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Any indication of what king of improvements will occur?
It will look like sum on, say, Steeles.....there will be cut outs at stops....likely some bypass lanes at intersections....station/stops built.
Any indication of what king of improvements will occur?
It will look like sum on, say, Steeles.....there will be cut outs at stops....likely some bypass lanes at intersections....station/stops built.
It will, if the PIC from March is any indication, continue on and go down Humberwest Parkway and loop at Queen/Goreway, connecting to the 501/A.Just wish this did not end at Airport Road but, rather, go down Airport to the Airport....one express bus service which would cross with 3 other zum lines as well as two GO Stations and, well, the Airport....that would be a pretty cool network addition.
It will, if the PIC from March is any indication, continue on and go down Humberwest Parkway and loop at Queen/Goreway, connecting to the 501/A.
There already is an express to the airport, the 115, which...in actually pretty express.
505 will terminate at Queen and Goreway - there's simply no need for other road works as the extension past Airport Road will be non-stop and will use existing station on Queen.Well these works that they have tendered for seem to indicate that this line will terminate at Airport Road (at least for now).
Well these works that they have tendered for seem to indicate that this line will terminate at Airport Road (at least for now).
The difference between the 115 and my dreamed of Zum 505 to Airport is that the 115 needs most people to get to the BCC to take it. If the 505 continued down Airport to the terminals (via the Malton GO station) it would provide 1 transfer transit from pretty much all of Brampton (as it would cross paths with each of the existing Zum lines) to the airport and would also provide people a public transit alternative to the UPE.....riders from east and west could take the KW GO to Malton then transfer with their Presto Cards onto a Zum bus right to the terminal.
Limiting the number of transfers to 1 or less is even more important to airport bound travellers due to a) needing to get there at a certain/fixed time to catch a plane and b) the amount of luggage they may have may make transfers more of a pain than normal.
Zum Steeles is dragging itself because the Region of Peel is in charge, and several of the intersections (Dixie/Steeles and Dixie/Bramalea) have other things going on.The ultimate plan is to have the 505 go to the airport either via Airport Rd (which makes most sense) or via Bramalea rd/Steeles/ and Airport Rd (don't know how that will work). I agree, I would prefer it to go to the airport now but im guessing they don't have enough money -- look at zum steeles, not all the construction is finished after 2 years.
The ultimate plan is to have the 505 go to the airport either via Airport Rd (which makes most sense) or via Bramalea rd/Steeles/ and Airport Rd (don't know how that will work). I agree, I would prefer it to go to the airport now but im guessing they don't have enough money -- look at zum steeles, not all the construction is finished after 2 years.
Adding Zum to fairly wide, modern roadways like Bovaird (and much of Airport is too) is not very expensive. The entire capital cost of building out Bovaird (Mt. Pleasant to Airport Road) is about $10 mil. Even if (for some reason) the Bovaird to the Airport part was twice that...is $20 million all that much to connect the entire city of Brampton and anyone on the KW GO line to the airport by modern/comfortable reasonably fast express buses at public transit prices?
Even if the capital costs were low, I think it would be too expensive to operate for them now. I have emailed them several times since Zum Queen started to extend the line down to Downsview via the York University busway so we have a direct connection to the subway until the subway is extended into Vaughan. Each time they have responded back with a no. I think it would be very good for Brampton to have a direct connection to the subway but they still responded no. You have to admit that a connection the subway is much more important than one to the airport and less costly to run presumably as the addition is less time/resource consuming than adding a segment to the 505 from Queen to the Airport. I think they are so adamant against it because they simply don't have the money right now to increase service that dramatically. Too bad, because I (along with a lot of other people) could really save a lot of money by taking the Zum instead of the GO to connect to the subway.
I fully agree with your thoughts about expanding to the Airport though and hope Brampton does make that priority (once they connect to the subway).
There are two sides to the operating budget. Extending the Queen Zum to Downsview station would add some cost with no offsetting revenue....extending the 505 down to the airport would have points along the way where new revenue would be generated.
I also am not sure who controls the Downsview busway and if it is as simple as BT just deciding to run along it.
There will probably be an Airport Road Zum. It's not in Phase Two and I think, in the spirit of the grid that Brampton Transit is trying to keep, it should stay separate from a 505 Bovaird (I think even the regular 5 is just way too long of route).
I agree that it would be nice too to see the 501/A go to Downsview, but remember that YRT cut all Viva Orange off-peak service to Downsview. If the transfer between BT/YRT and the 196 not be such a PITA, it wouldn't be a big deal. The 501 will go to the subway when it opens in 2 1/2 years. Right now, it would add about 45 minutes of running time for both branches, without passenger turnover revenue.