Sheppard Line
The Sheppard Line ( officially Route 4 Sheppard Subway called ) is a subway line in the Canadian city of Toronto. It is part of the Toronto Subway and operated by the Toronto Transit Commission ( TTC). The line is 5.5 km long and has five stations, the track gauge is 1495 mm. At its entire length follows the Sheppard Line of Sheppard Avenue and fulfills a feeder function for Yonge- University - Spadina Line. Every day the line of average 45,410 passengers (2008/ 09) will be used.
History
In the 1970s, the flow of traffic north of Toronto, gradually began to change as more and more workers are no longer commuting to the city center, but betook themselves to other suburbs. The poorly -developed tangential connections require significant detours, so many dodged the car and especially the Highway 401 took advantage. Concrete plans for a tangential subway line there was back in 1982: The line should be in the then independent town of North York both outer ends of the Yonge- University - Spadina Line connect with each other and lead to the center of Scarborough.
After 1985, the Progressive Conservative provincial government of Bill Davis had been voted out, the plans came to a halt for almost a decade. 1994 promised led by Bob Rae NDP provincial government to build four subway lines in the suburbs. At the Eglinton West Subway, which should be part of the tangent line, Bauvorleistungen have been rendered. But in 1995 won the Progressive Conservatives the election, after which the new government under Mike Harris ordered the setting of all underground plans due to massive increases in costs. Mel Lastman, the influential mayor of North York ( Toronto 1998 ), exerted political pressure and was able to prevail finally, that at least the Sheppard Line was built.
Construction began in late 1998 and lasted almost four years. The operation on the route between Sheppard - Yonge and Don Mills was taken on 24 November 2002, the official opening took place two days before.
Track and stations
The stations and the western end of the track have been built in Toronto as usual in an open design. However, even two tunnel boring machines were first used for the construction of the remaining, fully underground route. First they dug from the already dug Station Leslie from west to Doris Avenue just before Yonge Street. They were then transported back to the starting point, from where they advanced towards the east to Don Mills. The two parallel tunnel tubes are 15 to 18 meters below the surface and are 13 meters apart. The Don River is crossed by a fully caged bridge. Between the stations Sheppard - Yonge and Bayview another station called Willowdale was provided. This was indeed prepared due to the low density of development, but not executed.
All subway cars used on the Sheppard Line be parked on the track (mostly at the two ends ). Usually run four four-car trains, resulting in a stroke of five and a half minutes; a fifth train is held in reserve. When the trains need to be serviced, they come across a track connection to the Yonge line and continue to the Davisville depot yard at Davisville station.
Criticism
In the media, the Sheppard Line has been variously referred to as the " subway to nowhere" ( subway to nowhere ). With the exception of Sheppard - Yonge and Don Mills stations are only slightly haunted, even during peak hours. However, the average number of passengers on working days increased since the opening by about a third to and now corresponds to that of the most heavily loaded bus and tram lines in the Downtown. In addition, the Sheppard line broke along the way investments in the billions, mainly so that a further increase is expected in multi-storey residential buildings. A disadvantage of the Sheppard Line is the fact that it offers only connection to the Yonge- University - Spadina Line, which in turn pushes against capacity limits. During the budget crisis in 2007, the City Council considered the possibility of even completely shut down the line on weekends or not, but then finally looked up from it.
Deferred extensions
Published in 2003, the TTC is a report, which ranks an extension of the Sheppard line east towards Scarborough Centre as the highest priority, because the track could just as fully effective. By contrast, they turned back the western extension to Downsview, because the low population density still does not justify the subway on this section.
The province of Ontario continued but other priorities in the subway construction and instead supported the extension of the Yonge- University - Spadina line to Vaughan, whose construction began in 2009 and should be completed in 2015. Angered by the lack of progress in terms of Sheppard Line completed the City of Toronto and the TTC in March 2007, a change in strategy and set since the program Transit City on the construction much cheaper light rail. The eastern extension of the Sheppard Line was far returned to the future. Since 2009, the rail line Sheppard East LRT is under construction, which begins in Don Mills and should lead to Scarborough, where they will meet the extended Scarborough RT. Construction began in November 2009, the opening is scheduled for September 2013.