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YRT/Viva Construction Thread (Rapidways, Terminals)

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waterloowarrior

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VIVA Rapid Transit Construction Underway
McGuinty Government and Partners Adding More Transit In York Region
http://www.vivanext.com/391
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Construction is underway on 37 kilometres of dedicated bus lanes in York Region that will provide faster, more reliable service to commuters.

It is estimated that 11,000 jobs will be created with the construction of this $1.4-billion York VIVA Rapidway, funded by the province.

The first section will be ready in 2010 with full service available by the end of 2013. The system will include stations at key destinations throughout the region. Many stations will also serve as transit hubs where passengers can make fast and easy connections to the TTC subway system, GO Transit commuter rail and express buses, York Rapid Transit local bus services, and other transit systems operating in neighbouring regions.
 
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i'm looking forward to seeing the rapidways built across the region, I don't think there's another suburban region in the GTA paying as much attention to public transit as York Region, Kudos to em.
 
Brampton may be the only other exception. I find YRT really lacking in the feeder routes though - apart from the Viva routes, and perhaps Major Mack and Bayview, service levels are often worse than those in Peel.
 
I believe 16th Ave is a major feeder route for Viva Routes. People come in from the far reaches of east and west York Region on the 85. I'm one of them usually.

But anyway, I appreciate the hoopla they are making for this rapidway construction, but let's face it. They're announcing construction of a dedicated bus-way on a street that was never completed in the first place. It was always under construction, so all they're doing now is widening it more before they finalize it. Why they didn't do that from the get-go is beyond me.

But this all means nothing to the rider right now. The traffic is on Highway 7, not on Enterprise Road. Let's get the construction going on the real roads.
 
BMO said:
i'm looking forward to seeing the rapidways built across the region, I don't think there's another suburban region in the GTA paying as much attention to public transit as York Region, Kudos to em.
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This is far and away YRT's largest issue. They seem to like to concentrate on a few (really 2) main routes and promote them to death. Other routes are lacking along with service increases to them. I suffered throughout university with this and still do today. I think time will change this though.

To be fair the MT - they're busway is similar so in some senses they're just as active (although they face other issues).

Transit in our suburbs is quite ahead of most other North American cities even today. Connection between systems, however, is not.
 
ShonTron said:
Brampton may be the only other exception. I find YRT really lacking in the feeder routes though - apart from the Viva routes, and perhaps Major Mack and Bayview, service levels are often worse than those in Peel.
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Brampton is way behind. Brampton should be looking at busways, not a limited stop service.
 
yyzhyd said:
That's the section on Hwy 7 from Jane St. to Unionville GO station right?
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no this first section being constructed is from Richmond Hill Centre to Kennedy road. the other sections to be complete are from Richmond Hill centre to Pine valley on highway 7, then Yonge st from Richmond Hill centre to 19th ave, and the again from Mullock dr to Davi dr till the south lake regional healthcare centre and further to Leslie st.
 

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Actually, Davis Drive is part of the first phase. That and the Hwy 7 stretch east from RH Centre. This picture was taken at Enterprise but its signalling the start of the Hwy 7 construction.

Next up will be Hwy 7 west and north on Yonge; assuming they also don't go SOUTH on Yonge, which they'll do if the subway falls through). IIRC, they were literally on the eve of voting to approve expropriations for the Steeles-->7 stretch when Move2020 came out so a lot of prelim work was done.
 
ShonTron said:
Brampton may be the only other exception. I find YRT really lacking in the feeder routes though - apart from the Viva routes, and perhaps Major Mack and Bayview, service levels are often worse than those in Peel.
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The big problem is that there's not a real network to feed. Viva only has maybe one km/h advantage over other routes. Once these rapidways get built, and Souffville and Barrie Go get all day service, I imagine they'll start really pumping up service.

I can't wait for these rapidways to start being built! A 50% speed increase will be awesome! :D
 
TJ O'Pootertoot said:
Actually, Davis Drive is part of the first phase.
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And a WASTE of viva if you ask me. A small davis drive stub does not make any sense. YRT needs to keep their energy on improving their current route system and existing viva routes before placing viva on a route that doesn't exactly require a viva system. Davis drive, just how much time would a viva line save? 5 minutes maybe? They want a faster trip and a cheaper price to them... try operating a route 55 express. Would be easier to implement and cheaper to run.
 
just_chillin said:
And a WASTE of viva if you ask me. A small davis drive stub does not make any sense. YRT needs to keep their energy on improving their current route system and existing viva routes before placing viva on a route that doesn't exactly require a viva system. Davis drive, just how much time would a viva line save? 5 minutes maybe? They want a faster trip and a cheaper price to them... try operating a route 55 express. Would be easier to implement and cheaper to run.
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I'm not sure, but I think this is an attempt to encourage densification in Newmarket and using transit instead of car. The Barrie line'll come into all-day service next year, and I'm sure York is wanting to get more people on the bus and over to the train instead of heading down the 400 or 404.

I'm actually kind of interested in the ROWs on Highway 7. They're building them over to RHC terminal, but there's nothing there to connect to! The Yonge line's not gonna be finished for 10 years, and RH GO has a long way to go before it gets all day service, if it does. I would've thought that YRT/York would want to improve ties with RT, maybe like ROWs from Woodbine or Leslie to McCowan or Markham. That way, the Beaver Creek/404-407 employment area is connected to the network, and MTC has a ROW network to catch transit-using commuters who would otherwise drive. York really needs to push that Yonge extension though. Maybe they'll be able to smack some sense into Toronto and get them to actually build subways like they should. :eek:
 
The 2km stretch over to Prospect connects Newmarket's only mall, Newmarket's only cluster of highrises, Newmarket's only hospital, and Newmarket's GO station, and also has famously bad traffic. I hope it goes over to the 404/Leslie, which is the best terminus spot and would be a good area for a bus garage. Unfortunately, for ridership to grow, people in the area need to be lured onto transit as much as better service needs to be provided - Viva can do this.
 
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