ssiguy2
Senior Member
The really sad thing about this whole London GO fiasco, is that it gives QP the excuse not to provide a real GO service to the City because Londoners won't use it.
This is 100% the result of creating a GO system on the assumption that London itself has no commuters and people in London only want to get to Toronto. NOBODY in London commutes to Toronto. They may go one or twice a week but VIA would get them there is nearly half the time. This is what happens when you put a Torontonian in charge of transit for London.
London's situation for a local commuter GO service is ideal. It has rail lines radiating out of the city in every direction. To the north St.Mary's with 8k and Stratford with 34k. To the west Strathroy with 16k and Komoka/Kilworth with 3. To the east, Dorchester with 5k, Ingersol with 14k, and Woodstock with 46. To the south there is nearby St.Thomas with 43k. All this without London having any form of urban expressway that comes even remotely close to the downtown and London in general having inadequate roads and horrific. traffic. As an example, if you go to Google maps you will see that from Ingersol to downtown is 36 minutes driving and from Strathroy 38 minutes but with even slow VIA it's only 21 minutes. This doesn't make commuter rail time competitive but rather a HUGE time advantage.
The VIA station is right downtown an a short block from the BRT Downtown Loop easily connecting the big 3 employers in London........ huge Western, Fanshawe {the 6th largest college in the country} and SWO's largest hospital, the London Health Sciences Centre.
GO commuter would be very successful in London which is one of the fastest growing Metros in the country.............shame they didn't bother to ask Londoners what THEY wanted.
This is 100% the result of creating a GO system on the assumption that London itself has no commuters and people in London only want to get to Toronto. NOBODY in London commutes to Toronto. They may go one or twice a week but VIA would get them there is nearly half the time. This is what happens when you put a Torontonian in charge of transit for London.
London's situation for a local commuter GO service is ideal. It has rail lines radiating out of the city in every direction. To the north St.Mary's with 8k and Stratford with 34k. To the west Strathroy with 16k and Komoka/Kilworth with 3. To the east, Dorchester with 5k, Ingersol with 14k, and Woodstock with 46. To the south there is nearby St.Thomas with 43k. All this without London having any form of urban expressway that comes even remotely close to the downtown and London in general having inadequate roads and horrific. traffic. As an example, if you go to Google maps you will see that from Ingersol to downtown is 36 minutes driving and from Strathroy 38 minutes but with even slow VIA it's only 21 minutes. This doesn't make commuter rail time competitive but rather a HUGE time advantage.
The VIA station is right downtown an a short block from the BRT Downtown Loop easily connecting the big 3 employers in London........ huge Western, Fanshawe {the 6th largest college in the country} and SWO's largest hospital, the London Health Sciences Centre.
GO commuter would be very successful in London which is one of the fastest growing Metros in the country.............shame they didn't bother to ask Londoners what THEY wanted.
