Dan416
Senior Member
Unless a GO station is in York Region, Metrolinx will go as cheap as possible. I too would have liked covered platforms here.
Toronto Union Station Revitalization | ?m | ?s | City of Toronto | NORR
SaugeenJunction
Senior Member
This is going to sound insane but the removal of covered platforms was to leave flexibility for freight movements through Union. Yes, it doesn’t happen any more, nor would it during GO operating hours in the future with the coming increased frequency. One freight railway did try to get MX to allow it during nights within the past two years however (this is second hand info).
Bojaxs
Active Member
It's incase there's a derailment, or some kind of blockage/ protest on the York sub. CN can avoid the York sub by staying on Lakeshore, diverting through Union via platforms 26 or 27, and then make their way up the Barrie line to get to the MAC yard and the Brampton Intermodal facility.
Bojaxs
Active Member
This could be a bargaining chip for MX.
"If you want to shortcut through Union at night, let us run a few more trains on the (Milton/ RH) line during the day."
Dan416
Senior Member
As with anything Milton-related, I'll believe it when I see it. It's been decades without any major progress.
fanoftoronto
Active Member
It's extremely silly how neglected Milton line is for decades. The answer is always that the line is not owned by GO. Well then how do we change that! This line is literally going from Toronto to it's biggest suburb of Mississauga and continuing on to the fastest growing suburb of Milton.
$6 billion announced with zero plan or motivation.
Northern Light
Superstar
CP is not selling its mainline outright. At least not unless we're building them a new one, and its at least as convenient to them and doesn't cost them any customers.
Ummmm; there's a plan. How motivated the government is to deliver it in the near term, I cannot speak to....
goodcitywhenfinished
Active Member
Meanwhile in the land down under where infrastructure costs make sense, and public agencies actually push for world-class design:
Sydney Central Station, Woods Bagot image source
incase any metrolinx staff are lurking: the images below depict escalators and tiled floors in a regional rail station and may not be suited for all audiences, viewer discretion is advised
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Hieberrr
New Member
I've always said this, but infrastructure or design of public spaces in Toronto has and continues to be underwhelming and innovative. The butt-ugly art on the Union platforms is an example of this. The fact that most stations look like either relics of the past or are in a state of decay is an example of this.
We take no pride in trying to beautify our city.
We take no pride in trying to beautify our city.
Dan416
Senior Member
I have to say the approach here does make Toronto feel like a provincial backwater instead of the financial capital of a G7 nation. I guess I've gotten so used to it I don't expect anything better, but seeing Australia do so much better than us is kinda disheartening.
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kotsy
Senior Member
What you got against butts??
Mercenary
Active Member
Australia is doing much better because its location near Asia where it looks at countries near its region such as Singapore, Hong Kong, China and Japan and thus has to build infrastructure at the same level as its regional counterparts.
Canada is located in North America which has a transit deficit and it shifted towards the car culture after World War II. As such it builds very utilitarian type of infrastructure which is very monotonous and no one really complains or pushes for inspiration given the risk averse nature of Canadians.
goodcitywhenfinished
Active Member
You make a good point. The effect on the national psyche of Australia when every person travelling outside of the country has at some point transited through HK/Singapore/KL/Tokyo/Osaka/Seoul/Shanghai/Dubai/Doha cannot be underestimated. Australia's middle and political classes are of the world while Canada's remain insular and US-centric.
I'll stop there at risk of going too far off topic of this thread though.
Bojaxs
Active Member
Interesting theory. I would counter that places like Vancouver share a somewhat similar migration pattern as Australia, (Vancouver has a large Hong Kong population) yet outside of the Sky Train, remains quite auto-centric.
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Northern Light
Superstar
This is getting entirely offtrack........but I do feel the need to state that Sydney's modal share for transit/walking/cycling is a whopping 3 points better than Vancouver, 5 better than Toronto, on a regional basis.
I'd prefer we keep on topic, but also, that when we discuss anything with a basis in data, that we go find that data and link to it.