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Dundas St Rapid Transit (Metrolinx, Mississauga, Halton Region, CoT)

"Nobody" uses the 403 busway because there isn't much around it, nor was there much established ridership. We know this isn't the case for Dundas.

Line 2 extension to Square One is a tremendous waste of money for a slow ride (especially relative to GO).

AoD
I'd be interested to see the cost of extending the transitway to Trafalgar. With the new HOV lanes going in on Trafalgar from Oakville GO to the 407, and Oakville GO serving a as major hub for GO RER, it makes sense for GO to be able to run faster trips between Oakville, MCC, Renforth, and the Airport.
 
I've found the busway
... Busways are lame. No one uses the Miway busway that runs parallel to the 403. Better than nothing, but not much better and only a stop-gap before an extension of Line 2 to Square One...
I live in Toronto, and in the pre-pandemic time, I was using it a couple of times a month for trips to Mississauga. Yes, initially (before all of the stations were finished) there were usually only 4 or 5 other people on the bus when I was using it in the middle of the day. But often since then the 109 buses would be close to full later in the afternoon with people boarding at Square One to go towards Islington (now to Kipling, I assume). It's much faster than the local 26 Miway creeping along congested Burnhamthorpe, and I think more people were gradually becoming aware of it through the different apps (Triplinx, etc.) advising them of the fastest way to get from A to B. The busway also gets used by some GO bus routes, and was certainly an improvement for them.
I wish there was space in Toronto for some useful dedicated busways like this.
Edit: Another thing that makes this dedicated busway better than any sort of rail is that it does not get stopped every time a single vehicle breaks down and blocks the tracks. Unlike the GO Train, TTC subway, Scarborough RT, or streetcars, where service seems to get interrupted quite often, it would take some kind of extremely rare event to stop the busway from being used.

I don't see extending the Line 2 TTC subway into Mississauga as being a useful or realistic proposition.
 
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Add a GO station at Cawthra and under a new distance-based regional fare system you've instantly built a three stop surface subway line to Hurontario for peanuts. Make the deal with the railway companies for use of the line. Much cheaper than tunnelling new subway and faster than the busway. Anyway, the busway is a done deal, so you'll have that.
 
Add a GO station at Cawthra and under a new distance-based regional fare system you've instantly built a three stop surface subway line to Hurontario for peanuts. Make the deal with the railway companies for use of the line. Much cheaper than tunnelling new subway and faster than the busway. Anyway, the busway is a done deal, so you'll have that.
That deal with the railway company is worth billions of dollars and somehow you’re labeling it as peanuts. I actually think it’s worth the investment but it’s not peanuts by any stretch.
 
Add a GO station at Cawthra and under a new distance-based regional fare system you've instantly built a three stop surface subway line to Hurontario for peanuts. Make the deal with the railway companies for use of the line. Much cheaper than tunnelling new subway and faster than the busway. Anyway, the busway is a done deal, so you'll have that.
It won't be peanuts. It will cost a few billion to add additional track and de-conflict with CP rail, whose mainline is this corridor. Still a good deal.
 
MIlton being upgrade to RER is on the long term radar of the province, from my understanding, but they are focusing on the other lines first given the costs involved.

Any RER upgrade of the Milton Line should involve a tunneled connection to Square One to provide a proper regional link to the centre.
 
What a silly project. Just electrify the Go line from Kipling, add a station at Cawthra, and you instantly have a three-station surface subway to Hurontario LRT, as long as there's GTA fare integration, so that it's not expensive to use. Easy. Busways are lame. No one uses the Miway busway that runs parallel to the 403. Better than nothing, but not much better and only a stop-gap before an extension of Line 2 to Square One. I'm still not sure why Mississauga City Council is so intent on ignoring the city's natural connection to Toronto. I guess they want independence, but in practice it just means Mississauga transit users pay more fares for the privilege of living in a different city. Why does that add value? Having different GTA transit systems is a barrier to a cheaper, seamless distance-based GTHA transit system.
I'm sorry I have to stop myself from laughing. I honestly thought this whole post was an early April Fools joke. Now that I realise it's not, I must say that your ignorance and arrogance is so extreme that it is actually funny.
No one uses the Miway busway that runs parallel to the 403.
Exactly. No one used it except the riders on 107 and 109, both of which are very busy routes (packed during rush hour). There was also the 100 for a brief time. It was not as packed but still standing room only during its hours of operation (was it rush hour only or weekdays only?).
Just electrify the Go line from Kipling, add a station at Cawthra, and you instantly have a three-station surface subway to Hurontario LRT,
It would only involve the addition of a 3rd and 4th track along most of the CP-owned corridor. So yes, very easy.
an extension of Line 2 to Square One
A very wise use of limited transit dollars and construction capacity.
Busways are lame.
Apparently so is your knowledge of the real world.
 
