News   Mar 28, 2024
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Star: Immigrants and Suburban Commuting

^ "Problem solved"? For some, maybe, but for most, unlikely. Yes, I'd like to have all-day, both way service on every GO line (to get downtown, not around town) but it would cost like a billion dollars and there seems to be no one clamouring for it other than half a dozen people on this forum. Tons of people still won't be anywhere near GO stations and unless they run with subway-like frequencies, the wait times may be significant since you're on one train south to Union and another train up to wherever...potentially two trains and 4 buses going each way, not to mention the added stops you propose. If someone's able to get from their home to a bus that takes them to a GO station and onto another train at Union and from there to a bus that takes them to their job all with minimal transfer headaches, some people will use it...maybe the GTTA will permit this. The GO bus I took was faster than the GO train, anyway.

Express buses can fly along the 407, leaving it to pick people up and drop them off at hubs like Markville, York U, etc.

That's the problem: express buses only serve the hubs and not many stops in between. The trains would actually be more far accessible to most people than express buses, not the other way around as you claim. If there are people who live too far from a GO Train station then that's only because the stations are too far apart and more should be added. If all-day service is given to all the GO Train then buses would still be good for crosstown routes.
 
"That's the problem: express buses only serve the hubs and not many stops in between. The trains would actually be more far accessible to most people than express buses, not the other way around as you claim. If there are people who live too far from a GO Train station then that's only because the stations are too far apart and more should be added. If all-day service is given to all the GO Train then buses would still be good for crosstown routes."

It's not a problem since lots of people can easily get to these hubs (that's why they're hubs) and since the hubs themselves are by far the major suburban destinations. Anyway, express buses can be set up from anywhere to anywhere and can have custom schedules...how is that less accessible than a train? Between the TTC/905 transit systems divide and GO being unable to effectively serve the 416, it's not easy to get between suburban hubs, and it's precisely these types of crosstown trips that are so annoying to take and that the immigrants in the article are bitching about.

The last thing GO trains need are more stops...they only needs as many stations as it takes to efficiently funnel people in by local bus routes. It would take a major effort to transform GO into something that people would bother using to commute around the city with and it would have to be extremely fast and easy to zip down to Union and back up for anyone to do so (perhaps there's an opportunity to run trains for this purpose in the midtown corridor or the corridor just north of Steeles). What the city needs is something - anything - that travels fast and takes people across the top of the city (along the 407 or the hydro corridor north of Finch or wherever).
 

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