Potential Toronto Rapid Transit Expansions

A break from my usual shitposting. Toronto is currently going through a large transit expansion with 2 LRT lines (+ 1 in the suburbs) and 1 automated light metro line under construction, as well as numerous planned/in construction extensions. I figured why not think about some potential next steps. The alignments won’t be 100% accurate to what might happen but I feel these will make at least some sense. Some of these are confirmed plans and some are my own imagination. Solid Lines are things that I think make a lot of sense and should be prioritized when planning for the future. Dotted lines are ideas that make less sense and would be considered after priority projects are completed. The dotted lines are more or less shitposts with some thought behind them, not a lot tho. Some of my thoughts: I am not against the current official (well I don’t think it’s official yet, but it’s leaning that way) line 4 extension plan to Sheppard-McCowan instead of Scarborough Centre, but I feel the STC bus terminal makes it a better choice to receive line 4. The line 5 situation east of Kennedy is taken from RM Transit (we love Reece), it’s not actually interlined with Line 2 (because of the Scarborough extension launch shaft making that impossible). Line 5 is actually above grade and then at grade through that section. Yes, this would require a rebuild of the Kennedy LRT station, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make in order to reach a LE connection, and a via one too. See Reece’s blog post about the EELRT for more on that. Line 7 (EELRT) doesn’t exist because I’ve decided it’s pretty meh. 90% of its value can be done with a line 4 extension , line 5 extension, and some busses. Which avoids additional transfers at Kennedy and McCowan, but it’ll probably still happen because we’ve caught the LRT bug. I hope the east extension of line 6 (which is actually planned to exist, eventually) stays tunnelled because that would make it very nice. It’s also so obvious we need a north south line in the west end, the GO lines and the Hurontario LRT help a bit but not enough. Mostly because they’re either too far away or not far enough. That is what the weird Ontario Line thing would do, becoming a second U. Firmly cementing Toronto as the city of Us. This would also allow for some of the old Line 2 stations to receive some touch ups. It’s also cheaper to extend the line through easements that are already owned, though rebuilds would need to happen to slot the two lines together. There are other ways this could go down if the interlining proves difficult (which it probably will). At the very least, we need the stretch along Islington even if it is its own line. The Hurontario LRT has really weird alignments that are surprisingly difficult to find information on. I think it switches between centre running and side running sometimes but I wasn’t quite sure where so take that with a grain of salt. The stations are right though, except for the phase 2 from Brampton Gateway which doesn’t have confirmed stations. List of solid lines (priority): [1] Yonge-University - Yonge Line to Richmond Hill (planned) - University Line to Canada’s Wonderland (my own) [2] Bloor-Danforth - Scarborough Extension (in construction) - West to Long Branch (less likely, but would be neat) (speculation) [3] Ontario - North to to Sheppard (somewhat planned) [4] Sheppard - West to Sheppard West (planned) - East to Scarborough Centre (planned, but I changed the terminus) - East again to UTSC (not at all planned, complete theory) [5] Eglinton Crosstown - East to Guildwood GO (not at all happening, extremely theoretical) - West to YYZ (in construction to Renforth, planned to YYZ) [6] Finch West - East to Finch (somewhat planned) - West to YYZ (somewhat planned) [HM] Hurontario - North to Brampton (planned) Dotted Lines (pure theory): [2] Bloor-Danforth - Continuation north [3] Ontario - Continuation north - Extension into the West End (yay for Etobicoke) [4] Sheppard - A branch after Agincourt that assumes part of the EELRT plan [5] Eglinton Crosstown - Continue through Scarborough to replace the EELRT (yay for through running) [6] Finch - East to connect to Ontario Line and eventually Line 2