Visions for the GTTA

Thoughts on Google Transit

As you may have heard, the TTC has joined York Region Transit, GO Transit, Hamilton Street Railway, Burlington Transit, Brampton Transit (it's a secret!), Grand River Transit and Guelph Transit by sharing its data with Google (Guelph Transit is currently offline because the city is one giant construction zone right now).  If you want to plan a trip using transit in areas served by these services, just use the same Google Maps interface you would use to plan other trips, but be sure to select the transit option.

I've been a long-time fan of Google Transit (much to the chagrin of a certain someone who, despite leaving negative comments and not responding to rebuttal, is still a cool person), but the benefit of this system over the in-house travel planners that many agencies have developed is two-fold. Google Maps is available to most mobile device users allowing you to plan trips while on the move, whereas the in-house planners often use web code not supported by all mobile browsers. Secondly, Google's trips plans span multiple agencies, so a trip between two random points within the coverage area is just as easy to plan as a trip between two other random points within the coverage area.

Now, Google has a few limitations which users should keep in mind before using.
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Labels: brampton transit, burlington transit, durham region transit, GO Transit, GTTA plan, guelph transit, hsr, mississauga transit, oakville transit, ttc, york region transit

posted by Andrae Griffith @ 3:15 p.m. 0 Comments

Open Payment

According to Adam Giambrone's Facebook profile:

With all the talk about Presto today, remember that the TTC will have a signed binding deal for Open Payments (credit card and debit payment at the turnstile) this fall with implementation starting Jan. 2010. We have not said no to Presto, but Presto will take longer and be slower than "Open Payments"

I have been a huge supporter of the PRESTO fare card pretty much since day 1, and the benefits of the way its being implemented are many:

• Virtual monthly passes (where the rider pays for each ride until the reach a monthly cap) allow those who can't afford a monthly pass in a lump sum to still get the discounts because the PRESTO balance can be loaded as needed.
• Virtual monthly passes let riders pay for what they use, so they aren't left with a monthly pass that hasn't been used to its full potential, nor are they left regretting buying a monthly pass because they underestimated their use.
• PRESTO will work for all transit agencies in the GTHA, and is the vehicle through which future fare reform can take place.
• For Brampton residents, PRESTO will end the confusion at two ends of the city. Going northbound from the courthouse, Mississauga Transit buses come most frequently and offer free transfers to Brampton Transit - but Brampton tickets and passes aren't valid even though you're boarding in Brampton. With PRESTO, it won't matter - you'll get the discount of having a pass regardless of the system. Out in the west end, Route 77 is shared between Brampton Transit and YRT, and it has never been clear to anyone which tickets are valid under what circumstance. Under PRESTO, it won't matter - you'll get the discount of having a pass regardless of the system.

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Labels: fares, GO Transit, mississauga transit, municipal sillyness, york region transit

posted by Andrae Griffith @ 9:41 p.m. 0 Comments

Daily commute to Toronto forced me to move - YorkRegion.com

This article appeared on YorkRegion.com this past week, and it's worth reproducing in its entirety. Of course, some of the commenters on the article argue that the author will feel differently once he is older, has a full time job and a family, but I disagree. It might be a desire to party, a desire to enjoy your hobby or a desire to spend more time with your family - long commutes are no way to live because they take time away from living your life.

Going forward, all municipalities have to encourage live-work-play developments and move away from just being bedroom communities. They also have to invest in all-day, bi-directional transit service to reduce congestion and make their neighbourhoods more accessible and attractive. If they don't, there is a real risk of a mass exodus when the price of oil rapidly forces people to look for alternatives to their cars.

Article after the jump.

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Labels: urban design, york region transit

posted by Andrae Griffith @ 9:45 p.m. 1 Comments

VIVA Blue Night

In Toronto, there is demand to run the subway 24 hours per day - that's evident by the frequency of the 300 BLOOR-DANFORTH night and 320 YONGE night buses (every 7 minutes and every 3 minutes, respectively). The need for maintenance is the reason why it cannot be done until a new signaling system allows for the electrical power shutoff zones to be smaller and more targeted. Up in York Region, however, the situation isn't quite the same. YRT recently announced that they will be cutting service on their VIVA Blue bus rapid transit line after midnight due to low ridership. The 99 YONGE SOUTH and 98 YONGE NORTH buses will continue to operate along the same route, with the last northbound trip leaving Finch station at 2:15 am - but this route will make all local stops.

