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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

If they HAD to introduce pay-in-person parking of some kind...

...then I think that's a great idea to take advantage of Presto here. Set aside a percentage of lots for ~$5-$8 allday parking, as long as there are lots of tiny Presto parking meters that didn't require you to go back to the car. Just register your driver license plate on your registered Presto card (one-time process). From thereafter, just tap at the Presto Parking meter for your daily payment. Run along to the train.

No need to run back to the car.
No debit/credit payments (Except maybe tap cards).
No gates to slow you down.
No payment delays in parking.
Just park, tap, go to station.

They can use the newer, tiny cheaper outdoor "Presto-on-a-pole" readers they now use for Ottawa OTrain. 1 nearby meter for every several "Presto Reserved" spots, so you're never far away. Color-code/brand them specificially for parking payments instead of fares. Bonus if you can pay online via the mobile browser AFTER you already tapped ("Your Presto card is out of cash. Pay online within an hour to prevent being ticketed.")
 
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It is also time for us non car drivers to bitch about the fare increase when we have to subsidize the $45,000 per parking spot that is no use to us as well creating gridlock on the road preventing out transit getting to/from the station that is slower than it should be in the first place.

You want to drive and park at a station that is service by transit, you pay for that right out of your pocket, not mine (ours).

With gas prices falling, there is less tax money to invest in transit these days.
 
Or rather, a system where someone does not need to choose to pay $90/month more than 90% of everyone else for the option to park close to the train.

I'm sure there's a market for people to choose, on a day to day basis, to pay $5 to park close to the train. Whether they're running late for their train, or have arrived at 9:30 and don't want to park at the edge of the universe.

Realistically, one can tell that Metrolinx does not really want to get into any kind of large scale parking enforcement. Selling a parking spot once for $90 a month is a lot easier than selling it 20 times for $5.

The market for the reserved spots, though, is driven by people who need/want to be able to park at the station....not so much by proximity to the tracks/station. From observation, the lots with the biggest shortage of parking have the highest percent of reserved spots. Take a look at Long Branch ....very small lot and almost all of them are reserved. People just want to know that when they arrive at the station there is a place to park.

I used to reserve a spot at Brampton......at that time I was only riding the GO, on average, twice a week....but when I did it was seldom an early train and the lot was full for the later trains ....so I reserved a spot. Every single other person I knew who reserved a spot (not a huge sample size but certainly double digits) did so for that same reason....not that they cared where the parked but, rather, wanted to ensure they could park and they would not miss a train circling for a spot.

The great irony about the new larger parking structures they are building is that once people see there is plenty of available parking spots....it may actually reduce the number of people who are willing to pay for a reserved spot and they may actually see a reduction in parking revenue.
 
And of course, your use case is entirely valid! I don't think there's anything wrong with reserved spots. $90 to know there's a spot for you is great. And it makes a lot of sense at more urban stations where there's a severe shortage of spaces.

There's just also a case to be made for a middle-ground of spaces that serve a similar purpose (generally higher availability and better location) but don't have a monthly commitment.

In the Pickering example, level 1 can be reserved parking, and hypothetically, level 2 could be daily-rate parking. Or you can fight for another spot elsewhere for free.
 
And of course, your use case is entirely valid! I don't think there's anything wrong with reserved spots. $90 to know there's a spot for you is great. And it makes a lot of sense at more urban stations where there's a severe shortage of spaces.

There's just also a case to be made for a middle-ground of spaces that serve a similar purpose (generally higher availability and better location) but don't have a monthly commitment.

In the Pickering example, level 1 can be reserved parking, and hypothetically, level 2 could be daily-rate parking. Or you can fight for another spot elsewhere for free.
Sure, where there is excess inventory you can play around with different models.....but I think that applies to very few stations and what you may find is that if there is excess inventory there will be fewer people willing to pay....that is the irony I spoke of....the places where they have invested in parking may have the most difficulty generating parking revenue.......but places without that investment (Long Branch example) end up yielding a very high (on a per spot basis) amount of parking revenue.
 
Any speculation?

"@femwriter: RT @DiscoverMilton: Minister Steven Del Duca will be joined by @IndiraNHarris @GOtransit Pres Greg Percy Mayor Krantz http://t.co/gW7wo9UeyW"
 
Any speculation?

"@femwriter: RT @DiscoverMilton: Minister Steven Del Duca will be joined by @IndiraNHarris @GOtransit Pres Greg Percy Mayor Krantz http://t.co/gW7wo9UeyW"
A few more layover bays being added in Milton for more service and the EA to 4 track the corridor for all day service by 2020/22
 
A few more layover bays being added in Milton for more service and the EA to 4 track the corridor for all day service by 2020/22

Wrong, Drum.

It's to announce the 9 trainset starting up in January, along with rejigging of existing trains.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.
 
Gosh, why can't they introduce paid parking instead?

And can they please leave the base fare alone, too! GO is absurdly expensive for intra-city trips, which is why we have people ignoring fast and comfortable GO Trains in favour of cramming into a subway for its entire length. This fare system is the reason people as far out as Scarborough Centre, Richmond Hill Centre and Vaughan are clamoring for subways even though commuter rail would much better suit their needs.

Meanwhile for regional trips, such as the 100 km Toronto-Kitchener jaunt I do fairly often, GO is quite competitively priced.
 
The notion that we should cram intra416 people onto GO trains seems to me to disregard the effects on the people we NEED to ride GO trains - 905ers. Encouragement of 416ers should only occur on lines where capacity has been added to accommodate them.
 
The notion that we should cram intra416 people onto GO trains seems to me to disregard the effects on the people we NEED to ride GO trains - 905ers. Encouragement of 416ers should only occur on lines where capacity has been added to accommodate them.

As an official resident of Vaughan, I can assure you that the area code there is in fact 905. As it is in Richmond Hill too.

I mentioned Richmond Hill, Vaughan and Scarborough because they are three places where there is/was a strong push for a subway to downtown, even though they are way beyond the distance where subways make sense given that our lines stop every 500-1000 metres along the way.
 
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The most relevant bit:
SmartTrack and RER Congruence

Many areas of congruence between SmartTrack and RER, including level of service, use of existing rail corridors and electrification
Metrolinx and the City of Toronto are working cooperatively to develop the proposed program

Key topics being discussed include:
• Integration of SmartTrack as part of RER network
• Integration with TTC services at RER stations
• New station locations
• Fare policy
• Eglinton West corridor
• Funding and delivery
 
The most relevant bit:
Most people here saw it coming. SmartTrack is just a tweaked GO RER, as brilliant politics.

On a related topic (which not as many may see coming)... Regarding Page 9 of this PDF, the "express train" passing tracks... I point out that the existing Toronto-Kitchener route is HSR compatible (it is the proposed HSR route already). With an extra express track, it can provisionally be made High Speed Rail compatible (concrete ties, tighter catenary tolerances) for a relatively small cost increment compared to just laying lower grade electricified express passing tracks. Exact same route. Voila. Imagine Kitchener GO RER Express trains being HSR trainsets!. The all stop RER can be regular electricified GO Trains. Perhaps as part of a phased plan, they can "protect compatibility" for future Kitchener HSR GO express trains (and permit GO extension to London, as part of the HSR system). Some new Metrolinx commuter HSR brand.

Maybe not this wave, but in the "Next Wave" (a phrase suggestively mentioned on page 11, as a reference to 'future' provincial train projects - including HSR that is now very clearly another Ontario goal). Thusly, thanks to the big electric momentum on the Kitchener leg, I'd say GO HSR is coming during the 2030s.
 
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