Mississauga Transitway

[doady]

I think most of the benefit of the transitway will be for GO, especially for the York U routes. For MT, it will mostly benefit the 109, and also give Mississauga a rapid transit connection to the airport with the 107.

If you look at the huge popularity of the 110 though, it was a huge mistake that they decided not to build the section between Erin Mills and Sq One, and have those Creditview and Mavis stations. Even more a mistake if you consider how ridership has skyrocketed on 61 Mavis since then. Too bad.

[aleesia]

Service seems to go to lots of places:

A lot of things have changed since this diagram was drawn:
- Creation of 107 with planned extension to Humber College (hopefully the new buses will come in time for September and use it to extend the 107 to Humber!)
- Addition of 502 Zum Main for the short term
- Addition of Hurontario LRT for the long-term
- Proposed Dixie Express Route 105 to Bramalea
- GO Transit no longer services Square One - Pearson
- Possible direct service between Square and Pearson by express buses. (107A perhaps?)

Also, I'm wondering how the GO buses will access the 401 or the 427 to go to York U and Richmond Hill from Renforth BRT Station. I mean, there are no ramps going from the local roads to the 401 Eastbound and 427 Northbound, or am I just blind?

I still can't over the fact that this BRT seems like a waste of money since it doesn't seem to go anywhere. I hope I'm proven wrong though.

Well, we can say that 110 is already a BRT route since it already runs at the "completed" section of the corridor. Let's assume that the current idling time at South Common will be used to compensate for the additional time to access the Erin Mills BRT Station. Then, judging by the time savings, it has become popular compared to the older option. And judging by the ridership, it is the 5th busiest route in the system so I don't classify it as a waste.

Many people use the 109 to go from Erin Mills to Square One (and vice-versa) instead of 34 and from Erin Mills to the subway (and vice-versa) instead of 35/35A. The Meadowvale - Square One segment carries a significant amount of passengers (> 10) at the reverse peak. Hence, it will likely be successful during off-peak and weekends too. But Square One - Subway segment at the reverse peak is currently dead. I can see at most 5 passengers.

107 was a full bus too going southbound during the PM rush. I entered the bus at the LINK Station after taking my sister to the airport. I had to stand in that bus and it was already full at Dixon and Carlingview! Many people got off at Dixie, but many people boarding didn't alleviate the situation. So we arrived at Square One as a full bus! Ergo, the eastern stations will have some usage. It just needs some promotion to prevent people from boarding local buses at Square One if their destination is the subway. It will shave 15 minutes off of the passengers' commute. They can have something like a free service, similar to what Winnipeg did during its opening day of the Transitway last month.

If they provide frequent service along the transitway, then the system will have no problems attracting lots passengers.

If you look at the huge popularity of the 110 though, it was a huge mistake that they decided not to build the section between Erin Mills and Sq One, and have those Creditview and Mavis stations. Even more a mistake if you consider how ridership has skyrocketed on 61 Mavis since then. Too bad.

I'm pretty sure those who are waiting for the 110 at Creditview and Mavis will be totally disappointed since the bus is already full at Square One. I mean, it's so busy that they can run directly between Square One and UTM. Those who are waiting at South Common already have that problem. Maybe they can divert 201 to UTM and change it to 101A and use blue buses. Maybe that's what the 2012 orders are for?

April 29

Seeing the frame for the Central Parkway BRT Station already assembled, I really can't wait how this will look like in the final form.

And wow, the Rathburn exit is too narrow!

[TheWorldIsNotEnough]

Many people use the 109 to go from Erin Mills to Square One (and vice-versa) instead of 34 and from Erin Mills to the subway (and vice-versa) instead of 35/35A. The Meadowvale - Square One segment carries a significant amount of passengers (> 10) at the reverse peak. Hence, it will likely be successful during off-peak and weekends too. But Square One - Subway segment at the reverse peak is currently dead. I can see at most 5 passengers

As I use to take this bus pre and post re-alignment, the reason is because there is no need for the bus to service Sq1 on its return trip to Meadowvale. I remember that on average (I moved to Toronto recently) the bus would take around an hour and 20 minutes and up to get between the subway and Meadowvale because it ALWAYS got stuck in traffic on its little detour to MCC. Before ridership was pretty good even around 7:20, now it's dead because it takes too long for people to get home.

[drum118]

While driving east on the 403, I got off onto Eastgate and noticed the following changes on June 2.

The curb lane is in place for southbound Cawthra turning lane, the eastbound lane into the Cawthra station parking lot is finish off Eastgate.

