To LRT or not to LRT

I've been away from the blogosphere for a while. Regular work has been simply too demanding to make a serious effort here. I'm commuting a long distance by car each day - so little chance to check out what's really happenning on transit.

The big 'news' has been the TTC announcement of its plan to build streetcar lanes on many city streets. These include Finch, Jane, Don Mills and Eglinton (ok - I always mispell this one - no comments from the peanut gallery please!.)

To me, the only route that makes complete sense is the Eglinton line. A large chunk of is planned to be underground - from about Laird in the East to Keele in the West. The total price tag for this line is $2.2 billion. The total price tag (if you believe) projections for the entire scheme is $6.1 billion.

The rest of the lines are likely to end up as street car lines - despite protestations from the TTC and transit narcissists (er I mean transit advocates.) Streetcar lines are completely useless for long distance travel. They're passable for 2-3 km hops in the core - the type of trip that account for most of their ridership today.

I guess I'm not alone. The poll on the Transit City website asks which of the new lines people would ride. 83.6% of respondents selected the Eglinton line!!!!

The Sheppard East line came in 2nd at 5.1%.

I think it would be better to scratch the other lines from the plan. Build a proper subway under Englinton. To build a tunnel for an LRT - and then have to retofit it a few years later for a full subway would mean that citizens would buy into transit - and then have to do without for a numebr of years while the line is rebuilt. Even if the tunnel is initially wide enough for heavy rail subway, the infrastructure would have to be torn out to changeover to the upgraded equipment. Station platforms would need to be lengthened and built up.