On the one hand, there isn't enough ridership to justify an express branch of a local route at that time of day, and the more frequent stops that the 99 offers what I think is a better quality of service in the context of it being 2 am - I'm not the kind to fear walking around after dark, but that doesn't mean I want to walk fifteen minutes when I can walk five. In addition, the time savings offered by VIVA's express nature aren't really an issue at that time due to fewer stop requests and almost no traffic. But, VIVA is York Region's flagship service and appears to have a better public perception than the regular YRT service. What weight should those facts carry in the decision making process?

Ideally both routes should continue to operate, but due to the odd way in which transit is funded in this province, the money just isn't there. Assuming that YRT local routes can provide a near identical service and if the region can clear up some of the lingering customer confusion over the relationship between YRT and VIVA then was the right decision made?

Labels: service changes, york region transit

posted by Andrae Griffith @ 6:01 p.m. 0 Comments

Apples & Oranges

There's been a fair bit of debate in the forums lately about the best way to move people from the future growth centre at Richmond Hill Centre / Langstaff Gateway into the downtown core. The Yonge subway will be extended serve this new growth centre, essentially replacing VIVA Blue below Highway 7, but the Richmond Hill GO line will also be improved with 15 minute, high speed service. The issues I've had, however, is that the comparison between these two lines has been between apples and oranges - mainly comparing the future subway to the present day GO service.  Doing this skews the results and is generally a poor way to decide which projects to advocate for. So, let's look at the future conditions of both lines:

Subway:
In the future, it will be 22.5 kilometres straight down Yonge Street from Richmond Hill Centre to Union Station. Subways have an average speed of about 40 kilometres per hour, so this trip will take between 30 and 35 minutes. Since service on opening day is expected to be a train every 15 minutes (every 3rd train), a person who wants to go from Richmond Hill Centre to Union Station will spend between 30 minutes traveling (best case) and 50 minutes traveling (just missed the train case).

Train:
The GO line between Langstaff station and Union station is 29.5 kilometres long, and since upgraded regional express trains are expected to average 80 kilometres per hour, the trip will take between 20 and 25 minutes. Since service is expected to run every 15 minutes, travel times could range between 20 and 40 minutes. If the train is rerouted along the CP Belleville subdivision through Leaside, we cut 2 kilometres from the route length, cut travel times to 20 minutes exactly and reduce the curves on the line that could slow the train down. Of course, this would put the line closer to houses and could be a more contentious proposal.

In order to come to these projections I've had to assume that the numbers forecasted by the RTP can be achieved. There will always be some uncertainty and cynicism here, but this has to be ignored because a) as-built conditions are beyond my technical expertise to forecast, and b) one can use the uncertainty argument to disprove anything. I believe it undermines the discussion almost as much as the "you don't live here so you don't understand" argument. I'm also making the assumption that a fare integration model is used which does not discriminate between taking the GO and taking the subway.

So what does this mean? On the surface, it means that the GO train will be 10 minutes faster than the subway from end to end. While the end-to-end trip only applies to a small percentage of subway riders, it means that it may be advantageous for someone coming from the terminus to take the GO and backtrack. From union station, this could potentially put the entire financial district within reach. Based on this, we can use the Richmond Hill GO line as one more tool to address the anticipated overcrowding on the subway extension, in addition to a DRL, higher capacity trains and automatic train control systems.

I guess what I've been trying to show here is that we have to remember to compare apples to apples when we're looking at alternatives to projects. It makes no sense to compare the future subway with the present-day GO train, especially when the same package that funds the subway improvements also funds the GO improvements. Secondly, we can't count out the Richmond Hill GO train as a tool for improving capacity in the Yonge Street corridor - possibly the most important transit corridor in the GTHA.

Labels: GO Transit, railways, subways, ttc, york region transit

posted by Andrae Griffith @ 3:40 p.m. 4 Comments

Fair Integration?

2.0 PURPOSE & EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
At the January 25, 2008 Board meeting, a resolution was referred to staff for consideration, which directed staff to develop opportunities for fare integration and service coordination (referred to as “FISC”) on cross boundary routes operating between the 905 area and the City of Toronto. Subsequent to this direction, an earlier progress report was made to the Board, which can be summarized as follows:

• A review of the cross boundary travel market between the 905 municipalities and the City of Toronto indicates that, between 1996 and 2006, transit trips to downtown Toronto increased and auto trips decreased.

