Toronto LRT Information Blog

When Rob Ford announced that Transit City was dead, there was all sorts of discussions about what this really meant. Did that mean that everything about Transit City was gone, or just the name, or something in between. That was supposed to be sorted out by the end of January and now here we are in the middle of March and nothing has changed.

At this point, it is looking that only the underground portion of the Eglinton line will be built. Whether it uses LRT technology or gets changed to ICTS or something else remains to be seen. It is looking like the current administration wants to build the section from Don Mills to Kennedy Station underground, but I suspect the cost of doing that will mean that section will be left for a second phase that won’t get started during this administration and could end up being brought back to the original Transit City plan.

It also seems a good bet that the Finch West line will be cancelled, which brings up a cost that I never even though of. Recently, a TTC meeting had to deal with approving some increased costs with the Spadina-York subway extension. One of these, about $1.45 million, stems from the delay or cancellation of the Finch West LRT. The design of the Finch West station (at Keele) had a bus terminal that was sized on the presumption that bus service on Finch would be replaced with LRT service. This meant there were no bus bays for Finch buses and there was no access directly to or from Finch Avenue.

Thus, a new bus loop must be designed and an additional $1.45 million is needed just for the design fees. Just wait to see what added construction and land acquisition fees will be.

There will be one public meeting dealing with the proposed alignment of the Etobicoke-Finch West LRT at Humber College. Specifically, it involves an official plan amendment dealing with the portion of the line from the intersection of Highway 27 and Humber College Boulevard to a terminal at the campus of Humber College located at 203 to 207 Humber College Boulevard.

It will be at City Hall Council Chamber (100 Queen West) on June 16, 2010. The time will be at 10:15 am, or as soon as possible thereafter. Detailed information regarding the proposal, including background information and material and a copy of the proposed Official Plan Amendment may be obtained by contacting Mike Wehkind at 416-392-8572, or by email at mwehkind@toronto.ca

I will post a copy of the notice when one becomes available electronically, or when I scan in the hard copy I have.

The City of Toronto and the TTC have completed an Environmental Project Report on the Etobicoke-Finch West LRT. A copy of the official notice can be seen here.

The 30-day review period started March 24 and runs to April 22. See the notice for the list of locations where the report may be viewed.  It will be officially available online only until April 22, but I have placed a copy of it here (with file sizes in parenthesis):

• Cover and Table of Contents (98 k)
• Executive Summary (290 k)
• Chapter 1 (1.2 M)
• Chapter 2 (3.1 M)
  • Plates, Part 1 (3.0 M)
  • Plates, Part 2 (3.8 M)
• Chapter 3 (1.1 M)
• Chapter 4 (1.3 M)
• Chapter 5 (46 k)
• Chapter 6 (33 k)
• Chapter 7 (410 k)

• Chapter 8 (28 k)

There are also 19 parts of appendices. I expect to add them here, but for now you can go to the official link.

The display boards (2.5 MB) for the open houses are now available.

These boards do not do a great job of showing the proposed connection with the subway at Yonge and Finch. The one cross-section drawing shows the LRT above the subway tracks with pedestrian walkways flanking each side of the subway tunnel. Stairs, escalators, and elevators will connect each end of each of the side platforms of the LRT with these walkways.

 What is not shown is that the Finch Subway station is located north of Finch. This means that the pedestrian tunnels head north on each side of the subway tunnel until they are under the mezzanine of the station where stairs, escalators, and elevators take people up to that level where they can reach the stairs, escalators, and elevators to the centre platform of the subway. In other words, there will be three level changes to transfer from LRT to subway. Unfortunately, there is really no way to reduce this without either going with an on-street platform that is on Yonge above the subway station, or having a deep (and expensive) LRT station that is below the subway tracks. My concern is that given the TTC’s track record on maintaining its current lift infrastructure, the chances of a transfer that requires three sets of hardware having one of those out of service becomes remarkably significant.

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Sorry I missed posting this earlier, but the next round of open houses are being held for the Etobicoke-Finch West LRT. The first was held last night (December 1) but here are the upcoming open houses:

All will be held from 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm. The dates and locations are as  follows:

• Thursday December 3 at Julius Banquet Centre - 2201 Finch Avenue West (at Arrow Road)
• Monday December 7 at Charles H Best MS (cafeteria) - 285 Wilmington Avenue
• Wednesday December 9 at Elmbank JMA - 10 Pittsboro Drive (east of Martingrove)

 I will add display panels once they become available.