Toronto Spadina Subway Extension Emergency Exits | ?m | 1s | TTC | IBI Group

I honestly don't understand the backflipping to eliminate fare boundaries or at least demands for it to accommodate York students specifically. Lots of people on precarious incomes cross the boundary daily, as do students going to institutions other than York. A "fare deal" for them should be a fair deal for everyone.
 
dowlingm said:
I honestly don't understand the backflipping to eliminate fare boundaries or at least demands for it to accommodate York students specifically. Lots of people on precarious incomes cross the boundary daily, as do students going to institutions other than York. A "fare deal" for them should be a fair deal for everyone.
Click to expand...
In general I agree with your thoughts here.....I think, though, the rush to find a solution to the "york student problem" is because what is happening is shining the light on the fact that sometimes spending a lot of money on a public transit project happens to make life a bit worse (in some way) for some people....in this case, it is a portion of the people that were, really, the driving force behind getting the extension built in the first place.
 
I agree. GO Transit doesn't serve U of T or Ryerson that well; when I commuted from Brampton, I'd end up paying the TTC fare half the time - either because I had a 8 or 9 AM class, or to rush to get the last train to Brampton. (GO schedules have improved, especially the Union Station train-buses, since I was an undergrad.) If I had some time, I'd walk.

GO Transit isn't in the business of door-to-door transportation, and serving the Highway 407 Station would improve operations considerably and better serve some markets. But GO also made York U their focus since 2000 when the first Highway 407 buses began operating. I can see their hesitancy to change things, at least in the middle of the academic year. (And a impending provincial election and with a very interfering Transportation Minister).

The subway was originally supposed to open around this time two years ago. They should have had plenty of time to figure all this out.
 
TOareaFan said:
I think, though, the rush to find a solution to the "york student problem" is because what is happening is shining the light on the fact that sometimes spending a lot of money on a public transit project happens to make life a bit worse (in some way) for some people....in this case, it is a portion of the people that were, really, the driving force behind getting the extension built in the first place.
Click to expand...

The project isn't making things any worse. The problem is that the project is only one part of the solution for those students, and the remaining part of the solution is politically challenging. If we were to start with a clean slate, we would obviously have a single transit agency for the entire GTHA, just like many other major cities do, and taking the subway for a few stops after taking a regional train or bus would be free. The reason why we don't have that is the challenge of enacting change.
 
amnesiajune said:
The project isn't making things any worse.
Click to expand...

If you compare the day before opening and the day after opening it is (assuming the original plan of having the GO buses avoid campus and link to the subway at the 407 station).

Day before....single ride single fare
Day after......transfer and additional fare

Trip lengths likely equal(ish).

amnesiajune said:
The problem is that the project is only one part of the solution for those students, and the remaining part of the solution is politically challenging. If we were to start with a clean slate, we would obviously have a single transit agency for the entire GTHA, just like many other major cities do, and taking the subway for a few stops after taking a regional train or bus would be free. The reason why we don't have that is the challenge of enacting change.
Click to expand...

It is not at all clear to me that it is obvious we would have a single transit agency for the entire GTHA nor that that would necessarily be a good thing. When I talk to people in other GTHA cities that are not Toronto about my ability to (when I choose to) ride smoothly without a car via a local bus(es) to a GO station to my office they question how I could possibly wait that long for local bus.....seems not every city plans 7 minute frequencies for their buses....and I am not sure I want some central planning agency deciding how frequently a bus passes by my neighbourhood stop.....as I look around the GTHA I can only assume it would not be every 7 minutes as it is now.
 
rbt said:
Not for a very long time. It's been broken up into 4 different EAs with absolutely minimal staffing (seems like 1 MTO staff doing them sequentially during slow periods). 2 of 4 sections have finished the process (first PIC was in 2009) with 2 sections/EAs remaining.

First section (Highway 400 to Kennedy Road) got ministry of environment approval in 2012. I have no idea where they might be on engineering but obviously they've not managed to start construction over the last 5 years.

As much as I give flack to Metrolinx for slow scale-up/execution, I'm very thankful GO isn't under the MTO planning department anymore.
Click to expand...

I put this in the Transitway thread but - It flew under the radar but the 407 Transitway is in the post-2041 section of Big Move 2.0. One could optimistically say "Oh, that just means the WHOLE thing won't be done until then!"

But it's not happening soon. Which makes one wonder why they rushed the EA's... But it does undermine part of the purpose of the 407 station (the other of which is parking in Vaughan).
 
TJ O'Pootertoot said:
I put this in the Transitway thread but - It flew under the radar but the 407 Transitway is in the post-2041 section of Big Move 2.0. One could optimistically say "Oh, that just means the WHOLE thing won't be done until then!"

But it's not happening soon. Which makes one wonder why they rushed the EA's... But it does undermine part of the purpose of the 407 station (the other of which is parking in Vaughan).
Click to expand...

Post 2041... so never

So how many hundreds of millions of dollars did we just waste in this near useless station?
 
44 North said:
Interestingly some of the closest residential to the station is owned by the Sorbara family. Funny that. I guess private profit counts as a 'use'.
Click to expand...
Of course extending a subway to the Sorbara lands was the most important transit need in Toronto.
Look at all the money he has raised for the Liberals. If they can't pay him back with taxpayer money, what's the point in being in government.
 
Never said they were in Vaughan.
Property at Jane/Steeles is the closest residential to the station discussed (407)
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top