• There are several successful existing fare integration agreements among 905 transit systems that operate “open doors” across municipal boundaries without transit customers having to pay an additional fare through the acceptance of transfers between transit systems. “Open door” operation means that the out-of-jurisdiction carrier is free to pick up and drop off passengers as required. Waiting customers can board the first bus that comes along and no one is by-passed.

• Two key opportunities to improve transit service and reduce duplication are being considered. These are in the Burnhamthorpe Road corridor (refer to Appendix A, Figure 1), in Toronto, through having Mississauga Transit buses operate “open doors” in Toronto to Islington Subway Station and for VIVA (York Region Transit) Orange Route buses to operate “open doors” in Toronto between the Downsview Subway Station and York University (refer to Appendix A, Figure 2).

• The project study participants, comprised of two working groups, identified operational issues associated with fare validation, cost sharing agreements between the TTC and Mississauga Transit and York Region Transit and labour issues. Further work was required to evaluate and address these issues which would be part of a further Board report in the Fall of 2008.

It was not possible to make meaningful progress on these initiatives and report back to the Board in the Fall of 2008 because of labour relations issues which had to be resolved over the past few months.

With regard to the Burnhamthorpe corridor, an internal “discussion paper” has been prepared in close consultation with staff from Mississauga Transit and the TTC. It outlines the opportunity in much greater detail, such as, the potential benefits and costs, the proposed fare collection process and other operational issues to be addressed (summarized later in this report). For the Downsview Subway Station -York University corridor, most operational issues have been addressed by the TTC and York Region Transit staff. A cost sharing agreement between both of the latter parties was being discussed, but has yet to be finalized.

However, in December 2008, Metrolinx staff was advised that TTC senior management is not in favour of progressing any further, with the proposals related to “open door” service integration with Mississauga Transit and the YRT/VIVA Orange Route. This has essentially stopped any progress that can be made towards changing the current “closed door” policy (i.e. preventing transit vehicles from one municipality, from operating “open door” within a neighbouring “cross-boundary” municipality).

From the beginning of our discussions almost one year ago, Metrolinx has emphasized to working group participants that a basic principle to achieve integrated services is to design, schedule and operate transit services based on the needs of the customers regardless of municipal boundaries. During the current economic slowdown it becomes even more important to rationalize services and avoid duplication in the interest of the universal taxpayer.

Metrolinx staff was directed to develop opportunities for specific cross-boundary operations between Toronto and the 905, and the research, analysis and due diligence has resulted in recommendations that address system-wide barriers to improved cross boundary operations to the benefit of the traveller. In this report, Metrolinx staff are making several recommendations to the Metrolinx Board, to advance the objectives outlined in Big Move #6 (“region-wide integrated transit fare system”.) These proposals, “Implement a Metrolinx Integrated-Fares Pass for Cross-Boundary Services” and “Obtaining Provincial Legislative and Regulatory Authority,” outlined in section 6 of this report, are the preferred directions towards achieving fare integration and service coordination across the GTHA.

Labels: GO Transit, GTTA plan, mississauga transit, municipal sillyness, politics, ttc, york region transit

posted by Andrae Griffith @ 2:59 p.m. 0 Comments

Budget Roundup

The provincial budget was introduced yesterday, and contained some transit goodies for the GTAH.

n Hamilton, service on the B-Line will be improved to connect Eastgate Square with McMaster University, and the A-Line will be introduced to connect downtown with the mountain. In addition, there's funding for a new GO station in Hamilton at the foot of James Street. This station could serve as a jumping-off point to Niagara, and would be less expensive to expand all-day-service to (as CP demands the Hamilton tunnel essentially be rebuilt before service improvements to the station on Hunter Street).

Peel will see service improvements on Dundas and Hurontario, hopefully resulting in something better than an on-street connection between the two bus routes serving the latter street. Also, GO service to Bolton will be improved, but it won't be a substitute for a local transit system.

Halton will see BRT along Dundas, and hopefully a combination of development and feeder bus systems will improve ridership. Dundas is a very busy street, but with most of the homes backing onto it, I worry if there are other corridors which need attention in Halton.

