The Great Canadian Transit Thread

[Nouvellecosse]

Nice that it'll eliminate an at-grade crossing, but how much will that add to the cost?

[Innsertnamehere]

Apparently nothing. Supposed to make construction easier and since it was always planned to go underground under don mills it eliminates 2 tunnel portals.

[goodthings]

The extension of the tunneled section makes sense since the DRL will end at this particular location.

BUT I just read The Big Move: The Next Wave and I'm very impressed with the perfect lineup...

- Yonge Relief and Hurontario are perfect candidates to begin with, since these two corridors are beyond crazy...
- Queen and B-Line also need this because their predecessor routes are very successful (I mean, I see that every Zum line that launches in our city gets crush-loaded since Day 1)
- For Dundas though, there are no detailed studies yet for the section between Trafalgar and Kipling. But the section between Hurontario and Kipling can become LRT right from the start, especially that Mississauga has bumped up Saturday frequencies of Dundas to every 6 1/2 minutes.
- Let's see the numbers for DRT Pulse next year before I comment on it...
- For all-day service, Barrie and Kitchener lines are the perfect candidates to begin with. Milton has the biggest need out of the 5 corridors, but it needs to replace bridges at Hurontario and Credit River (and probably more) to get it.
- Yonge Line extension's opening date must come AT or AFTER the DRL's opening day...

http://www.metrolinx.com/en/docs/pdf/boa...1205_BoardMtg_The_Big_Move_Update_EN.pdf

WOW! Kitchener and Bowmanville also bumped to top priority. Perfect sense since Routes 25 and 29 are getting crazy passenger loads from universities on Friday and to universities on Sundays, seeing the extremely long lineup of students at Square One Terminal on a Sunday.

[Wharn]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

Ask the London Transit Commission and Transit Windsor. Metrolinx was created to manage transit in the GTAH, not London, Windsor, or anywhere else.

I was referring to the idea (which has been floated around a lot here) of an expanded GO network that reaches into Southwestern Ontario. That was a poorly worded question on my part.

[Chadillaccc]

Here's the new Lion's Park Station in Calgary. Well, the renders at least.


LionsPark3 by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

LionsPark1 by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

LionsPark by Chadillaccc, on Flickr




and I think everyone might enjoy seeing the new Union Station for Toronto. It's quite amazing.


urbantoronto-5379-16835 by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

urbantoronto-5379-16831 by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

urbantoronto-1230-3718 by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

urbantoronto-1230-3705 by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

urbantoronto-1229-3676 by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

union1 by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

union_10 by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

trainshed_06 by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

trainshed_05 by Chadillaccc, on Flickr



And the new Union Subway Station


Diagram-of-current-and-new-Union-Station-subway-platform-configuration by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

union_4 by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

unionstation_large by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

[MTLskyline]

If only they could do something similar to Central Station in Montreal.

[Innsertnamehere]

With a price tag of $1 billion, it doesn't come cheap.

[The Gibbroni]

Originally Posted by MTLskyline

If only they could do something similar to Central Station in Montreal.

Impossible and unnecessary. All the platforms are underground, buried beneath the station and Place Bonaventure.

[Aylmer]

Originally Posted by The Gibbroni

Impossible and unnecessary. All the platforms are underground, buried beneath the station and Place Bonaventure.

Hmmm... but I think they could make them even darker still!

In all seriousness, though, I would support almost any kind of redesign of Bonaventure: though the inside is actually quite fine, if just a bit bland, the outside is hideous and the platforms are dark and cavernous (but they do have elevated platforms, which is very nice).

[MTLskyline]

True the platforms are buried, but I would like to see the station's exterior architecture become more prominent. I really like the interior though.

This is the face that Central Station shows to the world:

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/?p=2798

The actual exterior, hidden in an alley, is not bad, but not exactly worthy of a city like Montreal either:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Montreal_Central_Station.JPG

[The Gibbroni]

Originally Posted by Aylmer

Hmmm... but I think they could make them even darker still!

