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miWay Transit

MT may have some good ridership and service, but it has gone downhill the past 5 years. Any money been spent on transit these days for MT, is going into the BRT, since it already well over budget and no funding coming from Sr level to cover it since there was a cap on it by the Sr level.

One only has to looked where BT was 10 years ago and where it is now. It an egressed system today and puts all systems in the GTA to shame.

YRT is focus on its BRT and funding is going there than other parts of the system that needs funding. They need to scrap the pink line as it a total waste of resources'. One bus had 6 riders at the low end with 18 at the top end, leaving Finch last week between 5:00 pm –5:45 pm, while I was there. Never been on a Pink with more than 20 going in either direction to date.

Durham is a car region with very little funding for transit these days.

Burlington wants to get rid of their transit system and continue to underfund it.

Oakville has invested money into the system after the new director took over a few years ago to the point they just open a new 200? bus garage when their fleet is only 125?. Service is now geared for the local community, not the GO system these days, as that is where the major ridership is in the first place.

Milton wants to do something, but lacks the funds to do it.
 
Knowing what will happen to MT and BT in September, and the service changes throughout the year so far...

After BT leading the 905 for a few years, I think that MT will take the cake for 2011's most improved in the entire GTA... But BT will have the most drastic single service change come September, unless MT will include improvements to weekday service.

BT focuses on improving rush hour and express services, while MT focuses on improving off-peak and weekend services.

YRT has been playing with the frequencies of the local routes (especially with the busiest ones) and adding more Blue A trips.

TTC cut service last spring, and will cut service next week as well.

Oakville will cancel some of their routes, but will increase Trafalgar to 10-minute service. Wow. Does OT 1 have over 3,000 daily riders already to get this?
 
Knowing what will happen to MT and BT in September, and the service changes throughout the year so far...

After BT leading the 905 for a few years, I think that MT will take the cake for 2011's most improved in the entire GTA... But BT will have the most drastic single service change come September, unless MT will include improvements to weekday service.

According to the latest MT budget, most of the changes starting this September will just be to address overcrowding and traffic congestion, so most the improvement will probably be for rush hour only.

42,000 service hours total will be added for 2011, which is probably less than Brampton Transit, which typically adds around 50,000 hours each year. Prior to the recession, MT was adding around 70,000 hours of service each year on average (90,000 hours were added in 2008).
 
I took the 107 and 109 for the first time today, and here's my impression:

The 107 is a useful route, but has a lot to be desired at the Viscount stop. Getting off the airport Link train, there's no signage to tell you how to get to the 107 bus stop, the main doors lead out only to the shuttle bus loop for parking and car rentals, the buses load on Viscount itself.

Today was a nice day, but there's no shelters at the 107 stops (if you manage to find them!), and not even a proper sidewalk to get between the Link station and the bus stops. The blame should be shared equally between MT, Mississauga Public Works, and the GTAA. The routing though to Square One is fast, though the lack of a stop at Tomken Road and the westbound detour via Tomken and Rathburn is pointless. I understand why the 107 takes an indirect route to stop at Orbiter Drive, though, but it should offer one more stop within the ACC if it has to take such an otherwise silly deviation.

The 109 saves a lot of time bypassing Square One, and it's great for long-distance commutes. If (and I think it should, soon) it goes to 7-day service, there should be a peak-period 109A SQ1 bypass until at least the busway is complete. I found it interesting how the 109 driver moved all the way over to the HOV lane from the ramp from Eastgate/Cawthra and back again to get off at Erin Mills, even though 403 traffic was relatively fluid when I rode it.

Oh, and Doady, the 61A is a peak period branch only.
 
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Weird - so you're right. I don't know why MT doesn't advertise it as such on the maps, as it only has a dashed peak-period symbol only. It should have a solid or a dotted line instead.
 
The routing though to Square One is fast, though the lack of a stop at Tomken Road and the westbound detour via Tomken and Rathburn is pointless. I understand why the 107 takes an indirect route to stop at Orbiter Drive, though, but it should offer one more stop within the ACC if it has to take such an otherwise silly deviation.
IMO there should be an additional temporary stop at Tomken and Rathburn for 107 and 109 since Rathburn has a lot of residents anyways. And way more people connect to 51 Tomken at Rathburn compared to Eastgate.

There will be a detour at Tomken and Rathburn due to the anticipated heavy construction at Highway 403, where the busway will go from the south side to the north side. Plus, the backup at Eastgate to Tomken (during AM) or to 403 (during PM) is unbelievable during rush hours. Going via 403 and exiting at Hurontario (especially at PM) won't work because there are a lot of vehicles exiting at Hurontario (that's why 107 uses Rathburn southbound during PM rush).

Definitely agree with the 107 routing via Matheson. Should stay at Eglinton like 109 does then go to Skymark to serve a huge bus stop at Commerce.

Pearson Airport is out-of-touch with the city. Guaranteed for sure. At the website, they cater a lot more to car drivers than the transit riders, where they should be focused on. Even their public transit page is wrong. MT has an express service (107), the TTC has a local service (58A/58D), and the only route of Brampton Transit is an express service (101).

Some GO Transit passengers request that the 40 and 40A to be reinstated because it directly serves Terminal 1. They prefer 40/40A (and even 7!) rather than the 107 because it requires a transfer to LINK Train which gives an extra 7 minutes to Terminal 1 and add to that the 5 minute waiting time for a LINK Train (29 min to Viscount + 5 min wait + 7 min to T1 = 41 min, which is about the same travel time as Route 7).

