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Niagara Region Transit Discussion Thread

I do believe more transit systems in southern Ontario should be combined into one solar to Niagara region , and many others that have combined almost 20 years ago.
Halton Region Transit and Peel Region Transit to name a few. Better connections within each region, consolidating operations and purchasing vehicles.
 
RapidTransit said:
I do believe more transit systems in southern Ontario should be combined into one solar to Niagara region , and many others that have combined almost 20 years ago.
Halton Region Transit and Peel Region Transit to name a few. Better connections within each region, consolidating operations and purchasing vehicles.
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I was recently having a discussion about this with a friend. Halton region is an interesting case, because each respective municipality doesn’t really care about providing good transit service. As a result, there’s no impetus to create a regional agency. Likewise, any such agency would probably not push for significant service improvements because the constituents don’t want it anyhow.

For me, it brings into question whether somewhere like Burlington could be folded into the HSR. The latter is an agency that can and does provide reasonable transit service and shares jurisdiction with Burlington where it counts. It also offloads the responsibility from an uncaring municipality with a guarantee that things will improve in some capacity, which I don’t think Halton can provide.

Niagara region is also very large, and I think they should be open to letting HSR take over Grimsby if it means they can divert less energy servicing them in the future. It’s not like there are any buses in Grimsby today anyway.
 
Sunnyside said:
I was recently having a discussion about this with a friend. Halton region is an interesting case, because each respective municipality doesn’t really care about providing good transit service. As a result, there’s no impetus to create a regional agency. Likewise, any such agency would probably not push for significant service improvements because the constituents don’t want it anyhow.

For me, it brings into question whether somewhere like Burlington could be folded into the HSR. The latter is an agency that can and does provide reasonable transit service and shares jurisdiction with Burlington where it counts. It also offloads the responsibility from an uncaring municipality with a guarantee that things will improve in some capacity, which I don’t think Halton can provide.

Niagara region is also very large, and I think they should be open to letting HSR take over Grimsby if it means they can divert less energy servicing them in the future. It’s not like there are any buses in Grimsby today anyway.
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No. Please God, not Hamilton!

But your point on Regional Transit is well taken - but perhaps in this context, Burlington and Oakville. Milton is quite a distance, the relationship might be better served by GO services.

Burlington and Oakville share increasing links across the traditional barrier - Brontë Creek and Valley. The new bridge along Wyecroft will add to that - Lakeshore, Rebecca, GO Rail, Wyecroft, QEW, HWY 5/Dundas ( and hopefully a BRT in the future), and then the 407.

Oakville has much building out to do in the north end yet as it reaches to the 407. Dundas and the BRT should become a real transit focus leading from the west into Mississauga.

Perhaps you are trampling on some GO Transit territory when you speak of regional transit, but GO is more focused on GO to GO linkages, whereas a Halton Regional Transit can add focus to city center(s) to city center(s) service (east-west) and employment lands services.
 
just east of the creek said:
No. Please God, not Hamilton!

But your point on Regional Transit is well taken - but perhaps in this context, Burlington and Oakville. Milton is quite a distance, the relationship might be better served by GO services.

Burlington and Oakville share increasing links across the traditional barrier - Brontë Creek and Valley. The new bridge along Wyecroft will add to that - Lakeshore, Rebecca, GO Rail, Wyecroft, QEW, HWY 5/Dundas ( and hopefully a BRT in the future), and then the 407.

Oakville has much building out to do in the north end yet as it reaches to the 407. Dundas and the BRT should become a real transit focus leading from the west into Mississauga.

Perhaps you are trampling on some GO Transit territory when you speak of regional transit, but GO is more focused on GO to GO linkages, whereas a Halton Regional Transit can add focus to city center(s) to city center(s) service (east-west) and employment lands services.
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There’s no doubt that Oakville and Burlington are a natural pair, and Milton will push south to such a degree that it too will be a natural extent for “Halton Transit”. I only suggest Hamilton because none of these municipalities care about improving/amalgamating their services yet. Halton has no “anchor” municipality that has good transit usage to make a case for a regional agency. Hamilton might not be the best choice, but it is the better choice when there is no alternative voiced.

