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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

The biggest problem with trying to use a weekend train service (whether GO, Via, Zombie Northlander etc.) as a kind of cottage country congestion-dodgers' special is that there's one hell of a last mile problem when your feet hit the platform at Washago or Gravenhurst with your luggage and inflatable lake toys and case of beer. In this case, it's a last 20 miles problem: the destinations are so dispersed that you simply need an automobile to carry you on the next leg from the station, and likely need to keep using it over the course of a weekend for various errands and trips back into town. And that's also assuming you can get from your origin somewhere in the GTA to Union (or Oriole or wherever) to begin your trip reasonably easily.
 
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Platform 27 said:
The biggest problem with trying to use a weekend train service (whether GO, Via, Zombie Northlander etc.) as a kind of cottage country congestion-dodgers' special is that there's one hell of a last mile problem when your feet hit the platform at Washago or Gravenhurst with your luggage and inflatable lake toys and case of beer. In this case, it's a last 20 miles problem: the destinations are so dispersed that you simply need an automobile to carry you on the next leg from the station, and likely need to keep using it over the course of a weekend for various errands and trips back into town. And that's also assuming you can get from your origin somewhere in the GTA to Union (or Oriole or wherever) to begin your trip reasonably easily.
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Maybe we should mandate that all cottage country municipalities provide bus service to all cottages (or at least within 500m of all cottages).:)
 
Platform 27 said:
The biggest problem with trying to use a weekend train service (whether GO, Via, Zombie Northlander etc.) as a kind of cottage country congestion-dodgers' special is that there's one hell of a last mile problem when your feet hit the platform at Washago or Gravenhurst with your luggage and inflatable lake toys and case of beer. In this case, it's a last 20 miles problem: the destinations are so dispersed that you simply need an automobile to carry you on the next leg from the station, and likely need to keep using it over the course of a weekend for various errands and trips back into town. And that's also assuming you can get from your origin somewhere in the GTA to Union (or Oriole or wherever) to begin your trip reasonably easily.
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For about 6 years in a row, we rented a cottage that was about a half hour drive east of Huntsville....there were 3 of those years where I had to interrupt our time there in the middle because of a need to be back in the city. I used the Northlander train to return to the city for my appointments and then rejoined the family .....wife dropped me at the train to go back to the city and picked me up in Huntsville when I returned.

At the time I remember doing a bit of reading about how those train stations developed and how they used to be more heavily used. turns out (according to what I read at the time) their heaviest use was pre women joining (in big numbers) the work force. At the end of the school year, mother and the kids would go to the cottage....dad would keep working in the city and take the train up on weekends to join the family...picked up and dropped of at the station by the family. turns out I had gone real retro.

Obviously the nature of cottage country makes any sort of life up there without a vehicle very very difficult.
 
nfitz said:
Oh perhaps we should mandate that their be taxi companies up there.

Oh wait, there is - http://www.doitinmuskoka.com/Experience/Transportation/Taxis-and-Cabs/
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Indeed. Another option is to partner with car-rental agencies near the station. Amtrack has some success with this kind of ticket (train + drive). If the person can buy it all in one place and have it linked (taxi will wait if the train is late), they're pretty content to take multiple modes.

Muskoka airport has about 11,000 movements in the summer and many are private aircraft. They have the same last-mile problem as the train would. Just scale up the solutions available for people who fly to Muskoka and make them up-sell options on the train ticket.

Sometimes I wonder if anybody actually travels or even watches movies where people in them travel. That dude with the sign at the exit gate of the airport is the solution to this exact last-mile problem.
 
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Cape Flyer connects to some local transit - but it would since it is being run at the regional authority's behest rather than MBTA's. A GO train extending beyond the normal RH service would not only be able to pick up on the way north, while Northlander ran direct from Union, it could also connect to eastern GTA riders via the 81 Port Perry service at Beaverton. Northlander was a train and a poorly promoted and integrated one. A Metrolinx service would provide immediate network effects. That of course may not be enough in itself to try it, but the 400/404 corridor isn't improving any time soon.
 
train to the cottage simply isn't feasible, it won't work for any significant amount of people. Car share use is always going to be near 100% use to cottage access no matter what you do, its not worth trying to serve those trips with transit. Spend your transit infrastructure dollars elsewhere.