The 109 saves a lot of time bypassing Square One, and it's great for long-distance commutes. If (and I think it should, soon) it goes to 7-day service, there should be a peak-period 109A SQ1 bypass until at least the busway is complete. I found it interesting how the 109 driver moved all the way over to the HOV lane from the ramp from Eastgate/Cawthra and back again to get off at Erin Mills, even though 403 traffic was relatively fluid when I rode it.

Definitely, 109 bypassing Square One already carries fully-seated loads. Many of these people will be turned off and go back to driving and never come back if they diverted it to Square One. There should be a temporary bypass option to retain (and grow) riders. Car drivers are really, really picky about time savings.
 
107 has so many minor stops. Stops like Campus/Bresler and Viscount/American are not acceptable locations for BRT stations (or even simple express bus stops for that matter), especially if they implement honour fare system.

107 is too convoluted also. The route is only 35 minutes long, yet it runs on 17 different streets, most of them minor streets. It should fewer streets overall and concentrate on the major corridors.

Rapid transit routes shouldn't serve so many different minor streets and it should be serving minor stops at all.

107 also needs to serve Terminals 1/3 and Humber College. And of course, any proper service to the airport and a post-secondary school should be all-day, everyday, instead of peak only.

As for 109, it is not losing much speed from serving Sq One. It's not like there are bus lanes in that section of the 403. The real question is why it doesn't serve Erin Mills TC. But the 109 has pretty good ridership already, so what do I know...
 
I've never ridden 107 or 109 because neither of them run near my house. If I had to take a bus to Islington, it'd be 89. I hope they never cancel that bus.
 
I think the 89's days are numbered, with continuing improvements to the 35, the 109, and the eventual improvements to the 10, 27, 38 and 39, I don't see why they would keep this route. The 27 is also one of the routes that is interlined with the 89, so if they ever add service in both directions for the 27, that would likely mean the death of the 89 right there.
 
I think the 89's days are numbered, with continuing improvements to the 35, the 109, and the eventual improvements to the 10, 27, 38 and 39, I don't see why they would keep this route. The 27 is also one of the routes that is interlined with the 89, so if they ever add service in both directions for the 27, that would likely mean the death of the 89 right there.

The 109 has a different service area than the 89.

The 35 doesn't service the subway.

Ergo, the 89 must remain.
 
As for 109, it is not losing much speed from serving Sq One.

I disagree. I’m thinking it will add at least 20 minutes during rush hour. I take that bus daily and on average it takes about an hour. If it has to detour at square one, getting off the highway may not be too much of a problem, but getting back on will be another story. One of the reasons it doesn’t take more than an hour is because the bus doesn’t dock anywhere besides its beginning and final destination (if no one is at a stop, it just drives by), stopping at square one will probably have it parked there for 5 - 10 minutes.
Mind you I'm not against them making this change as it will increase ridership and probably will lead to becoming it a full day service route (because having to transfer at square one when the 109 is off is a pain and takes too long!), but this stop at city centre (pre-BRT) is going to add a significant amount of time.

Mind you I'm not against them making this change as it will increase ridership and probably will lead to becoming it a full day service route (because having to transfer at square one when the 109 is off is a pain and takes too long!), but this stop at city centre (pre-BRT) is going to add a significant amount of time.
 
I think the 89's days are numbered, with continuing improvements to the 35, the 109, and the eventual improvements to the 10, 27, 38 and 39, I don't see why they would keep this route. The 27 is also one of the routes that is interlined with the 89, so if they ever add service in both directions for the 27, that would likely mean the death of the 89 right there.

27 overlaps with 89 along Britannia up to Creditview. Not only that, 27 would have more edge than 89 because it serves more residential areas including Heartland Town Centre. Also, 89 forms two sides of the triangle (hence a longer distance), while 27 forms the hypotenuse (the shorter distance).

The only problem though is the Creditview section. Maybe it is already solved by having Wolfedale and Mavis stops for 101.

So 27 getting all-day, bi-directonal service will be a successful one. While 89 can be kicked out, funneling them to a bidirectional 27, 35/35A, and 38.

The 35 doesn't service the subway.

35/35A, 89, 109 all share the same bus bay in Islington. But by the opening of the BRT, it won't.

I disagree. I'm thinking it will add at least 20 minutes during rush hour. I take that bus daily and on average it takes about an hour. If it has to detour at square one, getting off the highway may not be too much of a problem, but getting back on will be another story. One of the reasons it doesn't take more than an hour is because the bus doesn't dock anywhere besides its beginning and final destination (if no one is at a stop, it just drives by), stopping at square one will probably have it parked there for 5 - 10 minutes.
Mind you I'm not against them making this change as it will increase ridership and probably will lead to becoming it a full day service route (because having to transfer at square one when the 109 is off is a pain and takes too long!), but this stop at city centre (pre-BRT) is going to add a significant amount of time.

Agree to this. But not by 20 minutes, but by 10 (I think) at most. So the 52-minute travel from Medaowvale to Subway will go up to 62. (Let's see the 109 schedule when they release it.) But going back is a huge problem as 403 exit to Hurontario is clogged as well as the Eastgate ramp to 403.


The real question is why it doesn't serve Erin Mills TC. But the 109 has pretty good ridership already, so what do I know...

I actually wonder why as well. At least, they could have put a stop at Erin Centre at Erin Mills Parkway, which requires walking through muddy ground but can be solved by adding pavement or a sidewalk, instead of at John Fraser Secondary School.
 
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Yes it does...

Sorry I heard 35 but was thinking of the 39. 38 doesn't serve Square One. 39 doesn't serve the Subway. So both are pretty useless.

The 35 is too far to help me. If I have to take a bus to get to another bus to get to the subway, I might as well go to Dundas and take the 201 or 101.
 
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