We very much need a "Places to Grow Part 2" strategy which deals with the increasingly populated areas on the other side of the greenbelt from the GTA. The risk to loss of farmland from sprawl within and around these areas is as worrisome as the sprawl that has emerged within the GTA.
I agree that there needs to be an overall transportation plan for these areas. Densification (at least from rural to semi-urban) is happening, and, as you suggest, commuter zones may emerge within these areas. It would be interesting to see a head-to-head comparison of a BCRY upgrade against the likely enlargement of roads in the Barrie-Collingwood area over the next 10-20 years. A BCRY upgrade might not look that unaffordable.
The transportation market for vacation/liesure use is interesting. We are seeing a taste of it with COVID. There is a huge market for daytripping from Toronto, and all of Barrie, Orillia, Collingwood, Wasaga, and such are perfect candidates. (Have actually done some of this with my family recently, very enjoyable). I am less optimistic that the cottage country can support weekend or liesure use.... the folks I know who have cottages up there tend to travel back and forth with a full load of gear in their SUV's, more than one could take with them on a train. Nevertheless, I can see many travel markets emerging, almost going back to the early 1900's when a variety of boat and radial/rail excursion routes existed out of Toronto. Again, not all of these will be Union Station based....getting people from say Oakville to Wasaga Beach may be a whole market segment, and a connection at Union will have trouble competing.
Getting back to BCRY specifically, the biggest problem for freight shippers on this route is the utter indifference of CP to customers on this line. CP runs only one manifest train a day each way north of Alliston. It's a monster land barge, sometimes with remote DPU units. Stopping this train to lift or set off at Utopia is troublesome, and the length of the train discourages intermediate switching moves as crossings are blocked and the crew effort is significant. So it is common for this train to be directed to skip the Utopia stop, and proceed onwards, taking cars bound for BCRY with them. Shippers and CP and BCRY operating folks have endless stories of BCRY freight going into a loop between Toronto and Sudbury, because the PSR system is geared towards keeping trains moving. I am not optimistic that shippers will stick with rail on this route.
- Paul
- Paul