City of Toronto has 2 new LRT lines set to enter service later this year or early 2025 (both extremely delayed and over budget) Orange and Grey line in the image.Both lines have significant at grade sections. The orange line, Eglinton, is fully grade separated from the western terminus east to science centre Station. East of science centre the line runs at grade in the middle of the road and does not have signal priority. The finch line, Grey line, is completely at grade with the terminus stations below grade. Also does not have signal priority. Can lines operate successfully this way? I feel the Eglinton line's tunnel and grade separated section is completely compromised by the at grade eastern section. Without signal priority it's just another street car line.I believe finch has signal priority on some intersection but only to keep it within a few minutes of a set schedule.
>>2000527>Without signal priority it's just another street car line.Streetcar lines should also have signal priority thoughbeit.
>>2000538>Streetcar lines should also have signal priority thoughbeit.In downtown most of the streetcars run in mixed traffic. The few with separate ROW I agree should have signal priority
Isn't Mississauga on its own the fifth largest Canadian city or so? I think they deserve more than just an Airport terminal station.
>>2000527>signal priorityWhat do you mean by this, absolute priority like a train (like gated level crossings and choo choo motherfucker any car in the way) or simply that the lights change to give way to the LRT whenever possible?Like the other anon said, LRTs and streetcars should both get that kind of priority.>>2000546Don't most streets downtown have four lanes? If so, why aren't the central lanes simply designated tram lanes? That may not be as effective as a full ROW, but still an improvement. And it would make it easier to give the streetcars signal priority.
>>2000547The above map doesn't show the commuter rail network They have more transit than that, and a light rail line under construction which will connect 3 of the commuter rail lines
>>2000548>lights change to give way to the LRT whenever possible?This is what I think the uptown LRTs should get. The ones downtown are mostly in mixed traffic
>>2000527Great, Indians will be able to shit on two more trains, and they'll be able to fling it further than ever before.And more homeless than ever can fondle teens while they spread diseases over the seats.So glad my taxes paid for this.
>>2000527Eglinton West should have been at grade.Fuck all your grade separation shit. We aren't going to places underground, we're going to places on the street.That and Eglinton West is a ridiculous monster roadway that was originally planned to bloat to an expressway if we followed the worst-timeline. You had the space to put everything at grade, and in many places without even removing lanes.Look at how many stops are on Finch West LRT, compared to Eglinton West. It's fucking bullshit. People in our communities are going to be walking longer to get places, and businesses on the non-connected intersections are going to lose out on the benefits. I heard they may even still be running busses on Eglinton West because of how bad the connectivity is. What a massive fucking failure.Riding the Eglinton bus across town was absolutely miserable due to traffic, don't get me wrong. But it was also an amazing experience, getting to sight-see along a vibrant street and so many communities. But cagies don't want the poors on their roads, so stick them in the sewer where they can't be seen!
>>2000550The way Toronto utilizes streetcars basically achieves the worst of the bus without any of it's flexibility. >Stops every 200 metres so it blocks traffic at EVERY intersection>It's in the middle of the road so if an inattentive car driver is trying to pass it can kill embarking/disembarking passengers >It's stuck in traffic just like every other road vehicle>Whenever it hits an intersection with perpendicular tracks it has to slow to a crawl so it doesn't derail >Still uses trolley cables instead of pantographs for most lines Even on dedicated tracks these fucking things are slow. Spadina, St. Clair, Queens Quay are still too slow despite not even being in mixed traffic. At the bare minimum they need signal priority, removing lesser used stops, using pantographs for higher speeds, and then maybe after they can consider car free sections. Despite everyone in City Hall giving themselves a pat on the back, the King Street project shows just how incompetent the city actually is. Sydney has turned it's mix traffic system into pedestrianized thoroughfares. Even Calgary has better separated sections. Nothing is preventing sections of King becoming like this except for city hall sniffing it's own farts.
>>2000874The residents got used to it, but out-of-towners keep slamming into the Waterloo LRT.In retrospect, the Caroline/Erb LRT crossing in Uptown Waterloo should have been a flyover, but other other at-grade sections are largely fine, even the one near Traynor Park that people in Kitchener screech about.
>>2000912pic
>>2000874you are right that cageys should give way to transit but you sound like the delusional john forester fags who think any bike lanes are a punishment to bicyclists, the fact is that full grade seperation, either raised or underground is far more efficient and easy to keep out of traffic than any other rail transit solution, and allows much faster speeds and frequencies.
>>2000916Who pays for the added cost of grade separation? It's minimum 4 times the price of at-grade crossing, and frequently 10 or 20 times more. The Waterloo LRT is outperforming the usage projection used to pitch the project yet it's still losing a ton of money. The losses couldn't ever be recovered from general tax revenue increase from increased economic activity from higher transit usage if they opted for more expensive option.
>>2000999who? the government through taxes and general budget, it's a public service. I know canada is a shithole that can't build anything but there are other countries out there that have cities with dozens of subway lines that manage to pay for them. waterloo is a small city so of course it didn't justify a heavy rail subway with high frequencies, and of course a project will lose money in it's first few years (also ignoring all externalities to a transit system and just being worried if it makes money is dumb)
>>2001021That's the same logic that got us 20-lane 401. There's no point spending 6x the budget to build light rail at the reliability and capacity that an area with 10 times the density would require.It's also unclear whether Waterloo LRT will make its money back even with generous estimates on all the extra general tax revenue that were created due to the increased foottraffic generated by LRT and upzoning around the LRT routes (more residents and busineses in high-rises). The last time the Region of Waterloo's public transit published its detailed cost report, the operating cost (i.e. excluding financing cost of the build) of LRT came out to be about $7.50 per ride, but the fare is only $2.98. The remaining $4.52 has to come from the amorphous "externalities," but it's hard to imagine the local government's cut of the taxes generated from that would amount to $4.52.One can only hope that the ridership will continue to increase to the point where every train is packed like sardine, and operating loss per ride comes down to $2~3 range.
>>2001073>socialism is when you cram hundreds into packed, sweaty, smelly train cars, and still operate at a loss, necessitating overwhelming taxation to continue operating
>>2001187road taxes only typically cover 30-50% of the actual cost of building and maintaining road infrastructure, requiring overwhelming taxation and digging into government budgets to continue to be built and maintained, not to mention the waste of land parking and roads take up compared to transit infrastructure, but yeah take this one city in canada that spends more than it takes in on a public service (nearly always the case for every public service) and it's evil socialism or something
>>2000874The eglinton west bus is a dehumanizing cattle car I take it every day, anything to improve this route would be appreciated
>>2001435The LRT will be no less crowded, especially in the tunnels
>>2001611Eglinton should have been a full subway from the start
>>2000548>Don't most streets downtown have four lanesThe driving culture exists, we as motorists are happy to drive along side the streetcars but we're also happy to drive Some routes limit motorist which perhaps is the right way about things however our driving city culture will never go away.maybe a driving fee like London does could be warranted
>>2003105A car just got stuck on the eglinton lrt tracks and the darn thing hasn't even opened yet
>>2000527These new lines should have been built completely underground or above-grade. Also the rolling stock should be the same subways. Why introduce new rolling stock with new yard which would not have interchangeable parts and require new training for maintenance?So stoooopid.
>>2005630The dumbest part is each line has its own model of rolling stock and it's own yard
