[Hipster Duck]

Are the above-ground stations in the Scarborough portion expected to go underground? I really think we could axe at least half of them. Keep Leslie, Don Mills, Wynford or Bermondsey (but not both), Vic Park, Warden, Birchmount and Kennedy. The rest of them are bound to be stations that get 2,000 pax per day and cost tens of millions of dollars to construct.

 

[Amy Rose]

Are the above-ground stations in the Scarborough portion expected to go underground? I really think we could axe at least half of them. Keep Leslie, Don Mills, Wynford or Bermondsey (but not both), Vic Park, Warden, Birchmount and Kennedy. The rest of them are bound to be stations that get 2,000 pax per day and cost tens of millions of dollars to construct.

Above ground will be expected in the SRT portion, since all you need is remove SRT technology, is the track gague LRT standard? extension and lowering of platform unless the tracks will be raised, and pantograph wires galore

 

[drum118]

Above ground will be expected in the SRT portion, since all you need is remove SRT technology, is the track gague LRT standard? extension and lowering of platform unless the tracks will be raised, and pantograph wires galore

Standard gauge. The roof of the existing station will be raise for the overhead. It will be rised more if the track are raise up to meet the current platforms levels for the new LRTs.

 

[Monarch Butterfly]

Standard gauge. The roof of the existing station will be raise for the overhead. It will be rised more if the track are raise up to meet the current platforms levels for the new LRTs.

Or if the platforms are hollow like the subway platforms, they can just lower the platforms.

Dundas Street station platforms being constructed around 1951:

 

[EnviroTO]

I think it is all smoke and mirrors really. They are building on Eglinton and not Sheppard. Has the Black Creek launch site moved so that it is now a launch shaft which would allow the tunnel to continue west underground when extended? No. Is the launch site re-arranged so that it could be an elevated structure over Black Creek Drive (i.e. has it moved north or south so as not to interfere with Eglinton)? No. Are they now planning on running subway equipment through the tunnel (i.e. Toronto Rockets and TTC gauge)? No. Are they going to launch the other boring machine from Kennedy? No. Basically right now they are doing nothing that they weren't going to do before besides not spending money on Sheppard and Finch. It will really be up to the mayor elected in 2015 to figure out what gets built outside the central Eglinton portion and Ford at that time will need to explain why nothing has been built in Scarborough or on Sheppard yet. Call me cynical but if Ford had actually won the support of subways then they would be building a subway under Eglinton, not an LRT. What he seems to have won is not building anything other than Eglinton for 4 years.

 

[Eug]

For all intents and purposes, underground LRT is subway. It's fast, good capacity, and underground.

Some here may not share his view, but nonetheless in terms of his desire for an Eglinton subway, this is a huge win for him.

 

[ssiguy2]

I still don't understand why the city went with LRT as opposed to a subway.
Is it that the current SRT will be easier to transfer over to an LRT route? BTW, how long do they expect the SRT to be down while they transfer the track over to LRT?

 

[adeel]

For all intents and purposes, underground LRT is subway. It's fast, good capacity, and underground.

Some here may not share his view, but nonetheless in terms of his desire for an Eglinton subway, this is a huge win for him.

Also, if I have it correctly, a big reason that we arent going full subway (other issues like cost and whether or not its currently necessary aside) is because we were commited to LRT vehicle order that couldnt be cancelled without large penalties

 

[Eug]

Also, if I have it correctly, a big reason that we arent going full subway (other issues like cost and whether or not its currently necessary aside) is because we were commited to LRT vehicle order that couldnt be cancelled without large penalties

Yes, if the LRT vehicles hadn't already been ordered, different ones may have been ordered under this subway plan. But to the general public, the perception is that underground LRT = subway... as it should be, since for all intensive dolphins, it is.

 

[wopchop]

Sounds like a big win for Toronto. I'm sure that the LRT vehicles are more than enough capacity on Eglinton for now.

I'm curious though, how easy would it be to expand capacity on the line? Beyond coupling more vehicles together, which would likely be pretty easy. Would it be possible to eventually convert it so that the new subway cars could be run through it? Are allowances being made for that?

 

[Markster]

I'm curious though, how easy would it be to expand capacity on the line? Beyond coupling more vehicles together, which would likely be pretty easy. Would it be possible to eventually convert it so that the new subway cars could be run through it? Are allowances being made for that?

The Toronto Rocket will never run through these tunnels, for the simple fact that they won't need that kind of capacity for the entire lifetime of the TR trains.
Don't expect Eglinton to ever be converted to a 3rd rail system.

There are so many ways to increase capacity on the line that it doesn't need to be "convertable".
They'll be able to:
1) Lengthen the stations to the currently designed maximum length. (I think the plan is 60m for now with 30m unfinished expansion space?)
2) Increase to 90 second frequency with ATC
3) Purchase Toronto Rocket-style single cabin trains

Once they've maxed all of those out it makes more sense to bite the bullet and lengthen platforms than to rebuild them to allow a high floor vehicle which would require scrapping the entire fleet.

 

[Standard]

One other thing to consider is if they decided to upgrade the whole line to run current subway cars, the stations would probably have to be redesigned into the large station structures we have now being built on the Vaughan extension. This is to satisfy emergency evacuation requirements if two train loads of subways have to evacuate in a station.

This would significantly increase the station construction costs and probably other related emergency infrastructure costs. This would then defeat the whole purpose of going LRT, keeping construction costs low and cheaper than a subway. The fact that we are now burrowing the whole line has sort of made that purpose moot now, but should still be considered.

 

[wopchop]

There are so many ways to increase capacity on the line that it doesn't need to be "convertable".
They'll be able to:
1) Lengthen the stations to the currently designed maximum length. (I think the plan is 60m for now with 30m unfinished expansion space?)
2) Increase to 90 second frequency with ATC
3) Purchase Toronto Rocket-style single cabin trains.

Thanks for the reply. These were the kind of answers I was looking for (although the transit nerd in me is crying that we aren't getting third rail). Good to hear that they're planning on leaving some space to lengthen the platforms.

 

[M II A II R II K]

And before it's built, let us not forget express capabilities, even if it's just sidetracks at all stations with just the regular 2 tracks in between.

 

[nfitz]

And before it's built, let us not forget express capabilities, even if it's just sidetracks at all stations with just the regular 2 tracks in between.

The design is long-since finished for the central section. There's no plans for anything like this. It would add significantly to the costs.