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GO studies Bolton rail service

I'm baffled by why they don't rename Highway 7 something a little more creative (and by that I do not mean Avenue 7). My vote goes for Di Biase Boulevard on the Vaughan side, and Avenue Bhaduria on the Markham side.

Avenue Bhaduria - that certainly is a creative name! But wouldn't that be based on false credentials?

What about Avenue Tsubouchi?

Actually, since McCowan Road is Regional Road 69, I think that road would be a better fit for the guy who told welfare recipients to eat 69 cent dented tuna cans.
 
Do an Internet poll, and you just might wind up with a Highway Seven Of Nine, given the kinds of dorks who do such polls
seven-of-nine.jpg
 
No idea on exact numbers, but I can tell you that GO bus service to Bolton has more than doubled in the past year. Previously, two weekday round trips served Bolton - Nobleton -Etobicoke North GO - York Mills. Now, three additional round trips serve Bolton - Malton GO via Highway 50.

In addition to that, the Region of Peel is building a transit terminal in the Mayfield & Highway 50 area, where GO, Brampton Transit and YRT are supposed to connect. It's a terrible distance from Bolton proper, but it's groundbreaking step for Caledon.

Clearly, there is demand for GO service in my neck of the woods. The only problems are the political problems. Essentially, residents fear that transit will bring illegal basement apartments and "...that there will be homeless people running around", and the town is more than content at not pushing the issue any further.

The above quote was made by an elected official in trying to describe the sentiment of local residents, but I will protect his identity because I feel really sorry for anyone who holds that opinion.
 
^ From a link to another related article on that page:
174318

[...]
DeBoer said everyone is going to say they want transit, but said showing the true cost is important so residents can make an informed decision.

“If the cost is going to be $50 per household, all of a sudden everybody is going to stop and take another look and say yes, transit is nice, but is that something we want if we’re going to need to add that every year, knowing we’re already deficient in funding roads.”

Ward 3 and 4 regional Coun. Jennifer Innis said she would like to see what questions were asked that led to the support of a tax levy for transit.


She said if residents saw they would not be able to use the transit service without driving to it themselves, they would not support the increase. She added that door-knocking — during her campaign — revealed different answers on transit than other areas of Caledon.

“They don’t want public transit is the sentiment I was getting,” she said. [/quote]

Very interesting...and of course, polls are only as good as the legitimacy and context of the questions, as discussion above indicates...but the result of that poll is quite different from a recent one in Toronto. IIRC (I'll try to find and link the Toronto poll later), Torontonians were unwilling to pay higher taxes (ostensibly municipal ones) for better transit.

The demographic of higher income in Caledon may render them a bit more willing to see the tax as nominal, but good value for the money.

That's an encouraging result, even if it is an anomaly.
 
^$40 per household is not going to buy much transit.

- Paul
No it won't, but that misses the point. Asked the same question, other regions/municipal areas have flat-out responded 'no'.

I was digging on that last week, but getting conflicting results on different polls for...well....different areas and different questions. The same poll asking rephrased questions can have a wildly different result. It's the question more than the answer that's telling. Polls can be very misleading, but what struck me digging at the time was how (gist of the polls I found) 'Torontonians were unwilling to pay more muni tax for improved transit'. It doubly miffed me because apparently other polls show little support for road tolls.

If people are unwilling to pay for progress, it won't happen!

So the result of the poll discussed above is in some ways a ray of sunshine.

Just digging again now. I have to add a caveat: (I'll do a more thorough search later). There's apparently a gulf between polls done within roughly the last year, and a slew done around 2013. 2013 saw much more enthusiasm for paying a tax premium for transit. And pretty widely. Recent results are sour.

I'm going to have to study this more to link examples and show the trend I think I'm seeing. It may have a whiff of Forditity to it. And that might be about to swing back again...
 
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^$40 per household is not going to buy much transit.

- Paul

It won't. It might cover the costs of extending two Brampton Transit routes into Valleyfield and up Kennedy Road and maybe a basic circulator service in Bolton, contracted either to Brampton, one of YRT's contracts, or elsewhere. The next step might be to push for some midday/evening and/or weekend GO bus trips on Highway 10 and into Bolton. Alternatively, they could try Innisfil's model of subsidizing Uber trips, especially for areas north of Old School Road/Bolton.
 
I guess this will be a new line?

Well, a new GO line, yes.

It would bring service via the CP Mainline, also known as the MacTier Sub.

The track is there, but there is no GO service currently on this line.
 

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