2014 Municipal Election: Toronto Transit Plans

[GenerationW]

"Segregationist" arrived on a silver platter for Tory today. He played it for all it was worth.

 

[ksun]

Why would anyone want to travel to Eastern/Broadview? Isn't the whole point of a relief line, that it intersects more than one subway line? What the point of having only 3 stations, centred on Danforth?

maybe he was considering serving the Unilever cite office development, and then line goes to King/Bay.

 

[kEiThZ]

"Segregationist" arrived on a silver platter for Tory today. He played it for all it was worth.

Really? No admonishment for such dirty politics from Kinsella?

I'm not going to blame Chow on this. But Kinsella, WTF was he thinking?

 

[Electrify]

Still well over 1hr for me and that would be 2 TTC fares and 1 GO fare thanks to TTC rules on direction of travel and exiting the system.

Also, I drive a hybrid. Gas for me on that commute is about $2.70. Even with maintenance and consumption of the tires and such, I'm looking at ~$3 per trip on my commute if I leave out insurance and car payments (which I'm making anyway). There's no way transit can beat that.

Tell the fare collector to check out this page. Says nothing about direction.

BONUS: Secretly have your phone recording the incident. Maybe some mass media attention will get them to do their jobs properly.

EDIT: Also gives Queen streetcar to Long Branch and Sheppard East bus to Rouge Hill, therefore the methodology suggests that it should be valid.

 

[kEiThZ]

Tell the fare collector to check out this page. Says nothing about direction.

BONUS: Secretly have your phone recording the incident. Maybe some mass media attention will get them to do their jobs properly.

Might try that out on a slow day in the office. But for me, with the relatively lower cost of driving and the convenience of being home in 45 mins (30 mins without traffic), there's just no point with the bus.

According to Google, this would take me 1 hr 24 minutes. Better than the TTC at 1 hr 34 minutes (which in reality is always closer to 2 hours in morning rush whenever I've done it). And this would cost me $8.19 with the single TTC fare one way. My car does this in 45 minutes with traffic. 30 minutes with no traffic. Costs me $2.70 in gas. $3 if I include maintenance and the cost of tires. If I include depreciation of the car, it's $9. So basically a wash with the TTC/GO combo. But I'm getting to work in half the time, without being exposed to the elements or standing for a good chunk of time in the morning rush.

Now, if there was a TTC bus to a GO REX station in Malvern, to the Spadina line from Union and I could do all that in less than 75 mins for $5 each way? I'd consider it on slower days.

The essential question here is how valuable is time to you? This may sound superfluous. But voters are certainly thinking about this when they cast vote for all these transit schemes.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Except the voters chose a mode that is not at all fast in the grand scheme of things, myth of the rational voters notwithstanding. Not to mention there is also a bit of cherry picking within say Scarborough depending on one's location.

AoD

 

[nfitz]

According to Google, this would take me 1 hr 24 minutes. Better than the TTC at 1 hr 34 minutes (which in reality is always closer to 2 hours in morning rush whenever I've done it). And this would cost me $8.19 with the single TTC fare one way. My car does this in 45 minutes with traffic. 30 minutes with no traffic. Costs me $2.70 in gas. $3 if I include maintenance and the cost of tires. If I include depreciation of the car, it's $9. So basically a wash with the TTC/GO combo. But I'm getting to work in half the time, without being exposed to the elements or standing for a good chunk of time in the morning rush.

I agree. Transit is great, but if your worst case scenario is 45 minutes, compared to 90 minutes (and often 2 hours) on transit, it's a no brainer.

(though honestly I'd consider moving or changing jobs ... I'm very clear when headhunters call, that I'm not going to drive for 30 minutes!)

For me, it's 20 minutes driving - and parking hell downtown. Or 25-35 minutes on transit. That's a no-brainer too!

At one point I was about 20 minutes driving, versus about an hour on transit (including two 10-minute walks at each end). And I was driving ... but as my situation changed, and I had to start doing the drive during rush-hour, instead of just after, my drive suddenly became 35 minutes and much more stressful (everyone is just a bit more crazy at 8:30 AM than they are at 9:30 AM). Added in with a need to get more exercise, that became the tipping point to using transit all the time. Sure, I lost an extra 50 minutes a day ... but I was getting up to 40 minutes of well-needed exercise, and could even get some work done on the longer bus portion of my trip.

Everyone's situation is different. What we need are more options and ways to get the most likely people off the road.

