The TTC Board approved express-bus service-improvements that will help Weston and Mount Dennis in its meeting yesterday. There are only two problems: it will be several years until they happen, and there is no money to pay for them.
Among many other changes announced in the plan, there are three benefits for York South–Weston: Jane Street will get longer, articulated buses to serve the city’s busiest express route, and Lawrence Ave and Weston Rd will both get new express services running in the morning and afternoon peak periods.
City-wide, the service improvements will cost $34 million, plus $13 million a year. The TTC says it will be excellent value, however, because it will reduce travel times.
If the money can be found, the Jane and Lawrence West routes could see changes by 2020; Weston Road will take until 2021.
Glen Murray discusses implications and possibilities for Mount Dennis.
Ontario Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Glen Murray was the star attraction at a meeting held in Mount Dennis Library tonight. The meeting was hosted by Councillor Frances Nunziata and Ontario Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Laura Albanese. Jim Baxter, director of Toronto’s Environment and Energy Division was along to add support. Over 40 people came out on a 34° evening to hear some details about Ontario’s five year Climate Change Action Plan and how it can be applied in Mount Dennis.
Highlights of the meeting:
Minister Murray promised to coax Metrolinx into approving the rail path northward expansion through Mount Dennis and possibly Weston. He applauded the net zero initiative being undertaken in Mount Dennis.
There will be energy retrofits available for social and rental housing.
Home energy saving upgrades will be subsidized.
The Ontario Government is very supportive of more bike lanes and better cycling infrastructure.
He thinks that bike paths along hydro corridors should be encouraged.
The province will be offering an incentive of up to $14,000 towards the lease or purchase of an electric vehicle and up to $1000 to install a home charging station.
Four years of free overnight charging for electric vehicles.
Rebates to help trade to an electric vehicle.
Before selling a home, owners will be required to perform an energy audit so that potential purchasers will know the home’s energy costs.
Encouraging words were said about the Black Creek channel and its possible naturalization.
The Green Investment Fund will provide money towards retrofitting low energy systems in homes, apartments and businesses.
Minister Murray was keen to return to meet with residents for a hike / cycle along the Humber to look at the weirs along the river.
Elliot Strashin owns and is renovating the old Cooper Canada sporting goods factory on Alliance and presciently enough has been renovating it, placing a solar farm on the roof, geothermal energy systems and better insulation. One of his tenants is a company called Dynacert which designs computerized on demand water electrolysis systems that feed the product (hydrogen and oxygen) into existing fossil fuel engines instead of using diesel or gasoline. This process reduces carbon emissions and increases efficiency. Container ship engines generate huge amounts of emissions are being considered for application of this technology. He was wondering about what support there would be for expanding the factory. Minister Murray promised to meet up with Mr. Strashin to see what can be done.
Mr Murray seems quite taken with Mount Dennis and mentioned that what people are looking for is a community with a history and unique businesses, restaurants and cafes. They don’t want to find chain businesses in their locale. Ideally the neighbourhood should be walkable and have good public transportation and cycling options. In 2021, once the Eglinton Crosstown is opened, and cycling infrastructure is improved, Mount Dennis will be well on its way to being such a community. The formal motion to declare Mount Dennis a net zero community will be presented to Council in July.
The meeting ended with an individual question and answer session.
The remaking of the Ontario Municipal Board may have profound effects in Weston and Mount Dennis. Under proposed rules, community members will be unable to challenge high-density buildings built within 500 meters of a transit station—such as the Eglinton Crosstown stop in Mount Dennis and the GO Transit stop in Weston.
The 500 meter radius would encompass much of the village of Weston and some of the developed parts of Mount Dennis.
The CEO of the Ontario Homebuilders’ Association told the Globe and Mail,
“I would imagine that ratepayer groups would be up in arms,” Mr. Vaccaro said. “It is almost like trying to find a way to shield the municipalities … by saying to them: ‘If you make that tough decision, you don’t have to worry about the OMB appeal. We’re going to shield you from your angry residents.’”
500 meter radius in Weston–see update below500 meter radius in Mount Dennis
Weston had the controversial Weston Common project approved despite considerable community opposition, including by us at WestonWeb. The 30-storey building was mandated by Toronto planners adhering to tall building guidelines meant for downtown.
Under the new guidelines, similar buildings could be put up without appeal to the OMB if they are first approved by City Council.
Update: Chris sent in a much better map based on the fact that the station is linear. 500m covers much more of Weston.
David Collenette, the ‘brains’ behind the under-used, over-priced, executive-class UP Express service, has announced another of his plans: a $19 billion, twice-hourly, high-speed train between Toronto and Windsor. The provincial government mademuch of it today.
Collenette has two proposals, the cheaper (and slower) of which would put a 250 km/h train on the corridor that runs through Weston. It would run from Union to Pearson, then on to Kitchener, Guelph, London and Windsor. Collenette says the train would be profitable and could be built speedily.
He’s said that before. He was so utterly wrong that he should never be allowed near a cocktail napkin again.
The UPX was supposed to be $200 million. It cost three times that.
It was supposed to be running by 2008. It took until 2015.
It was supposed to be profitable. It has never been profitable.
Moreover, there is already train service to every destination the government has in mind. GO Trains run to Kitchener and Guelph. VIA trains go to London and Windsor. The competition is brutal, too: flights to Windsor are about $150 and take an hour, and the Ontario government has also already announced all-day service to Kitchener and other improvements to regional rail service.
In the unlikely event that this high-speed line ever gets built, it will require undoing much of the work already done on the corridor: “a number of infrastructure upgrades”, in Collenette’s words.
The Eglinton Crosstown line will not open for another four years but they keep updating their website to give tantalizing looks at the future along with progress to date. Below is a view of Eglinton Avenue showing where the new Mount Dennis Station will be placed.
A sequence of past, present and future images of the Mount Dennis Station site. The Kodak Building is illustrated back in its original position in the 2021 imagining.
Incidentally, the anticipated speed of the Crosstown is illustrated in a graphic on the site.
Where’s the GO and UP Express?
I was on the UP Express a couple of days ago and according to my phone’s GPS feature, we were exceeding 125 km/h at times between Bloor and Weston. Of course that’s not the average speed (probably just over 60 km/h) but pretty impressive when comparing commuter rail track speeds in Canada. For example, the GO train trundles along at an average pace of about 50 km/h between Kitchener and Toronto.
The Crosstown site has also posted a recent ‘Flyover’ video (May 2) of stations along the line in an aerial viewpoint showing how work is progressing at each location.
Watch the video in fullscreen mode for a more detailed view.
InsideToronto reports that the UP Express now has quieter bells.
The provincial transit planning agency relocated the ringing bells, described by residents as a constant dinging, to the middle of all UP trains, approximately 17 in total, and partially concealed them in sound-proof material. They also clarified to train operators when the bells should be triggered.
The bells have caused anger for years, but it is not clear to your correspondent why, apart from legislation, the UPX even has them; as far as I know, there are no level crossings nor easy way to get to the tracks.
The Kodak recreation building, (officially known as Kodak Building 9) was moved from its foundations last summer. The idea was to create new foundations that the building will return to and become part of the new Mount Dennis Station.
