I dunno, 5min wait, 18min ride, 2min walk actually seems really good. And comparable to situations in some the most supposedly transit-friendliest parts of TO. Maybe the 18min ride might be a bit long, relatively. But 5min wait and 2min walk still sounds good.
I actually think a 5min wait is excessive as this bus sits idling in the bus loop well before the train arrives, and it's there to take people coming off the train. A 2 minute wait after the train arrives should be more than enough for people to make their way to the bus. Not sure why it needs to sit there so long, and with its doors open during the winter--not so bad on a ~0C day like this but when it's -20C and windy it really sucks. The 2 minute wait should start when the train's doors open. Generally if the train is late, the buses hold for it then get moving more quickly, but when on schedule 5 minutes seems too long.
And an 18 minute ride isn't a lot, when you consider it in a vacuum of other choices, but compared to a 5 minute drive it is a lot, to me. The 2min walk is definitely good, I'm very lucky in that regard, living in a suburb and having a bus route that close to me for when I may need it. But again, you're asking people to take a 2 minute walk from the bus stop to their home,
if they're very lucky to have a nearby bus route, when it's a few seconds' walk from their car into their home.
And overall to ask the typical commuter to spend approximately 40 minutes and $2 more every day to take local transit to/from GO rather than drive and park their car...why would anyone do that? I'm not even touching on the concern that, in the morning, maybe your bus is late and you miss your train, and have to take the next one if you even have a next one you can take. I'm talking about the perfect, best-case scenario, which today on the YRT was for me.
I think one good step to take would be to reduce the GO co-fare in the suburbs to $0. If offering parking is as expensive as GO says it is, and impossible to provide in sufficient quantities in the long term, then reducing a $1 co-fare to $0 ought to be reasonable in comparison. At least then you can tell people, hey, you'll save $X a year by connecting to local transit instead of driving--it'll take longer, but you'll save money, at least. I drive an electric car so my driving costs are very low, but for someone with a gas car, that can really add up. Compared to now, where if we call it 47 weeks (a generous figure for vacation, holidays, and illness) x 5 days of commuting, a daily GO commuter connecting with YRT will
pay $470/year to take YRT to/from GO every day,
and spend 156 hours/6.5 days more commuting each year. Some of that $470 will be offset from savings in car operation, but for many people, not significantly. However that time figure will likely be significantly higher for most people, with the routing of suburban bus routes through residential areas.
