Does it really need to take two months to raise TTC fares?
Fixing Toronto – Part Eight
For weeks, we TTC subway patrons have lined up to put our paper tickets into the fare collection box. Need directions to Casa Loma? You’re in that line. Need 10 tickets for $22.50? In that line. Metropass not swiping? In that line. Want to board a train to get to work? In that line.
Why? There were two reasons actually, but they’re related. The recent fare increase was announced in November, but didn’t take affect until today. Which led to hoarding of tokens we were told; thus the need for paper tickets for the better part of two months.
All of which is avoidable.
If the TTC Commissioners feel a fare increase is necessary, what’s with the two month lead time? A week seems plenty long enough to me to print and change the signs in the collector booths. It’s not as though someone is going out to buy a car just because of a twenty-five cent bump in the cash TTC fare and needs time to arrange for insurance and a lease. If so, let them eat cake.
Mind you, at $5 per round trip, if you and your better half can travel to work together and park for free, $200/month in business day TTC fares starts to get close to the lease payment for a 2010 Mini Cooper ($299).
Until that day comes for you, let’s all band together and tell the TTC to dramatically shorten the time between announcing fares hikes and actually putting them through. It’s kind of like going to the dentist — putting it off seems like a good idea at the time, but always hurts in the end.
MRM
Queen Street subway
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The Queen Street subway is also a name used for the historic rail underpasses at roughly 1230 Queen Street West.
The Queen Street subway line was one of many subway lines planned for Toronto, Canada, but never built by the Toronto Transit Commission.
History
1911 proposal
It began with a streetcar subway line proposal by the Department of Railways and Bridges of the City of Toronto Engineers in 1911, but it was not until the 1940s that the line re-emerged.
Post-war plans
The 1944 TTC Rapid Transit Proposals for a Queen Street Route and a referendum on January 1, 1946 brought the Queen subway line back to life. The line called for an open-cut with right of way and built to the north of the existing Queen Streetcar line.
This plan was abandoned because of World War II and not revisited until the 1960s. By the 1960s, the TTC had already built the Yonge subway line and was in the process of building the Bloor-Danforth line.
The existing Queen Street streetcar line remains one of the longest and most heavily-used, running double-length ALRV streetcars (one of only two lines that does so) at six-minute intervals. However, the volume of riders did not justify a subway line in the 1960s.
[edit] Stations
A rough platform, partial station is all that remains of a station and the proposed Queen subway line with access from a door from the existing Queen station.
Stations on the proposed Queen line:
Trinity Park
Bathurst
Spadina
Grange
York
City Hall
Yonge (Lower Queen)
Church
Sherbourne
Parliament
Don
Broadview
Logan
[edit] Proposed routes: 1960s
Later changes to the line would have extended the subway to the Humber Loop in the west and Eglinton-Don Mills to the north-east end:
1960 – subway from Sunnyside to Greenwood, then from Greenwood to O’Connor Drive and connect with the Bloor-Danforth subway at either Greenwood or Donlands stations
1964 – an underground streetcar line from Greenwood to McCaul to replace the existing surface route.
1964 a route was to have the underground section from Jarvis (Sherbourne in 1968 plan) to Spadina. The route re-surfaces between Spadina to Humber Loop and from Jarvis to either Broadview or Pape.
1968 – Queen from Humber to Victoria Park
1968 – Greenwood and O’Connor to Queen; Queen from Dufferin; Dufferin north to Weston rail corridor to Islington
1968 – Greenwood and O’Connor to Queen; Queen from Dufferin; Dufferin north to Weston rail corridor to Eglinton; Eglinton to Martin Grove
1968 – Greenwood and Danforth to Queen; Queen from Dufferin; Dufferin north to Weston rail corridor and Eglinton
1972 GO Urban route using railway corridors – from Eglinton and Kennedy to Don Valley; Don Valley to Union; Union to Dundas West
The Queen Route was not removed until 1975, but the Lower Queen station was renovated in the 1990s due to elevator construction in Queen.
[edit] See also
Downtown Relief Line
Queen (TTC)
Toronto, Ontario
Toronto Transit Commission
Toronto Transportation Commission
Eglinton West subway
[edit] References
Plans that reviewed and proposed the Queen line:
Rapid Transit Subways – Department of Railways and Bridges of the City of Toronto Engineers 1911
Rapid Transit for Toronto – TTC 1944
Draft Official Plan of the Metropolitan Toronto Planning Area – Metropolitan Toronto Planning Board 1960
Metropolitan Toronto Transportation Plan – Metropolitan Toronto Planning Board 1964
Draft Official Plan for Metropolitan Toronto – Metropolitan Toronto Planning Board 1959
Metropolitan Toronto and Region Transportation Study – mid 1960s
Transit Facility in the Downtown section of Queen Street – TTC 1966
Report on Rapid Transit Priorities in Metropolitan Toronto – Metropolitan Toronto Planning Board 1969
A Concept for Integrated Rapid Transit and Commuter Rail Systems in Metropolitan Toronto – TTC 1969
GO-Urban concept – Province of Ontario 1972
Choices For The Future – Metropolitan Toronto Transportation Plan Review 1972