Allandale25
Senior Member
^ Why do you feel it should have more parking/a garage?
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GO Transit: Construction Projects (Metrolinx, various)
- Thread starter drum118
- Start date
TOareaFan
Superstar
It is critially short of parking and most of the parking it has is reserved.....juxatpose that with it's very unique locational dynamics as the station most likely to syphon people off of the Gardiener/QEW/427 during bad traffic days (which is about 6/7) if there were only a place to put their cars.
Glen Murray had, actually, a good idea when he proposed puting signs up adajacent to those highways that would tell people stuck in traffic where the closest GO station was, what time the next train left and how long it would take to get downtown from there........but he missed the point that none of those stations would have had anywhere for those people to leave the cars if you could get them to abandon their drive in and use the highway.
Long Branch may only average 1k riders a day....but I bet it's numbers are not that much different on weekends and workdays....it is simply the easiest of the Lakeshore line stations to get to for people who do not live on/near the Lakeshore.
I live in N. Brampton....when we go into the city on the weekend we target Long Branch as it is easier/quicker for us to get there than any of the stations inside Peel.......but if our travel time overlaps with, say, a Jays game we will divert to another route....because the parking lot is full.....I would be the neighbourhoods who's streets fill up with on street parkers on such weekends would also support an increase in parking at that station....and may be very concerned about this apparent decrease.
Long Branch doesn't need any more parking: a parking garage here would just be an eyesore in the midst of an established neighbourhood. Drawing people here from the rather distant QEW and 427 interchange seems bizarre to me. The station just needs more TTC and MiWay streetcar and bus service timed to meet (more frequent) GO trains.
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Of course, Park Lawn was simply proof that "we can put a station here" without any real design, (8-car platforms shown so far only) and there won't be an actual design developed there until such time as funding is established for the station.
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TOareaFan
Superstar
may seem bizarre...take a walk around the parking lot any weekend and note the dealerships where the cars were bought and think...."mmmm. this station is drawing people from a great distance"......it is the most convenient station for a lot of people who do not have evening and weekend service (ie Milton and KW line users).
The people living nearby Long Branch station do not owe those drivers a spot in a parking garage. It's an expensive, retrograde, and anti-urban idea that you're promoting (but then we have a retrograde government taking power at the moment, so live your dream).
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Allandale25
Senior Member
Thanks for expanding on your comment.
TOareaFan
Superstar
Who said they owe them anything.....debate me all you want, it is fun....but don't put words in my mouth.
But why not ask the people living on Forty First or James or any of the other streets "what would you prefer, a) the current street parking mess you get when the Jays/Ex/Indy/TFC - or some combination of them - are in play or b) a well designed parking garage on the existing parking lot on Lake Shore Blvd......ask the residents instead of guessing what they would want.
crs1026
Superstar
The CTC is operational. What you may have seen is the duplicate signals that have been installed in anticipation of cutover from the old signalling to the new. Apart from rebuilding Hamilton Jct with a new set of signals, CP is transitioning from conventional single-lens signals to the new diode-based three-lens signals. So you have lots of extra non-working signals sitting there waiting for the cutover.
As for the rusty rails, there isn't a need for two main tracks for the current GO service - but those tracks may be needed in future. CP and CN seem to route all GO trains over one route to Ham Jct, but which line is used changes every so often. Every so often one sees northbound and southbound freights meet at Desjardins, heading to/from the line to Campbellville, so both CP main tracks are available if needed.
- Paul
crs1026
Superstar
Doesn't mean it isn't in the plan. These are preliminary plans, mostly aimed at explaining the station site layout, where the bus stops and bike lanes will be, etc. One would hope that they are factoring this into detailed drawings for things like stairwells and elevators etc.
- Paul
smallspy
Senior Member
The problem is that the location of the dealership is not necessarily a great indicator of where someone is currently living. People will purchase vehicles a great distance away from their home to save a buck.
Dan
Toronto, Ont.
TOareaFan
Superstar
Yes...but it is a proxy....another is, for example, conversations on the trains......people drive to that station on the weekends from homes that are closer to, both, the Milton and KW lines.
Leo_Chan
Senior Member
Like having stairs go up too far up and have a few steps back down, and elevators that go too up with ramps going back down?
crs1026
Superstar
When I said I was surprised that LB had less ridership than Mimico, it was because there is a pretty good transit network fanning out to the local areas around the station, into Mississauga as well as Alderwood. And there is a fair bit of medium to high rise rental accommodation in the area (and growing). My impression is that it's a lot easier for locals to access LB than Mimico without driving. (But yeah, in the plan it's still a long indirect walk around the TTC loop to get to Lakeshore....a comment I made at the meeting).
As to the commuters from afar, far better that we improve 7 day, all day service on other routes rather than creating more spaces at Long Branch. FWIW, friends in the far end of the city tell me they no longer drive to Oshawa GO to come downtown....they carry on often all the way to Pickering in hopes of a parking space. This is a huge problem for GO all over. Time to solve it.
- Paul
crs1026
Superstar
No, I meant - by the time they are ready to construct, they will have got their platform plan together so when the station is rebuilt, the transition happens right away.
- Paul