Will this thing actually be used? Seems like the kind of thing that one of those wheels trans buses would work best with, I mean...you'd have a few people on each bus, maximum I would imagine? Maybe 12 tops. Only because of COVID would it make sense to run large buses on the Dundas BRT to have space between people.

Am I just tripping?
 
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Will this thing actually be used? Seems like the kind of thing that one of those wheels trans buses would work best with, I mean...you'd have a few people on each bus, maximum I would imagine? Maybe 12 tops. Only because of COVID would it make sense to run large buses on the Dundas BRT to have space between people.

Am I just tripping?
Are you suggesting that ridership would be very low? That's not what the Initial Business Case projects.

Honestly, the IBC doesn't anticipate any technological disruption, whether it be autonomous vehicles or even just battery electric buses. That's the limitation of projecting current technology out several decades.
 
Are you suggesting that ridership would be very low? That's not what the Initial Business Case projects.

Honestly, the IBC doesn't anticipate any technological disruption, whether it be autonomous vehicles or even just battery electric buses. That's the limitation of projecting current technology out several decades.

Yeah, just because it's parallel to the GO Lakeshore line. I'll trust the experts though.
 
I'm sorry I have to stop myself from laughing. I honestly thought this whole post was an early April Fools joke. Now that I realise it's not, I must say that your ignorance and arrogance is so extreme that it is actually funny.

Exactly. No one used it except the riders on 107 and 109, both of which are very busy routes (packed during rush hour). There was also the 100 for a brief time. It was not as packed but still standing room only during its hours of operation (was it rush hour only or weekdays only?).

It would only involve the addition of a 3rd and 4th track along most of the CP-owned corridor. So yes, very easy.

A very wise use of limited transit dollars and construction capacity.

Apparently so is your knowledge of the real world.
The MyWay Busway along the 403 is a lovely overbuilt white elephant, but maybe by 2050 after the Eglinton West extension of the Crosstown is completed it will be a very busy transit line. How much time do you think the Dundas busway will actually cut from the current Hurontario to Kipling route? 10 minutes? My understanding is that the busway doesn't have overpasses or underpasses at intersections, though it will get some priority signalling. Okay great. Basically taking transit from Hurontario to Yonge and Bloor will continue to be a lengthy ordeal with marginal improvement. Awesome socks. Meanwhile running parallel to Dundas in close proximity is a Go line. I'm not sure how many additional tracks would be necessary or what kind of lease agreement could be struck with CP but I doubt it's out of line compared to building an LRT, let alone a subway. Thanks for hurling insults though. Sad that you have to resort to getting personal rather than bringing facts or a persuasive argument to the table.
 
The MyWay Busway along the 403 is a lovely overbuilt white elephant, but maybe by 2050 after the Eglinton West extension of the Crosstown is completed it will be a very busy transit line. How much time do you think the Dundas busway will actually cut from the current Hurontario to Kipling route? 10 minutes? My understanding is that the busway doesn't have overpasses or underpasses at intersections, though it will get some priority signalling. Okay great. Basically taking transit from Hurontario to Yonge and Bloor will continue to be a lengthy ordeal with marginal improvement. Awesome socks. Meanwhile running parallel to Dundas in close proximity is a Go line. I'm not sure how many additional tracks would be necessary or what kind of lease agreement could be struck with CP but I doubt it's out of line compared to building an LRT, let alone a subway. Thanks for hurling insults though. Sad that you have to resort to getting personal rather than bringing facts or a persuasive argument to the table.
BRTs are pretty cheap. If you want to spend more, we'll need to crack open our wallets. But the investment may not be warranted.

Yeah, just because it's parallel to the GO Lakeshore line. I'll trust the experts though.
I think they serve different markets. Dundas BRT is a lot about moving people to destinations along or near Dundas. It isn't about slowly shuttling people from Burlington to Kipling Station. They serve different purposes from a regional perspective.
 
I think the biggest value add here is cleaning up the Dundas streetscape, if the right landscaping, sidewalks, and cycling paths are added. As for actual time saved on the bus, the bottlenecks such as at Hurontario will remain and the high quantity of traffic lights will remain. Better than nothing, but without a rapid east-west option, this feels like half a transit system. The Transitway that actually has the overpasses and speed is too far from where most people live and work, so what gets built along Dundas transit-wise really does matter.
 
What do you propose? A series of underpasses for the BRT lanes? That would cost quite a bit, and complicate the stations.
 

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