User:Geo Swan/MetroPlan (Toronto)

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Metroplan was the name of a planning initiative in the former municipality of Metropolitan Toronto. During 1974-1975 meetings were held across the city to get public input into transit planning.

Planners recommended that after the TTC finished small extendions to the ends of the Bloor Danforth line that future rapid transit should be grade-separated light rail, similar to the existing fleet of PCC streetcars. They recommended that the first route to be built should be an east-west route along either Eglington Avenue, Sheppard Avenue, or Finch Avenue. The Eglington Crosstown line that was part of the Transit City initiative was identical to the Eglington line recommended in the 1975 MetroPlan report, right down to the recommendation that the central portion be buried, while the outer portions to be built above grade and still achieve rapid transit speeds by using a separate right of way. Unlike the current practice the 1975 plan recommended that when the light rail vehicles ran above ground traffic lights should be synchronized so they could count on green lights when they crossed surface roads.

Following the report the Scarborough Rapid Transit line was built using at that time untested technology developed with the support of the Province of Ontario -- in a breach of the recommendation that all future lines should use standard light rail technology.