canarob
Senior Member
We should ban these animals (those fighting and crossing tracks) from GO permanently.
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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)
- Thread starter drum118
- Start date
T3G
Senior Member
They are not animals. They are your fellow humans. This is what humans are capable of, lest you should find yourself harbouring any illusions about them being an "other". Incidentally, considering all the atrocities that have been reported as having occurred on the city's transit system in the last two years, two people getting into a fistfight seems almost comically tame.
Not that it makes any sense at all to conflate fighters and those crossing the tracks. Crossing the tracks is astonishingly reckless and they should be fined for it, but why is that a serious enough crime to justify banning them from the system for life?
Not that it makes any sense at all to conflate fighters and those crossing the tracks. Crossing the tracks is astonishingly reckless and they should be fined for it, but why is that a serious enough crime to justify banning them from the system for life?
Towered
Superstar
Didn't know where else to put this, but: there's a pretty historic station on the GO line in the old part of Unionville (right by Main Street, north of Highway 7 and Kennedy) that as far as I know doesn't get used for passengers. Why not? It would be a very convenient stop for the hordes of tourists that flock to the historic main strip just to the north in summer instead of having to endure the ever present nightmarish traffic. Has this ever been discussed?
smallspy
Senior Member
That is the former Unionville Station, and was used by GO until 1991, when they moved to the current facility and location.
The old station is located on the outside of a curve, is located between two streets that force the use of a shorter-than-standard platform, and does not have enough parking to handle the current crowds. It's also a not-insignificant walk from Highway 7, almost 300 metres.
That said......it would be a good place to stop a weekend tourist train, should one ever operate on the tracks again.
Dan
drum118
Superstar
Unionville Station was built in 1869 by the Toronto & Nipissing Railway and is part of several heritage buildings around it, let alone the old village. It is open to the public or the last time we were there.
It's a wonderful place to visit both during the summertime as well at Christmas time. Still a hard place to get there by car compared to a longer travel time by transit. No straightforward way to the area from the 2 GO stations.
APTA-2048
Senior Member
What’s the future for that crossing? Is it staying? Looks like it’d be hard to elevate the road or elevate the tracks.
Towered
Superstar
This is exactly what I mean - I'm not advocating for regular commuter service to the historic station, only a weekend tourist train (perhaps even relegated only to weekends from May to September). No need for parking. That defeats the purpose. I really don't understand why this isn't something that's been proposed. Seems obvious to me. Unionville is a charming old village right here in the GTA (which is rare), so you don't have to travel far outside the city to get that fix. It should be much easier to get there via transit considering it's sitting right on an active GO line. Wasted opportunity. I was really struggling to explain to my train obsessed 5 year old son why the train doesn't stop there.
gabe
Senior Member
I agree with you, i will admit not all e bikers are dickheads. Being a bike delivery driver must be insanely stressful. I understand they aren't taking e bikes on transit for leisure they are doing it for necessity, these guys are stressed out, and GO transit isn't the most easy accessible mode of transportation for workers with E bikes or regular bicycles. But GO transit needs to be safe for everyone. What number of E bikes on a coach is safe? I don;t know.
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smallspy
Senior Member
Nothing, to the best of my knowledge. There aren't even any immediate plans to double-track this section.
Well, part of the problem is its proximity to the current Unionville Station - a shade over 1km. And if you do have GO trains stop there, how do you prevent people from parking there? And there's the fact that the trains would likely have to hang over both ends of the platform, and block two different streets while doing so.
So yeah, all-in-all - it's not really well suited for GO service anymore.
If a heritage railway were to ever operate out of Uxbridge again however, it may be a good place for them to stop (although that will be dependent on GO's schedules through there).
Dan
crs1026
Superstar
Let's focus on the issue and not one extreme outcome.
There are lots of parallels - coastal and cross Channel ferries, bus parking in Manhattan, taxi depots. All are situations where a needed service is competing for space.
The ferries often have "Reserved for lorry driver" lounges . Manhattan has one or more bus garages for out of town charters, not necessarily on Manhattan itself. Taxi companies ditto.
ML needs to provide some rationed bike capacity on trains, but with limits and rules that set boundaries for the negative impacts. And somebody (not necessarily ML, although they can help get the ball rolling) needs to offer a depot downtown, not necessarily right at Union. I am sure there is a commercial or public parking garage somewhere that would provide some amount of space. Maybe it's an opportunity for someone to organize a co-op.
Just letting the bikes clog up the trains is really not an option.
- Paul
There are lots of parallels - coastal and cross Channel ferries, bus parking in Manhattan, taxi depots. All are situations where a needed service is competing for space.
The ferries often have "Reserved for lorry driver" lounges . Manhattan has one or more bus garages for out of town charters, not necessarily on Manhattan itself. Taxi companies ditto.
ML needs to provide some rationed bike capacity on trains, but with limits and rules that set boundaries for the negative impacts. And somebody (not necessarily ML, although they can help get the ball rolling) needs to offer a depot downtown, not necessarily right at Union. I am sure there is a commercial or public parking garage somewhere that would provide some amount of space. Maybe it's an opportunity for someone to organize a co-op.
Just letting the bikes clog up the trains is really not an option.
- Paul
dowlingm
Senior Member
Imagine the size and number of signs you’d have to put there though, and even then people complaining on Facebook that they “stood on the platform at Unionville station and watched GO zoom by without picking me up #Metrostinx”
Towered
Superstar
1 km is too far to expect people to walk from the current station when the historic station is directly in the village. As for parking - it's prevented by not increasing any capacity beyond what's there now. And if train length is an issue in that area, can not an infrequent weekend tourist train simply be run with shorter train sets? The whole point of such a service would be to drop off tourists directly in the heart of the town, who then leisurely stroll the main strip, shop, eat, and then easily and conveniently walk back to the station to hop back on and go home. I see a lot of potential in that.
APTA-2048
Senior Member
There used to be a charter bus/sightseeing company that offered a shuttle between downtown Toronto and downtown Unionville. I don’t know if it was sponsored by the Town, but it ran for a few years before ceasing operation.
It would seem a train would be much more expensive to operate. If the bus service couldn’t be sustained, it might be hard to convince someone to invest in a train.
The easiest solution would probably just be improved YRT service from Unionville GO Station. Right now there’s no direct route. Even a private shuttle could work like at the Brickworks.
canarob
Senior Member
I feel like any new stops on GO lines really need to connect to new transit lines to be justified. I'm fine with East Harbour and it's multiple connections and Finch-Kennedy will likely get connected to an extended LRT at some point (and connects to an existing busy bus route now), but GO doesn't need to become a milk run.