Last week on the 107 coming from the airport, the retaining wall and the bridge support were still being built, but on June 2nd, they were finish with haft the precast beams for the bridge over Tomken Rd in place.

Wall retaining material is on site for the bridge over the creek between Tomken and Dixie.

More retaining wall built for the Dixie station on the south side.

All of the road for the BRT that has been graded is pave with curbs and barriers pour.

Very little work has taken place at Dixie for the new underpass bridge.

As for the Rathburn entrance/exit, I expect to see traffic light there to control the bus movement because of being so narrow as well on an angle.

As for the 109, ridership was dead in the first place and this move to Sq One is a killer where riders have gone back to the 89 or using the 35. With the changes in July, I expect to see less riders on the 109 in Sept after getting back fro Europe.

The roofing is going on the Central Parkway station.

[Jasonzed]

from yesterday

[ShonTron]

Are there detailed drawings of the plan still up on the interwebs? I am having some trouble figuring out how the Rathburn/Hurontario area will look once complete.

[RedRocket191]

Are there detailed drawings of the plan still up on the interwebs? I am having some trouble figuring out how the Rathburn/Hurontario area will look once complete.

Other than the bus-only road forming a new T-shaped intersection immediately east of the Hurontario overpass, it will look exactly the same.

http://www.mississauga.ca/portal/miw...mId=106700563n

Enjoy!

[ShonTron]

That's what I thought. My, I'm looking at that tight T-intersection and the left turn in and the tight right turn out and thinking that's going to be fun!

[RC8]

Most stations drop you off in the middle of nowhere. I can understand the convenience of driving to one of these stations and getting on a bus... but once you get to your station how are you going to get to work from there?

I'm not sure I understand how this will improve transit in Mississauga just yet. Aren't Dundas, Hurontario, and Eglinton in urgent need of relief?

[doady]

Well, the transitway does service Airport Corporate Centre, and apparently the City Centre is major destination itself.

Of course, the bus routes utilizing the transitway won't be restricted to just the transitway itself, because buses can be used on normal roads as well.

That's why GO's York U routes and others will be using the transitway, same with Mississauga routes 107, 109. I hope MiWay the New Mississauga Transit combine 107 and 110 into a single route as was originally planned though.

[ShonTron]

That's true. It is an open bus corridor (meaning routes could feed in and out of a central ROW) but there's few points along the route for buses to move on and off. Just Dixie, and it looks as if it is designed for buses to enter and exit from the north only. Unfortunately, most jobs in the Airport Corporate Centre are north of the busway, towards Matheson and the 401, and not that well served without having to make a transfer.

[Hipster Duck]

Most stations drop you off in the middle of nowhere. I can understand the convenience of driving to one of these stations and getting on a bus... but once you get to your station how are you going to get to work from there?

True. Some stations, like Tomken, are real head scratchers: nothing around it, no parking lot, a kiss and ride that's on the other side of a major intersection and really not that far from other, much more useful stations. If that station gets more than 300 users a day, I'd be impressed.

[doady]

Dixie has access from north and south. I don't see the point of it though. The bus service on Dixie is really busy. I don't there will be much benefit to have one seat rides in the Dixie corridor. Transfers would be better.

Tomken and Dixie are okay stations because 5 and 51 are busy routes (especially the 5). Obviously walk-in ridership would be better but they are aren't totally hopeless. The most questionable is the Cawthra station.

The Corporate Centre is really spread out. It's probably true it won't be much of ridership generator.

I think with Mississauga Transitway you have to see the big picture though. Obviously there are problems but a lot of merit as well if you consider it in the contest of regional plan, especially the 407 Transitway and (possibly) Eglinton LRT.

This transitway is an essential component of crosstown regional BRT service. If the western portion of the Eglinton LRT also ends up being grade-separated west of Weston, it would complement this grade-separated BRT nicely too.

[rbt]

This transitway is an essential component of crosstown regional BRT service. If the western portion of the Eglinton LRT also ends up being grade-separated west of Weston, it would complement this grade-separated BRT nicely too.

Is this where we encourage 200km/h highways because the 100km/h ones have shortened our commute times by half over the 50km/h roads we used to use?

We measure an acceptable trip by time, not speed of the vehicle, and the world around us builds out to fit that time. Double the speed and double the distance is now both acceptable and most likely to occur once the area adjusts to it (might take a decade or two).

[doady]

We measure an acceptable trip by time, not speed of the vehicle, and the world around us builds out to fit that time. Double the speed and double the distance is now both acceptable and most likely to occur once the area adjusts to it (might take a decade or two).

So we shouldn't build LRTs, BRTs or subways because they increase the speed of transit? Seriously, I have no idea what you are talking about.