Toronto Spadina Subway Extension Emergency Exits | ?m | 1s | TTC | IBI Group

I agree. Why drive to a subway station which would put you 15 or more stations from where you are going when down the street is a go station which will have 2-4 stops to get you downtown?
 
picard102 said:
And yet the lots are packed by 8am.
Not everyone is going to be able to, or want to, take the Go or TTC feeder routes.
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With the frequency and, at times, lack of connecting service of GO service I do not find it surprising that many commuters choose to drive to a subway station when a GO train would get them to their destination in 3/4 the time.
 
EnviroTO said:
I agree. Why drive to a subway station which would put you 15 or more stations from where you are going when down the street is a go station which will have 2-4 stops to get you downtown?
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Doesn't GO cost a lot more? I mean suppose you're a poor college/uni student. Would you pay the extra few dollars a day per each trip to, and then again back? I know I wouldn't. Heck, I'd even wait for the slow bus to transfer to the subway from it.
 
LAz said:
Doesn't GO cost a lot more? I mean suppose you're a poor college/uni student. Would you pay the extra few dollars a day per each trip to, and then again back?
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If you are a poor college/uni student why would you need a parking space for a car? If you can afford a car, auto insurance, licensing, and gas you aren't a poor college/uni student.
 
EnviroTO said:
If you are a poor college/uni student why would you need a parking space for a car? If you can afford a car, auto insurance, licensing, and gas you aren't a poor college/uni student.
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If I had a dollar for every kid I knew who had parents that paid 100% of the cost to operate their car but made them pay their own transit fare I'd be one rich SOB.

Ironically, the reason I am a poor uni grad is because I paid my own transit fare even though a car was available to me.
 
If you are a college/uni student which already paid a transit fare then why not transfer to a bus? It saves money compared to parking and if you are a poor college/uni student saving matters. Parking at the GO is free, and parking at Finch is $5. On a round trip 2 TTC fares plus $5 parking is equivalent to the GO fare. I still don't see why parking at suburban TTC stations is worthwhile. A car that sits in a parking lot all day is a waste of money and if you can justify that waste you can justify taking GO.
 
picard102 said:
And yet the lots are packed by 8am.
Not everyone is going to be able to, or want to, take the Go or TTC feeder routes.
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I said those are the commuters that should be "targeted" by GO. Not necessarily that right now they have an ideal GO solution, just that those who are commuting from a location where they need to drive on a highway to get to a TTC station should be the ones who are properly served by GO. In the bigger regional transportation picture, it should not be the TTC's jurisdiction to provide transit for those commuters (short of transfers at Union or an intersection with the Bloor line, depending on their ultimate destination).

Maybe that means lobbying Metrolinx or the province to put the money towards better GO service, not funding TTC parking lots.
 
EnviroTO said:
If you are a college/uni student which already paid a transit fare then why not transfer to a bus? It saves money compared to parking and if you are a poor college/uni student saving matters. Parking at the GO is free, and parking at Finch is $5. On a round trip 2 TTC fares plus $5 parking is equivalent to the GO fare. I still don't see why parking at suburban TTC stations is worthwhile. A car that sits in a parking lot all day is a waste of money and if you can justify that waste you can justify taking GO.
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YOu would be surprised at the number of students who pakr at suburban subway stations. I have to admit, I parked at subway stations whenever I drove to school. It's just easier to use a service that comes every 5 minute over a service that requires you to know a schedule. GO IS faster, no doubt, but you do not have as much flexibilty.
 
GO buses might be on a schedule, but Milton at least has buses head downtown every half hour, which isn't too bad especially compared to Lakeshore off-peak.
 
Poor Uni student or not Subway stations are still attractive, I'll tell you about my experience when the TTC phased out the free parking for metropass holders and I was working near King and John:

I tried out the GO to see if it would be a better option than paying for parking at the subway. Etobicoke North station and the Downsview/Wilson area are both roughly the same distance time wise from my house. GO's cash fare from Etobicoke North to Union was $4.40 one way (I don't know and never figured out what the discounted rate was), so return trip was $8.80 (let's call it $9). For that I had to catch the 7:50 train or if I missed that wait for the 8:20 train which would make me late. I had to catch the 6:45 train home otherwise there wasn't even a GO bus that would bring me to Etobicoke North station.

