steveintoronto
Superstar
I studied it by Google Earth last night, and even if there was insufficient bay space, it could be added.There is no capacity restraint at PC, regardless of the number of bays,
The 103 is a true grid route and needs to bypass SQ1,
The 29 used to terminate at Cooksville Station, and there was a perfect connection there to the 103. Drivers were always happy to let me (or others) off near the Miway Express stop before looping in the station. That was as good as it got, but the 29 is now what the 29A used to be, it terminates at Sq One.I occasionally connect to the 103 via BT #7 to get to PC (southbound at Courtney Park and return trip NB at Derry) it makes me laugh to think that this trip will likely take more time on the LRT than it currently does.
I can see the huge time advantage in not looping the 103 through Sq One, one of the huge disadvantages of the 21. The 21 is like a milk run through there, I call it 'the circus'. GO couldn't make the trip any more grueling from Sq One to Union. But if they do service locally on that run, then they can't claim that isn't their mandate to do PC!
At the very least, since the 103 is probably as fast as that stretch can be done, and GO don't want to 'compete' on the route, inform Presto to continue the co-fare with Miway, but the continuing trip back on GO from PC to Union be considered a continuous GO fare. GO saves the cost of the Miway provided section, what the hell more do they want? I'm now so used to "tap on/tap off" that I forget to ask for a paper ticket when boarding in K/W or Guelph/Aberfoyle. That paper ticket ensure a single continuous GO fare, but it complicates it for the Miway driver, who has to enter it manually on the farebox to get the co-fare when using Presto to tap on Miway. This is a Presto problem actually. Miway's portion should be able to be included in the printed fare, just like train and transit systems elsewhere in about a thousand other jurisdictions. Or fix Presto to make it do what they claimed it would do...
There sure does. Erin Mills and Winston Churchill loops are excellent places to transfer v Sq One. I now pick up the 109 at either, you just walk down the platform. A GO or Miway Express from there south to the LSW would be a real advantage.There needs to be more grid routes to service the Lakeshore line, as well other ones.
If getting through Sq One wasn't such a huge impediment in getting to west end and central Toronto (and the 407 West Bus series were more direct from Guelph/Aberfoyle to Bramalea) then this discussion wouldn't be necessary. As per Aberfoyle, if the 30 K/W Express looped there (at the cost of about 5-10 mins to the overall schedule) while the Mt Pleasant train service is running, Toronto west end would be vastly better connected time-wise to the Guelph/Aberfoyle region. The 30 bus actually gets to K/W faster than if it were the train. The now defunct 39 to Guelph did same, *even with the slow stretch up Hwy 6 from Aberfoyle*!There is no grid or a route that service Georgetown and the LSW, let alone Militon. Some of these needs to be GO routes, let alone local systems.
Of course, the real answer for Guelph and K/W is AD2W trains....sigh. That may actually happen some generation. But there's also @drum118 's point on the lack of north-south bus connections to LSW. It seems GO love to torture their passengers by shoving them through the Sq One meatgrinder.
On an up-note, with the September timetable changes, taking the first train of the day west to Bramalea allows an onward connection in ten minutes to 47 (?...might be 48) to Sq One, and then ten mins wait there to get the 29 to points west, a huge improvement on how it used to be. The train used to arrive exactly when that bus was leaving previously.
Discussing this with one of the drivers, he chuckled, and called it 'serendipity' as the change on the 47(?) bus schedule is "probably due to the mess at York University".
Whatever, even with the total wasted 20 minutes, it's still more advantageous than taking the 33 bus from Mt Pleasant...a great scenic route that usually gets you there the same day. The 48 bus takes about as long without the scenery.
Edit to Add: Poring over GO timetables last night, trying to find why PC still shows for GO bus connections, realized it's two callings of the 18 bus in the early morning to Union.
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