPORT INDEPENDENTS!

 

[Hopkins123]

Has complaining about the colour of concrete and the overcast Autumn sky become a serious thing here at UT? I mean:

Seriously?

 

[TheTigerMaster]

Something like this always brings me hope they'll open this on time. Not 2020 yet and they already started testing.

I wouldn’t be too optimistic. Cedarvale and Yonge are the two major blockers for this project. Doesn’t really matter how far the rest of the project progresses while Yonge and Cedarvale remain a giant hole in the ground.

Any word on if the test trains have entered the tunnels yet? Testing should be able to commence between Mt Dennis and Caledonia in short order

 

[Coolstar]

I wouldn’t be too optimistic. Cedarvale and Yonge are the two major blockers for this project. Doesn’t really matter how far the rest of the project progresses while Yonge and Cedarvale remain a giant hole in the ground.

Any word on if the test trains have entered the tunnels yet? Testing should be able to commence between Mt Dennis and Caledonia in short order

No I heard they were only testing between the EMSF and the west portal.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

Has complaining about the colour of concrete and the overcast Autumn sky become a serious thing here at UT? I mean:

Seriously?

I mean, this is the same forum where members make dozens of posts about washroom placement lol

 

[cplchanb]

Maybe they're trying to avoid the colours used by the political parties?

In Canada, the official color for the New Democratic Party is orange, while the Liberal Party of Canada uses red, the Conservative Party of Canada uses blue, and the Bloc Québécois uses light blue. The Green Party of course uses green. So none of those colours can be used.

well grey is the shade of independants so technically a subiminal message of neutrality?? But it would be nice to see it end up with orange as its the colour of line 5. Then again, we still have ovver a year until completion so theres plenty of time for artistic cues. Lets not overreact on an unfinished project,, but UT is known for radical opinions..

 

[Rainforest]

IMHO, it should be easy enough to pick a bright color for the cars, and that's not a radical suggestion

Won't change the line's utility, may not have much impact on the acceptance of elevated transit in general, but will make ECLRT trains more pleasant, and easier to spot at a distance too.

 

[TossYourJacket]

Given the MSF has a facility for painting the cars, it's not like the train colour isn't something that could be changed later on anyway.

 

[TransitBart]

And there are skins...a third of the Flexity fleet must be wearing them at any given time.

 

[Midtown Urbanist]

The new Riyadh Metro currently under construction is doing a great job making all the elevated portions look nice. They covered the sides and added the lines' colors on the viaducts. They are even adding light fixtures under them and around the street with colors matching the lines.
View attachment 220201
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View attachment 220206

Amazing what adding a small accented colour does to the concrete structure.

Anyway, isn't all this concern for naught? In other lines, the test vehicles were in grey/silver livery as well if I remember well.