10-28-2022, 12:33 PM
(10-28-2022, 01:01 AM)dtkvictim Wrote:(10-27-2022, 11:43 PM)nms Wrote: Are both platforms typically used at Fairway and Conestoga?
No. I have never actually been to the Conestoga station, but only one platform is used at Fairway that I've seen.
But that got me wondering: Why do we have two platforms at Conestoga? Obviously Fairway has two platforms to handle being extended, but what's the reasoning for Conestoga?
I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense to have side platforms at a terminus if both are intended to be used for boarding trains: this is why all TTC subway termini have centre platforms, and this has almost always been true through the subway’s history (I believe the only exception is when the Bloor-Danforth subway initially opened between Keele and Woodbine, which are side-platform stations).
However, as long as only one platform is used for boarding it’s not a problem. What they actually do at Conestoga and Fairway I don’t know, but one possibility is to use the other platform for taking trains out of service: passengers can get out, but nobody is on the platform expecting to be able to board, and the train can sit for a while if needed before moving away. I believe this is done at McCowan station on the Scarborough RT: the eastbound platform is off-only and used only for trains going out of service.
What I wonder is why they double-tracked right to the end of the line. Given the frequencies at which the system is planned to operate for the foreseeable future, I don’t think a 1km single track section at the end of the line would make much difference to operations.