Instead what I did was change my commute pattern, instead of parking at Downsview for $4 I parked at one of the south lots at Wilson ($3 and not a significant increase in travel time), tokens cost $2.50 for a grand total of $8 return. With that I had a service that came every 5-10 minutes at worst and ran well into the night (some nights I would be at the office until 7). I could leave the office whenever I wanted and knew that I'd catch a train and that if ran a little late in the morning.

Travel time on both was nearly identical, I could leave my house at basically the same time and arrive at basically the same time GO or TTC. So where is the attraction of GO to me? Even if bulk tickets brought the return trip cost below $8 the benefits of a subway service far outbid a GO train.

GO really needs to re-evaluate it's position in the 416 (and inner 905) as it is not very competitive with a subway. Either they increase service to something like 10-15 min headways and 20 hour days and/or they need to drop their fares in the 416 to be more competitive with the TTC (unless the TTC brings back zone fares).
 
This is one of the most fundamental problems with transit in the GTA. The demand is more regional on the subway, but that is best served by GO. However, GO is a terrible regional carrier outside of rush hours, and even then it's only in the peak direction (Lakeshore excluded). For university students whose scheduled are often NOT aligned with the peak hours, GO transit is not an option for most. It's far easier to take the subway, a service that reliably runs pretty much all day with 6min or better service! This is what counts. GO needs to dramatically increase it's service levels to more than just some peak hour trains. It needs regular service on all lines and in both directions. Start with 2hr service, then increase to 1hr service. Now that GO has purchased some lines from CN/CP, it needs to speed up the service improvements and fill the role that has a huge unmet demand.
 
lead82 said:
This is one of the most fundamental problems with transit in the GTA. The demand is more regional on the subway, but that is best served by GO. However, GO is a terrible regional carrier outside of rush hours, and even then it's only in the peak direction (Lakeshore excluded). For university students whose scheduled are often NOT aligned with the peak hours, GO transit is not an option for most. It's far easier to take the subway, a service that reliably runs pretty much all day with 6min or better service! This is what counts. GO needs to dramatically increase it's service levels to more than just some peak hour trains. It needs regular service on all lines and in both directions. Start with 2hr service, then increase to 1hr service. Now that GO has purchased some lines from CN/CP, it needs to speed up the service improvements and fill the role that has a huge unmet demand.
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Agreed, and it (improving GO service levels in the inner GTA) is being kind of ignored in the whole TC vs. anti TC debate. The consensus seems to be continuing with expansions to the current subway network; into regions where a regional service might, dare I say would, be far better suited. While adding the TC style new lines to the city. Nowhere is there a directive to have the GO network behave like a true regional rail system or the TTC to treat GO stations as transit hubs the same way that subway sations are.
 
The value of improving GO service hasn't been ignored by me. I can't understand why the city allows off-peak bus service to by-pass the GO stations within the city. In my opinion since the city pays no less it should expect no less. The DRL that many people like to draw on a map from Union to Dundas West and Pape wouldn't be as urgent with fully integrated fares and very frequent service Cooksville-Dixie-Kipling-Bloor-Union-Danforth-Scarborough-Kennedy-Agincourt-Milliken-Unionville. That service not only provides relief onto the Bloor line but also connects to Mississauga and Markham "Places-To-Grow" centres. True fare integration would have train fares between Union, Exhibition, Mimico, Bloor, St.Clair (future), and Danforth matching the TTC with full transfers, and longer distance fares, while higher, should include local transit at both ends. The lack of real fare integration is preventing transit in the GTA from being a real option to many. Of course people know this and Presto was created to give the illusion that something was being done about it, however the real reason people don't like paying for GO and then the TTC isn't the fare payment method, but the fact they need to pay full fare on both transit systems.
 
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