11-07-2018, 11:00 AM
(11-07-2018, 10:16 AM)Spokes Wrote: Seamless transition?
Possibly, but without knowing much more about the details it’s not at all clear. Sure, there is the transition from the existing SkyTrain to the new extension, but what about the end of the extended SkyTrain? Does the LRT route extend further than the SkyTrain would? I don’t know enough about the Surrey situation to say for sure, but in Scarborough we have a very similar situation.
In Scarborough I do know a fair bit about the situation, and I can say with confidence that the LRT network is a way better idea than the subway extension. Sure, with the subway extension there is no transfer at Kennedy; but there is a bus to the new subway station for many people would would be able to get directly on an LRT and then transfer at Kennedy. I don’t think anybody would prefer bus + subway over LRT + subway, especially when the LRT runs in a fully isolated right-of-way, replacing the current Scarborough RT (incidentally, using the same technology as SkyTrain, although on a much smaller scale, making it an inconvenient oddity in Toronto whereas in Vancouver they have a large system that makes a lot more sense).
The key in Scarborough is that there is no even semi-realistic subway proposal that involves more than 3 new stops, and the currently-active one is a single new stop. The LRT proposal by contrast involves 3 lines, on Sheppard, RT replacement with extension to Malvern, and Eglinton east of Kennedy and up to U of T Scarborough Campus. One version of the Sheppard line even involved an extension down to U of T Scarborough Campus; if all of this were built, the Sheppard and Eglinton lines would meet at UTSC. Unlike with subway, building all of these lines is a perfectly reasonable thing to do financially.