SmartTrack (Proposed)

[GenerationW]

Toronto was championing the line and it was next to be built after the Spadina extension until they saw that it may be built before any Downtown Relief line which was hardly even mentioned by Toronto before this. Only then was it was mentioned that the DRL must be built before Yonge North.

Even funnier is that after all that, Adam Giambrone, who if memory serves seconded the motion for the Yonge E.A., said during Transit City community meetings that he had no interest in either Yonge or the DRL being built any time soon.

 

[Edward Skira]

Click the little arrow on the bottom right side of the screen, and then click log out.

Also top right.

 

[Tulse]

Can someone clarify -- SmartTrack is supposed to go to the Airport Corporate Centre, but not actually to Pearson?

 

[ehlow]

Can someone clarify -- SmartTrack is supposed to go to the Airport Corporate Centre, but not actually to Pearson?

Yes, in the original map from Tory's campaign it goes along Eglinton to "Matheson/Airport Corporate Centre".

The motivation was to serve the office parks south of the airport (which is a major jobs location), not Pearson airport itself.

 

[Tulse]

But why not extend it to the airport? Is it purely to avoid competition with UP? If I were coming from the east of the city, a direct connection would be hugely beneficial.

 

[ehlow]

But why not extend it to the airport? Is it purely to avoid competition with UP? If I were coming from the east of the city, a direct connection would be hugely beneficial.

I guess you'll have to ask the people who drew the SmartTrack map. But my speculation based on what I've read is, like I said, it's trying to serve the Mississauga office parks where there are tons of jobs.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Tons of job at ACC and Meadowvale, but none at the all that accessible from a station given the distances involved. Sounds great as a sell, not so great without some serious consideration on the last mile problem (which the GO didn't figure out either).

AoD

 

[ehlow]

Tons of job at ACC and Meadowvale, but none at the all that accessible from a station given the distances involved. Sounds great as a sell, not so great without some serious consideration on the last mile problem (which the GO didn't figure out either).

AoD

Yeah, last mile problem is the classic problem with serving suburban office parks with huge parking lots and empty fields between. However, is it impossible to solve? Would connecting bus lines to the stations help? Can something like Uber, or the Uber of the future with more intelligent app behaviour, like grouping people who work in the same cluster of office buildings, help getting from the rail station to the office?

Or should we just give up on serving suburban office parks, where a huge amount of people work, with rapid transit?

 

[wopchop]

There are already some companies providing private shuttles. AeroCentre at Explorer&Satellite (tenants include PepsiCo & formely Target) provides a shuttle service to Kipling subway station and soon to the restaurants at Spectrum Square. The new Spectrum Square office park is supposed to be a part of this shuttle system, as well.

A small fleet of these private shuttles could provide good service from Renforth Gateway to all the local office parks that are not directly on the Transitway.

There are also (or at least, they used to be) companies providing shuttlesat the office buildings at West Mall & Dundas West.

That kind of solution would also be appropriate for Meadowvale, although Meadowvale has the added problem that it is on the Milton Line and AD2W GO isn't on the radar. AD2W Go + Shuttles could probably serve demand.

 

[robmausser]

But it's not even just Tory's credibility that makes me question the cost. To me, it just doesn't make sense that it'd be the same as a TTC fare. This is why I think any studies that are going on right now will be severely flawed if they're basing calculations off a low $3 fare.

This is all silly to discuss because by 2024 there will be no such thing as "TTC fare" and "GO fare".

It will all be integrated fare under PRESTO based on fare zones.

So if you stay within zone 1, then yes, taking the subway or Smarttrack will and should be the same fare cost.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Yeah, last mile problem is the classic problem with serving suburban office parks with huge parking lots and empty fields between. However, is it impossible to solve? Would connecting bus lines to the stations help? Can something like Uber, or the Uber of the future with more intelligent app behaviour, like grouping people who work in the same cluster of office buildings, help getting from the rail station to the office?

Or should we just give up on serving suburban office parks, where a huge amount of people work, with rapid transit?

That depends - is there sufficient bang for the buck for doing so? One should hope for some reasonable assurance of success in dealing with that issue before embarking on such schemes.

AoD

 

[Tuscani01]

A small fleet of these private shuttles could provide good service from Renforth Gateway to all the local office parks that are not directly on the Transitway.

There are also (or at least, they used to be) companies providing shuttlesat the office buildings at West Mall & Dundas West.

That kind of solution would also be appropriate for Meadowvale.

Symcor at Don Mills/Barber Greene also has a shuttle for employees. It brings commuters who take the Don Mills bus to Greenbelt/Barber Greene directly to their building and runs pretty frequently.

All of these businesses can team up to provide a free transit shuttle that goes to most of the buildings. It could be like the City Centre shuttle that used to operate in MCC and was sponsored by businesses in the area.

 

[ehlow]

There are already some companies providing private shuttles. AeroCentre at Explorer&Satellite (tenants include PepsiCo & formely Target) provides a shuttle service to Kipling subway station and soon to the restaurants at Spectrum Square. The new Spectrum Square office park is supposed to be a part of this shuttle system, as well.

A small fleet of these private shuttles could provide good service from Renforth Gateway to all the local office parks that are not directly on the Transitway.

That kind of solution would also be appropriate for Meadowvale.

Yeah, I can imagine large companies providing shuttles to the nearest rail station, especially at rush hour.

This last mile issue is just as big of a problem for the rest of GO RER as "SmartTrack", which may end up being GO RER anyways.

Will GO continue to use large parking structures, or will more people take connecting local transit to reach the GO RER stations, once GO frequency increases?

Personally I think that good local transit that's well integrated with GO RER could serve many trips in the suburbs. I can totally imagine someone taking the TTC to Union from downtown, then taking GO RER Stouffville up to Markham, then taking a 5-10 min bus ride to their suburban office park.

The reason I think this is feasible is that:
A. Plenty of people do the above commute (downtown to suburban office park) already with a car
B. Congestion is terrible and getting worse. Any accident, rain or snow causes the highways to slow to a complete crawl.

 

[ehlow]

That depends - is there sufficient bang for the buck for doing so? One should hope for some reasonable assurance of success in dealing with that issue before embarking on such schemes.

AoD

Well the last mile issue is a problem for regional transit and GO RER in general no? There has to be a way for people to get to and from GO stations. Currently it's parking at the station, but could connecting local transit pick up the slack?

 

[wopchop]

All of these businesses can team up to provide a free transit shuttle that goes to most of the buildings. It could be like the City Centre shuttle that used to operate in MCC and was sponsored by businesses in the area.

Indeed. This is a model that many airport-area hotels around the world already use. Close-by properties will often form an association that hires out a single shuttle service that will serve all the members and provide access to the airport. The local BIA (if they exist in these business parks, I'm not sure) could be that association.