Isn't there a notional plan for BRT on Wilson? That seems sufficient. There are also plans to have bus lanes running through the Downsview lands. While there's some appeal to putting a new station in the middle of the the redeveloped runway, carting most passengers from Wilson/Keele all they way up to Sheppard and back down doesn't seem very efficient. With stations 2 km apart, many people along the corridor would be a long way from a station, and would end up on a bus anyway.
Here's a fantasy map from 1993. It was published in the Star in a three-part Series by a consultant named Udo Stillich. He proposed extending the as-yet unbuilt Sheppard stub along the 401 (above ground) at both ends. Put up your hand if you
didn't have a similar idea when purported sane grown-ups actually started talking about building a road tunnel underneath it. The scheme doesn't entirely make sense, as sticking to the highway would miss key transit stations like Wilson, though it would have been easy to make a junction with the SRT, which was less than 10 years old at this point. To me it would make more sense (although running south through Downsview is logistically easier) running along Wilson to Wilson Station, from a network perspective.
I'd love to see an engineering design for the tunnel segment between Yonge/Sheppard and 401/Avenue Road; the route would have to go under a golf course which dips 150 feet or so below the level of Sheppard or the 401. I did say it was a fantasy map. I've played around with tweaks, and I don't think there's any way to salvage this fantasy, but some segments of rail along the 401, with wide stop spacing, could make sense.
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