Now, if there was a TTC bus to a GO REX station in Malvern, to the Spadina line from Union and I could do all that in less than 75 mins for $5 each way? I'd consider it on slower days.

What about a direct TTC bus to the 407 Transitway to 407 Station (once that's open)? One PM when I had the day off, and had to get to York University for 6:30 pm, I simply jumped on the subway 4 stops to Kennedy, caught a GO Train to Unionville GO, and then took the 407 GO Bus from Unionville direct to York University. It worked quite well ... and I'd never considered going north to come back south again until Google Maps spit it out as an option!

 

[BurlOak]

Why would anyone want to travel to Eastern/Broadview? Isn't the whole point of a relief line, that it intersects more than one subway line? What the point of having only 3 stations, centred on Danforth?

I think 4 stations (Cosburn, Danforth, Gerrard and Queen)

OK - maybe have the line cross the Don and have a station at Cherry. This would give a 5km transit line similar to Sheppard - which also only intersects 1 line. Lets wait for this truncated line to gain riders before we consider extending it to join a second subway line.

 

[nfitz]

I think 4 stations (Cosburn, Danforth, Gerrard and Queen)

OK - maybe have the line cross the Don and have a station at Cherry. This would give a 5km transit line similar to Sheppard - which also only intersects 1 line. Lets wait for this truncated line to gain riders before we consider extending it to join a second subway line.

Is this some kind of attempt at humour or a parody?

 

[gweed123]

Was on the road today and just saw the Chow transit plan. A few points:

1) I agree with others on here that it isn't a very good map. The Kitchener GO line has dashed lines indicating that it goes beyond the map edge. The Lakeshore line doesn't have that at all.

2) It shows the Lakeshore and Kitchener GO lines, but it seems to be missing every other line, which will also be electrified and running 15 min frequencies in 10 years (according to the Liberals). Seems like a pretty big omission.

3) Disappointing that the DRL doesn't extend any further north or west, but I'll take it.

4) Unfortunate that the Waterfront East or West LRTs are on the map. Chow's base is going to be the downtown area, and additional LRTs there would boost her chances vs Tory (who is proposing practically nothing new for downtown).

 

[ssiguy2]

Chow's idea of more buses is very touchy-feely but where does she propose putting them? Onto the already crawling streets so they too can sit in traffic?

If she was really concerned about transit and not her ability to win the election she would also include streetcar and bus total ROW thru downtown and major corridors. Bus ROW is faster than LRT because buses can avoid or reroute around accidents etc where as an LRt just sits there. York Region and Miss and their BRTs are the model Toronto should be looking to for improved bus service. Just adding more buses may relieve the over crowding but won't get anybody anywhere any faster without ROW.

 

[WislaHD]

For the candidate that talks platitudes about the role of buses in the city, she has a significantly worse (not to mention unfunded and unfeasible) bus plan compared to John Tory and David Soknacki.

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

For the candidate that talks platitudes about the role of buses in the city, she has a significantly worse (not to mention unfunded and unfeasible) bus plan compared to John Tory and David Soknacki.

The TTC just propsed a similar bus plan. It can be done. I will say, that Olivia is lucky that this is summer.

 

[ksun]

Chow's idea of more buses is very touchy-feely but where does she propose putting them? Onto the already crawling streets so they too can sit in traffic?

If she was really concerned about transit and not her ability to win the election she would also include streetcar and bus total ROW thru downtown and major corridors. Bus ROW is faster than LRT because buses can avoid or reroute around accidents etc where as an LRt just sits there. York Region and Miss and their BRTs are the model Toronto should be looking to for improved bus service. Just adding more buses may relieve the over crowding but won't get anybody anywhere any faster without ROW.

your concern is legitimate but traffic isn't so bad that an few more buses will simply get stuck on the street. They will most likely help. I used to take 100/8 regularly and they were never sit in traffic. Just the frequency isn't good enough (sometimes have to wait for 20 minutes on weekends on a bad day).

I do wonder why no candidate dare proposing ROW for Queen and King streetcar (I don't think it is that urgent for 505 and 506). It is pretty frustrating that an obviously good policy doesn't even get mentioned just because some people might get mad (and votes might be lost).

 

[innsertnamehere]

For the candidate that talks platitudes about the role of buses in the city, she has a significantly worse (not to mention unfunded and unfeasible) bus plan compared to John Tory and David Soknacki.

Unfunded? She's been pretty clear she would hike property taxes, unlike Tory who has straight up opposed the TTC document.

Soknacki is obviously best when it comes to policy, but he doesn't really stand much of a chance.