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Metrolinx: Other Items (catch all)

Maybe Del Duca should just stick to standing in front of a podium like he usually does.
This is the same minister who recently dismissed Brampton's request for an HSR stop with a simple "did you read the reports".....I don't want to re-open the discussion about whether HSR should stop in Brampton (that is for another thread)....but we have a minister of transportation that believes in reports/facts....only in ridings other than his own!
 
Metrolinx pressured to approve GO station in minister’s riding

Documents obtained through a freedom of information request show that ministry drafted press releases to announce stations the agency had not approved

The provincial transportation ministry pressured Metrolinx leadership to approve a new $100-million GO Transit station in the minister’s riding, according to documents obtained by the Star.

Del Duca was vying for leadership of the OLP. This issue is going to the be a barrier for him (assuming he's still pursuing leadership)
 
Metrolinx updated The Big Move today. Changes are overviewed on Steve Munro's blog: https://stevemunro.ca/2017/08/21/metrolinx-previews-the-next-big-move/. I haven't yet found a link to the presentation.

Most major update is the addition of the Relief Line Long subway line, up to Don Mills & Sheppard. Crosstown West LRT is also included. Crosstown East LRT is excluded because it's a TTC project. There's no update on RER timelines, but the project is supposed to be completed in 2025.

futuresubway_amo_20170814.jpg


futuresubway_amo_20170814.jpg



futureampeaktraveldemand_amo_20170814.jpg

Here's a link to the Metrolinx presentation: http://www.metrolinx.com/en/aboutus/publications/AMO Presentation - Aug 14 2017.pdf
 
on a side note.... the future proposed brt line from what looks like viva purple west to brampton queen st was not expected....has it been there since the beginning?? (pg27)
There has always been some level of RT planned/conceptualized on Queen in Brampton.
 
WRT Lawrence East, good! This is where "evidence-based" analysis fails and people higher up (i.e. the government minister responsible for transit) should interfere. Metrolinx basically said that Lawrence East would have little to no ridership because the current fare system makes it extremely expensive for TTC passengers to transfer onto Go Transit. That's only a reasonable conclusion if you ignore all the fare integration planning that Metrolinx is currently doing to eventually make those transfers free or low-cost.

This intervention by Del Duca shows both sides of the political interference coin at once.

On the one hand, we have Laurence West, which Metrolinx underrated based on an analysis that ignores Metrolinx's own fare integration plans.
On the other hand, Del Duca forced the inclusion of Kirby GO, a vanity station that will serve a few hundred houses at best, which could have easily been served by parking lot expansion at Maple GO.

What's more insulting is that Kirby GO was approved in the same breath that Park Lawn GO was deferred.

This gets approved:
GO-Kirby.JPG



But this would apparently be "marginal additional ridership", because Mimico GO is kinda nearby, so of course all of the thousands of potential riders in these skyscrapers are already doubling back to Mimico for their trips downtown.
GO-ParkLawn.JPG
 

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how about a connection from viva purple as the infographic suggests....or its not accurate?
it is just a very rough pictoral.....but if Viva purple is the route that runs along 7 (I am not that familiar with Viva routes) then I can't imagine any RT on Queen not connecting with it.
 
This intervention by Del Duca shows both sides of the political interference coin at once.

On the one hand, we have Laurence West, which Metrolinx underrated based on an analysis that ignores Metrolinx's own fare integration plans.
On the other hand, Del Duca forced the inclusion of Kirby GO, a vanity station that will serve a few hundred houses at best, which could have easily been served by parking lot expansion at Maple GO.

What's more insulting is that Kirby GO was approved in the same breath that Park Lawn GO was deferred.

This gets approved:
View attachment 119347


But this would apparently be "marginal additional ridership", because Mimico GO is kinda nearby, so of course all of the thousands of potential riders in these skyscrapers are already doubling back to Mimico for their trips downtown.
View attachment 119348

This ignores the large amount of dense greenfield development scheduled to go into those fields around Kirby GO, but yes, it still isn't exactly a necessary station.

Growth Plan minimum density requirements for greenfield development have basically killed the type of development on the other side of Keele from the GO station that exists today. The Greenfield stuff is going to have to be a lot of towns, stacked towns, and apartments to meet the minimum 80 people / hectare set out in the Growth Plan.

https://www.vaughan.ca/projects/pol.../POH Open_House_Presentation_April 5_2017.pdf

block 27.PNG


The two stations I would have built that weren't included are Park Lawn and Concord / Highway 7. Kirby would have been removed.
 

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It is just a very rough pictoral.....but if Viva purple is the route that runs along 7 (I am not that familiar with Viva routes) then I can't imagine any RT on Queen not connecting with it.

It is. In all likelihood they'd share the stations and rapidway, and Brampton's BRT would connect to VMC.

But this would apparently be "marginal additional ridership", because Mimico GO is kinda nearby, so of course all of the thousands of potential riders in these skyscrapers are already doubling back to Mimico for their trips downtown.

I think the issue with Park Lawn is more that people there just won't take the Go Train. Humber Bay doesn't really seem to me like a place full of people commuting into downtown, considering that the only option right now is a two-streetcar or three-streetcar trip. I think it's more likely that people there are commuting out of the city (or at least away from the lake), and want to live somewhere that's by the lake and has good & relatively un-congested highway access.
 
Here's the statement from the Minister. What I don't get is that this seems to keep the door open to deciding not to build Kirby GO Station. When does the decision need to be made by? When were they planning on procuring the station?