I'm a big advocate of HOV lanes all the way up the 400 to improve cottage bound travel, cars travelling to cottage country mostly have multiple people in them.
 
innsertnamehere said:
I'm a big advocate of HOV lanes all the way up the 400 to improve cottage bound travel, cars travelling to cottage country mostly have multiple people in them.
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HOV lanes only work when most cars only have one person. As soon as most cars have more than 1 person, then the HOV lane doesn't do much.
 
innsertnamehere said:
train to the cottage simply isn't feasible, it won't work for any significant amount of people. Car share use is always going to be near 100% use to cottage access no matter what you do, its not worth trying to serve those trips with transit. Spend your transit infrastructure dollars elsewhere.


I'm a big advocate of HOV lanes all the way up the 400 to improve cottage bound travel, cars travelling to cottage country mostly have multiple people in them.
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Transit and density mean people in cities aren't dependent on cars for transportation. You could do the same thing with cottage country. Establish train and bus routes for those who want to escape the city for the weekend. Encourage the construction and densification of picturesque resort towns on scenic lakes, where people could own lakefront condos and timeshares instead of cottages. These towns would have the best recreational amenities for boating, camping, hiking, hanging out around town and nightlife. The experience would be car free from city to resort country, though people would be able to rent a car in town and go further out if they wanted. It would be different from a cottage, but people would enjoy it.
 
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innsertnamehere said:
train to the cottage simply isn't feasible, it won't work for any significant amount of people. Car share use is always going to be near 100% use to cottage access no matter what you do, its not worth trying to serve those trips with transit. Spend your transit infrastructure dollars elsewhere.


I'm a big advocate of HOV lanes all the way up the 400 to improve cottage bound travel, cars travelling to cottage country mostly have multiple people in them.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I could possibly see some sort of taxi or car-sharing thing work, but why would someone choose it over driving their own car?

When you do anything at your cottage, go to buy beer, drive to Algonquin for hiking, go for dinner at a restaurant, you need your car.

Also, Muskoka offers some of the best, most fun, most scenic driving routes near Toronto. I would assume most people who own cottages own a nice car which they can't wait to drive on the winding hilly scenic Muskoka roads.
 
junctionist said:
You could do the same thing with cottage country. Establish train and bus routes for those who want to escape the city for the weekend.
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YRT's Route 50 (formerly a GO route) goes from the Newmarket GO terminal to a bunch of little cottage towns along Lake Simcoe. At an earlier point, interurban streetcars made that same trip direct from Toronto.
 
ehlow said:
Agreed. I could possibly see some sort of taxi or car-sharing thing work, but why would someone choose it over driving their own car?

When you do anything at your cottage, go to buy beer, drive to Algonquin for hiking, go for dinner at a restaurant, you need your car.

Also, Muskoka offers some of the best, most fun, most scenic driving routes near Toronto. I would assume most people who own cottages own a nice car which they can't wait to drive on the winding hilly scenic Muskoka roads.
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It's a car-dependent lifestyle, like suburbia. It doesn't have to be that way, though the built form and transportation options would have to change.
 
I've wondered if weekend train service up to Collingwood/Wasaga Beach would be successful. I feel like they should be easier to serve due to the fact that residences are more clustered than in Muskoka and far more easily served by public transit. There are also more options like time-shares etc. that appeal to budget-conscious visitors.
 
jamincan said:
I've wondered if weekend train service up to Collingwood/Wasaga Beach would be successful. I feel like they should be easier to serve due to the fact that residences are more clustered than in Muskoka and far more easily served by public transit. There are also more options like time-shares etc. that appeal to budget-conscious visitors.
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It would probably be possible to extend GO train service along the Barrie-Collingwood Railway, or what's left of it. But I don't see why this kind of thing needs to be a train concept rather than a bus one.
 
jamincan said:
I've wondered if weekend train service up to Collingwood/Wasaga Beach would be successful. I feel like they should be easier to serve due to the fact that residences are more clustered than in Muskoka and far more easily served by public transit. There are also more options like time-shares etc. that appeal to budget-conscious visitors.
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They already run buses to parks like Algonquin or the Bruce Peninsula so maybe they could run a Wasaga Beach, or Blue Mountain skiing bus too (if that doesn't already exist)
 
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