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Highway Expansion

nfitz said:
The problem is the highway is just overused. Increased transit and road tolling is probably a better use of money that making the interchange even bigger. It boggles my mind that people would choose to live in one city, and commute to another.
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I know you did not mean that as a personal shot or an attack (just a comment) but whenever I read things like that they come across (to my ears) as urban elitist attitudes that are not willing to consider the realities that the region (and people in it) face. So, to give the other "we should all live where we work" proponents some perspective, I will give you my personal situation.....I don't think I am anywhere close to unique and it might explain all the cars zipping around the GTA when, really, we all agree it is a better quality of life if we worked were we live:

1. I didn't choose to live in Brampton and work in Toronto.......my family chose to live in Brampton when I was a kid.....I grew up there, my wife's family grew up there, our roots are there it is "where we are from" and where our families, friends, roots are......so we chose to stay were we grew up...that used to be considered a "value".

2. As with most families today, we are a two income family. My wife's line of work affords her the ability to work in town.....mine does not....there are no jobs for me in Brampton.....if we moved close to my work......she would have to commute (either to Brampton or some other part of town....her type of program is very suburban).

In a mixed economy with two income families it is very difficult for a signficant number of families to find employment for both partners in the same city....it is not a choice to live in one city and work in another....it is just a part of my (and many people's) reality. One of the guys who works for me, actually, chose to live near his work.....his wife reverse communtes to Brampton everyday!
 
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Certainly not an attack! I just know I couldn't do it for long. I commuted from Kitchener to Brampton for about 4 months ... and that was about my limit - generally about 55 minutes back then (back then congestion started at Winston Churchill - these days it starts at Kelso) - and then I found a job in Kitchener. These days I'm in Toronto - most of the work of my type is found in the suburbs ... but I'd sooner change careers than start commuting to the far suburbs every day (Danforth to York Mills is about my limit!).

I can't conceive spending 2-hours in the car every day - that's a stressful drive when there's traffic (I still drive it regularily - against traffic, as I'm out of town through Brampton on business at least once a week - though then at least it's part of my job. But that's me ... I'd much sooner be sitting on a GO train reading a book if I had to commute into downtown.
 
nfitz said:
Certainly not an attack! I just know I
...I'd much sooner be sitting on a GO train reading a book if I had to commute into downtown.
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I currently use GO for about 10% of my commutes.....when they provide a train to Brampton after 5:45 at night then, trust me, I will be upping that number substantially!.

In my job I need access to a car.....I will become one of those folks who drives in on Monday morning, commutes via transit all week and then drives home on Friday.....so my 10% goes up substantially....but a transit system that says "you can train to work but not from work is severly lacking (IMO).
 
TOareaFan said:
I currently use GO for about 10% of my commutes.....when they provide a train to Brampton after 5:45 at night then, trust me, I will be upping that number substantially!.
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Have you seen this:

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/573882

Specifically, it states that "Expanded off-peak service is slated for late this year or early 2010 on the Stouffville, Barrie and Georgetown lines."

Hopefully that helps.
 
DavidH said:
Have you seen this:

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/573882

Specifically, it states that "Expanded off-peak service is slated for late this year or early 2010 on the Stouffville, Barrie and Georgetown lines."

Hopefully that helps.
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Yes I have seen it......to be honest, I have a file folder at home that contains very similar "expanded service" promises that are 20+ years old! So you have to forgive any doubting Thomas's out in the Northwest.....the funny thing is, this time I actually believe it will happen.....and there is work going on to show it.

As I understand it, the hope is to have the work done on the Malton/Brampton/Mt. Pleasant Stations by spring/summer so that the current "to-Bramalea only" service level gets extended right out to Mt. Pleasant.....this will be a huge improvement...not perfect (obviously) but a huge improvement.
 
I think that just involves extending the current off-peak trains to Mount Pleasant, and perhaps one or two extra runs, all-day service won't be possible until at least the grade separation at West Toronto is complete, and then there's the Weston Sub track additions.

Though it means that the 6:45 train won't dump everyone at Bramalea, a major problem as it is now. Mount Pleasant isn't too bad for connecting to Georgetown, much better than say to Brampton from Bramalea.
 
ShonTron said:
I think that just involves extending the current off-peak trains to Mount Pleasant, and perhaps one or two extra runs, all-day service won't be possible until at least the grade separation at West Toronto is complete, and then there's the Weston Sub track additions.

Though it means that the 6:45 train won't dump everyone at Bramalea, a major problem as it is now. Mount Pleasant isn't too bad for connecting to Georgetown, much better than say to Brampton from Bramalea.
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Trust me.....extending the current off-peak service (limited as it is) to Mt. Pleasant will be massive improvement.

To finally have off-peak service of any kind will be a big move.
 
TOareaFan said:
In my job I need access to a car.....I will become one of those folks who drives in on Monday morning, commutes via transit all week and then drives home on Friday.....so my 10% goes up substantially....but a transit system that says "you can train to work but not from work is severly lacking (IMO).
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Not sure how frequently you need a car at work - but have you looked at taxis, transit, and Autoshare instead from the office?

Increased GO service would certainly be a boon to many, on many routes. I work about a 5-minute walk from Oriole, and live close to Danforth - in an ideal world I could jump on a GO train at one, one-stop to Union, and change to the other. Perhaps by the time I retire ... currently you have to wait about 14-hours at Union for a train :-(
 
nfitz said:
Not sure how frequently you need a car at work - but have you looked at taxis, transit, and Autoshare instead from the office?
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I have a car and I have a nice warm paid for parking spot downstairs......so in my super commute world of the future, the reality is my car will have to be parked somewhere...so it might as well be downstairs so that I have it availible whenever I have to go out.
 
nfitz said:
Increased GO service would certainly be a boon to many, on many routes. I work about a 5-minute walk from Oriole, and live close to Danforth - in an ideal world I could jump on a GO train at one, one-stop to Union, and change to the other.
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Amen. Talking about alleviating the Yonge line, I mean. What was the plan for the RH line, again? Sometime in the future they will begin studying the possibility of doing something about it?
 
Disparishun said:
Amen. Talking about alleviating the Yonge line, I mean. What was the plan for the RH line, again? Sometime in the future they will begin studying the possibility of doing something about it?
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The most specific right now is that GO's strategic plan says that by 2020, it will have all day service every half hour and peak service every 15 minutes. Similarly, the Metrolinx RTP shows it as "regional express" in the same rough time period. Note that neither is saying "we'll see if it makes sense". They are saying they will do it.

Whether you choose to believe that or not is up to you. :)
 
Whitby is still trying to push the West 407 connector alignment further westward, possibly into Ajax.

http://www.newsdurhamregion.com/news/whitby/article/117999

Of course, given that the EA process is due to end by June and very detailed design work is being done, and that pushing it further west will likely mean pushing into the Ajax greenbelt, they don't have much chance of success.

The staff report is here:

http://www2.whitby.ca/asset/cs-report_PW1-09-jan122009.pdf

It looks like the resistance to the location is coming from council and not staff, as a cursory read through the report does not mention requesting the location of the link be moved westward.
 
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"These are 400-series highways and they're dissecting our town. The people who live west of that link will have absolutely no relation to Whitby except paying their taxes."
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Do they mean bisecting their town?
 
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