Statement from Minister of Transportation on Kirby GO Station
Statement
Statement from Minister of Transportation on Kirby GO Station
August 28, 2017 4:00 P.M.
Ministry of Transportation

Steven Del Duca, Minister of Transportation, released the following statement:

"In June 2016 Metrolinx's Board of Directors gave approval for the addition of 12 new GO stations across the network. This decision came as a result of initial business case analysis, extensive consultation with municipal and regional representatives, community engagement and collaboration between the Ministry of Transportation and Metrolinx on wider transit and transportation plans.

As we have learned, building after-the-fact is almost always more expensive and more disruptive, and leads to more regional gridlock in the interim. That's why I believe that it is critical for Metrolinx to plan and build transit infrastructure as communities grow. My long-standing support for a station at Kirby has been based on the information that it is estimated that within the next ten to fifteen years, approximately 27,000 new residents could live in the area immediately adjacent to the station. In addition, there are several significant residential and employment developments planned for the areas to the west.

As part of approving the additional 12 new GO stations, Metrolinx asked municipalities to demonstrate their commitment to implementing transit supportive land-uses around stations and sustainable station access. It is important to note that the Initial Business Cases are part of a process that is expected to evolve over time, especially as new information becomes available. All proposed new stations require additional technical and planning analysis, environmental assessments, preliminary and detailed design and extensive community engagement.

In the case of Kirby, I recommend that Metrolinx not enter into any contractual obligations until relevant management staff and the Board are satisfied that the updated land use planning information, finalized RER service concept for the Barrie Corridor, station design and cost, and local transit services justify the station. If the aforementioned information is not adequate, then I would recommend that the proposed Kirby GO station be deferred to the next round of consideration at a future date."
 
By the Minister of Photo Ops (Del Duca's) logic, we should build GO stations every 2 km outside of Toronto because you know, thousands of new residents will be moving into the surrounding region. Heck his logic doesnt actually make sense since he's neglecting areas where there has been thousands of people moving in over the past 10 years.

It's time we put this Minister's feet to the fire, his blatant interference with Metrolinx is apparent no matter how he tries to cover it up.
 
If the Liberals can’t keep their meathooks off Metrolinx, they should disband it
OPINION: Metrolinx was supposed to take the politics out of transit planning. Instead, John Michael McGrath argues, it’s become a way for the Liberals to dress up taxpayer dollars for partisan gain
In 2009, then-premier Dalton McGuinty made a massive change to the board that ran Metrolinx, turfing elected mayors from the agency. The Liberals said the move would help Metrolinx deliver projects necessary to un-snarl the traffic that had become a drag on the GTA’s economy. Freed from the grubbiness of municipal politics, transit professionals could get on with the work of building the LRTs, buses, and subways the region badly needed.

Eight years later, the only reasonable response to that claim is a long, rueful laugh. The Liberals are still just as eager to muck about in transit planning, and their shenanigans can sometimes make GTA mayors look like a bunch of amateurs.
Most recently, Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca intervened in Metrolinx’s planning for new GO stations, to ensure his current riding got one. And in case anyone thought there might be a principled defence of the decision, the Liberals announced their candidate for the new riding of King–Vaughan (Marilyn Iafrate, a local councillor) had “worked hard” to get the Kirby GO station funded.
Nobody has done anything illegal here; Metrolinx staff gave their advice to the board of directors that oversees them. There’s also nothing untoward about a provincial agency being subject to scrutiny from the elected officials who are ultimately responsible for it. But the whole point of ministerial accountability is to produce better outcomes, not to line up ribbon-cuttings for the party in power so they might, nudge-nudge-wink-wink, be remembered fondly come voting day.
It would be one thing if this were an aberration, but for the Liberals it’s becoming a trend. The Union-Pearson Express was always a dubious proposition, because while express trains to the airport are beloved by the international consultant class, they don’t actually attract a terribly high ridership. The suspect economics of the project and the recession of the last decade are why the original plan (which envisioned a private company owning and running the trains) collapsed in 2010, only to be rescued by Metrolinx — and, behind them, a Liberal government convinced the train would be necessary to deal with the imagined influx of tourists for the 2015 Pan Am Games.
Of course, both those mistakes pale in comparison to the Scarborough Subway Extension, another project Metrolinx was always quite clear wasn’t the right choice. They were overruled by Premier Kathleen Wynne’s office in the summer of 2013 as the then-new Liberal leader struggled to hang on to a seat Mitzie Hunter would eventually retain for the Grits. Provincial taxpayers are, mercifully, on the hook for only $1.4 billion, but Ontario’s capital is going to be vastly poorer because of the ridiculous white elephant the Liberals (and their willing co-conspirators at city council) have foisted on us. It’s already expected to cost $3.35 billion in total, and it’s very likely to blow through its entire $3.5 billion budget — which will mean another painful vote for tax increases at council or, as likely, a provincial bailout for a project that’s long since become too big to fail, despite its myriad failings.


Spending billions of dollars of public money on infrastructure will always be inherently political: a choice to build an LRT in one city is a choice not to build it somewhere else equally deserving. But political doesn’t imply partisan — or at least doesn’t have to. If the Liberals want to keep making self-serving decisions with public money they could at least have the good taste to dismantle Metrolinx and move its functions inside the Ministry of Transportation.
Or here’s a crazy thought: the government could act like their words actually mean something, and let “evidence-based policy” actually guide their decisions. Better late than never.
http://tvo.org/article/current-affa...eathooks-off-metrolinx-they-should-disband-it
 
Metrolinx's fare integration initiative is about providing better value for commuters, without subsidizing fares. Some fares might get more expensive, and other fares might get cheaper, but overall commuters across the GTHA will be spending the same amount of money on transit.
The thing is we know very little about their fare integration program and how it will work with the TTC as it's been awhile since they have actually met with the TTC board hopefully with the new CEO we can expect that to be remedied soon.
 

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