In all seriousness, though, I would support almost any kind of redesign of Bonaventure: though the inside is actually quite fine, if just a bit bland, the outside is hideous and the platforms are dark and cavernous (but they do have elevated platforms, which is very nice).

Yeah it's definitely cave-like down there- and dark! I still prefer it being hidden to having a swathe of tracks in the middle of downtown.

Place Bonaventure.. on sunny days I look at it and think "Wow! What a cool example of brutalist coolness! On gloomy days I think "UGH! WTF were they thinking?"

Pretty much sums up my reaction to brutalism.

[The Gibbroni]

Originally Posted by MTLskyline

True the platforms are buried, but I would like to see the station's exterior architecture become more prominent. I really like the interior though.

This is the face that Central Station shows to the world:

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/?p=2798

The actual exterior, hidden in an alley, is not bad, but not exactly worthy of a city like Montreal either:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Montreal_Central_Station.JPG

The exterior is horrible. Too bad because as a stand-alone, the original building was quite nice- before the 60's add-ons. And do we really need all those signs on that corner?

[White Pine]

Ottawa's new planned light rail line:

http://www.ottawalightrail.ca/index.php#&panel1-149

[vanman]

Thanks for the link! These new stations will give Calgary's a run for their money. I in particular really like this one:

[Metro-One]

It is great to see Ottawa building an LRT line the right way! So great that they are going underground in the downtown core. Yeah, that elevated station is very nice!

[srperrycgy]

Its good to see Ottawa's LRT finally moving along after so long. The stations look good and they'll serve the city well. In spite of the current issues at SNC-Lavalin, their record of having major transportation projects like the Canada Line in YVR and our Calgary West LRT (opening this Monday) completed on time speaks highly of their competence.

The Ottawa forumers will have to get lots of construction pics when the work begins.

[someone123]

Yeah, it's nice to finally see that Ottawa is getting an LRT line. It always seemed to me that Calgary's LRT system was a lot more successful than Ottawa's transitway.

There seems to be a kind of pro-bus bias in a lot of North American cities, and a lot of poor accounting that focuses on expected capital costs and little else. A lot of light rail's benefit comes from factors like higher potential for TOD, lower and more predictable fuel costs, possibly automation, etc.

[Chadillaccc]

Yeah, you guys should check out the rest of Ottawa's station designs, it totally blows us in Calgary out of the water! Even Toronto's subway expansion stations are gorgeous! Steeles West in particular.

I guess in Calgary we will have to wait until the SE LRT gets built or the 201 gets put underground through downtown before we see anymore major projects. Tuscany Station in the northeast will be finished in 2014. I believe the plan for the SE line is to start construction in 2017.

[MapleLeafs]

I think these are new. All were featured in a power point presented to Metrolinx's Board of Directors earlier this week (which is linked below):

Pearson Airport Station


Weston Station


Bloor Station

http://www.metrolinx.com/en/docs/pdf/board_agenda/20121205/20121205_BoardMtg_ARL_Update_EN.pdf

In addition, the TTC posted a picture of their tunnel boring machines breaking through the headwall at Finch West Station. Tunneling is now complete between Steeles West Station and Downsview Park Station.


http://www3.ttc.ca/Spadina/Project_News/...rkie_Complete_2nd_Section_of_Tunnels.jsp

The final Toronto stretch (Downsview Park to the current Downsview Station, which will be eventually be renamed Sheppard West) is expected to be done by January, before tunneling shifts northward towards Vaughan.

[ssiguy]

I'm a little lost on the Ottawa LRT.

Are they basically just getting rid of the TransitWay from Blair to Tunney's Pasture with a downtown tunnel? What happens to the Transitway that goes thru OttawaU but doesn't go to Blair but to the airport...........what route will it now take. Is the TransitWay now ending at TP and people coming from further west will have to transfer onto the LRT?

Also with this tunnel, are they actually going to tunnel under the Rideau Canal?