And Then There Was Six
Alas, poor SRT! I knew of it, TTC: A system
of infinite cost, of most expensive fancy: It hath
taken us more than thousand times; and now, how
abhorred it is! My gorge rims at it. Here, it cost much money, I know
not how much. Where be your new systems now? Your
LIM’s so disappointing? Your screeching wheels?Your flashes of of electrical arcing from being stuck in the snow?Not one now, to mock such folly? Quite chap-fallen?
Now get you to the Mayors chamber, and tell them,make call for more taxes and more taxes, to this favoursubways must come; make me shake my head at that.Apologies to the Bard……
Toronto’s Scarborough Rapid Transit system
Toronto’s SkyTrain, the Scarborough Rapid Transit system ceases operation in November of this year.
And then there will be only six of the ICTS/ALRT/ART/MALM systems left..
Last day for SRT train service is targeted for November 2023Last year, the TTC Board approved decommissioning Line 3 Scarborough and replacing train service with an express bus service to begin in Q4 2023.The last day for the SRT train service is targeted for November 18, 2023.Express buses are scheduled to start running the following day on November 19. The closure of the SRT will require a very frequent bus replacement service to provide alternate services for customers connecting between important nodes, such as Scarborough Centre and Kennedy stations.
Milan almost built one, but when there was an engineering review of the project it was found that costs were greatly understated and with heavy subsidies from the French government to build with the VAL system instead, the ALRT system was cancelled.
Today, LIM’s would only be considered for MAGLEV operation but after many studies there is no economic case for MAGLEV as our high speed rail system is largely in place and time savings over large distances would be in the scale of 30 minutes.
Our HST’s can operate at speeds of 300 to 350 KPH, While MAGLEV’s are limited by their “roar” to around 400 KPH, but the HST can operate on regular railways, unlike the MAGLEV and ther is also the issue of being a proprietary system.
Like your SkyTrain, MAGLEV systems are proprietary and cannot operate on another’s guide way, which means one would be tied to one supplier and there is another issue that is both expensive to fix and maintain.
It now seems that MAGLEV’s, which are largely elevated, for obvious reasons, have issues with subsidence of the the guide way. When one is traveling at 400 KPH the guide way must be level and if one has subsidence issues the MAGLEV must slow down or fly off the guide way!
For HST this is much simpler and cheaper to deal with. The issue also means much more robust foundations for MAGLEV, driving up costs.
https://www.blogto.com/city/2023/06/when-last-scarborough-rt-train-run-line-demolished/
This is an address for a BlogTo article about this subject. The interesting thing about the closure is the capabilities of the replacement express bus service.
“That service, while not as clean or convenient as the RT, is expected to be frequent at the very least. The TTC’s Line 3 Bus Replacement Plan promises frequent express bus service, with up to 70 buses per hour using Kennedy Road and Midland Avenue.”
I find it more than a little interesting that the capacity of the temporary replacement service has more buses on it than Broadway the so called busiest bus corridor in existence (or whatever they are claiming now). Pretty impressive for a replacement service. A service being replaced by only 3 real subway/metro stations not a 14 km long light metro line.