In any case, what I’m discussing thus far is not really strictly GO’s jurisdiction. YRT and GO serve the same area, but offer different service patterns. The same should be true for Halton and/or Hamilton. Wherever local travel blends the most is where we should consider merging services.

What is GO’s jurisdiction in this debate is travel between each municipality at a high level. No municipal agency here rigorously coordinates services with one another, yet GO is only concerned with longer-distance trips. So, nobody covers those in-between (yet hugely common) trip types. Whoever’s role that is can be debated, but no one is doing anything. Short of GO expanding their purview, agency amalgamation seems to be a good way to do better planning at overlooked geographic travel levels in the area. The Dundas BRT alone is certainly not going to cut it.
 
I rode on the WeGo green line recently. I was misled by Google that they were part of the NRT (agency info). Annoying that WeGo has no cash fares, or credit. They only sell 24/48hr passes. I just needed to get to the Go station though the driver let me ride for free.

So it's interesting that there's a dual system with both NRT and WeGo. NRT is more affordable for daily users. WeGo might have more frequency and be more useful for tourists.
 
With the dissolution of Peel Region looming, I can’t see any impetus to create a Peel Region Transit at this point.
 
Coruscanti Cognoscente said:
With the dissolution of Peel Region looming, I can’t see any impetus to create a Peel Region Transit at this point.
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I’m of the belief that it doesn’t really matter for Peel… Mississauga and Brampton are so large that they can easily support and justify their independent agencies. They each have slightly different travel patterns as cities that would result in them being planned as two fairly different service districts anyhow, and the barrier between the two today is nearly nonexistent transit-wise. That is to say, this setup works for their geographies. Especially with Peel’s dissolution.

Not only that, they both offer good suburban transit service but in different ways, and I would rather see Brampton flesh itself out and Mississauga mature than try to merge them and delay the work they are getting done. Not to mention they would be distinct fare zones under a zone system anyhow.
 
chrisw said:
I rode on the WeGo green line recently. I was misled by Google that they were part of the NRT (agency info). Annoying that WeGo has no cash fares, or credit. They only sell 24/48hr passes. I just needed to get to the Go station though the driver let me ride for free.

So it's interesting that there's a dual system with both NRT and WeGo. NRT is more affordable for daily users. WeGo might have more frequency and be more useful for tourists.
Click to expand...
That's exactly the point. Niagara Region Transit provides local residents with public transit, while WEGO is aimed at tourists. I couldn't find any news about this, but Niagara Transit monthly pass users used to be able to transfer to WEGO in some places, until that was eliminated to differentiate the services.

And Google Maps isn't completely incorrect — the Blue and Red lines are operated by Niagara Region Transit, while the Green Line (the busiest and most-serviced) is operated by Niagara Parks Commission.
 
Does anyone know what the fares are like for the regional routes that travel to more than one zone? Its stated that if you're within the boundaries of one municipality you only pay $3, but if your stop is outside of it, you pay $6.

Like if starting in Thorold and my stop is in Welland which is like 5 mins away, do you still pay $6 for the trip because that does seem excessive. This is not like a TTC fare integration situation either because this is all one transit agency.
 
I find the Niagara Region Transit website pretty lacking. There is only one map, a crude diagram of the regional routes. The three local transit agencies produced decent-looking maps, and previously, there was a decent map of the regional routes.

It seems that they want you to use apps for everything. I like printed/PDF system maps as they give me a lay of the land; I’ll just use apps to actually plan a specific trip.
 
I don't think Hamilton Street Railway produces a system map anymore either. With rising costs, I can unfortunately see more transit agencies doing this, professional cartography is expensive. Even GRT's current map looks like it was exported automatically from a GIS package (the old GRT map was quite attractive looking so it's a shame).
 
IRT_BMT_IND said:
I don't think Hamilton Street Railway produces a system map anymore either. With rising costs, I can unfortunately see more transit agencies doing this, professional cartography is expensive. Even GRT's current map looks like it was exported automatically from a GIS package (the old GRT map was quite attractive looking so it's a shame).
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They haven’t in a while, but I think HSR will be implementing them once more- the service plan post-LRT is a full map, and is presumably the basis for service changes until then, too. I think it’s just not a top priority because of the reasons you mentioned, compounded by uncertainty of new changes- the old map might just be too distant from what is coming.
 
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