In York Region, VIVA will be getting bus only lanes from Richmond Hill centre to Newmarket Terminal, and along the VIVA Purple route from Pine Valley Drive to Kennedy Road. Curious locations, but its a good first start and addresses the most congested portions of the route.

Durham will get funding to wean themselves off GO and build their own BRT route on Highway 2. This should help DRT finally find its own identity, and could lead to the "plate of spaghetti" in Pickering and Ajax being turned into a logical network. They also received funding to establish a route to Cornell Terminal. DRT routes are almost completely isolated, and this will bring the system into the warm embrace of the GTHA network.

Toronto will get funding to start work on Transit City, funding for automatic train control and funding for the Yonge Street busway - all projects which will build capacity and speed up service. It will be interesting to see the busway's final design, as it will have to accommodate express and local buses heading between Steeles Avenue and Finch Station.

In the broader picture, there will be funding for bike racks on vehicles and lockers at GO stations, 20 new coaches (for the Lakeshore Line, but not necessarily for the Lakeshore Line), 10 more double decker buses (the first was spotted on the road today running some tests), and passing tracks to bring all-day service to the Bradford and Stouffville lines by 2010.

In addition to all that, there's gas tax funding. It was a good budget for transit, but as always, I hope the province doesn't rest on it's laurels.

In other news, this round of collective bargaining between the TTC and the Union seems to be filled with conflicting reports. It's difficult to sort truth from fact, but the bottom line is that the Union will be in a legal strike position on April 1st... and that's no foolin'!

Labels: brampton transit, durham region transit, GO Transit, mississauga transit, politics, ttc, union/management, york region transit

posted by Andrae Griffith @ 11:59 p.m. 0 Comments

Commuters facing Steeles showdown - Toronto Star

Commuters facing Steeles showdown
As York Region favours wider HOV roads, Toronto opts for a light-rail plan
April 30, 2007
Tess Kalinowski
Transportation Reporter

Do HOV lanes ease traffic congestion or are they just enablers for automobile addicts?

The "official" answer depends on which side of Steeles Ave. you do your commuting.

The dividing line between York Region and Toronto is where car culture could smack straight into the city's ambitious public transit plan.

York has approved in principle widening about 95 kilometres of regional roads over the next decade to create high-occupancy vehicle and bus-only lanes. Several would end at the Toronto border at Steeles, including Jane, Keele, Dufferin, Bathurst, Bayview and Leslie.

It's part of what regional chair Bill Fisch calls a balanced transportation plan, which also includes investments in transit.

The lanes are designed to encourage carpooling and will also speed bus travel, so they're entirely compatible with the region's goal of getting more people on transit, said Fisch.

But just across the road, in transit-hungry Toronto, officials say York's plan is misguided. They have already told the region Toronto has no interest in creating HOV lanes to match up with York's wider roads.

Toronto's transportation investments will be focused on the "Transit City" plan, which would create a network of light rail across Toronto, says TTC chair Adam Giambrone.

"I think we would be receptive to hearing proposals around bus-only lanes, similar to what we're doing up at York University. That will be used by York Region Transit and the majority of users will be non-TTC transit. But adding more lanes of traffic – absolutely not," he said.

Fisch said Torontonians will decide for themselves if they like York's HOV lanes. For every 10 cars commuting south to Toronto each day, there are nine travelling north into his region, which has had some success getting its commuters out of cars.

York's modal split – the number of person trips taken on transit – is only 9 per cent, compared with about 35 per cent in Toronto. But the York number is up from 7.5 per cent five years ago, and the official plan calls for it to increase to between 20 and 25 per cent by 2026.

Getting there won't be easy.

"The culture is not public transit use, and we don't expect everybody to use public transit, but we do know we have to get that split up in order to make our congestion problem dissipate," said Fisch, adding that more commuters will move onto the subway system once it's extended into the region.

Balance is important, he said.

"We're going to put in transit and we're going to put in roads and encourage people to use their cars in a different way. I recognize Toronto has other issues. At the same time, our residents are going both ways and clearly they're going to want to get from one place to another more quickly, and that will require work on those roads."

But Toronto's director of transportation planning, Rod McPhail, worries that the bottleneck that starts at Steeles and goes into downtown Toronto will only get worse when new six-lane roads narrow to four.

He also wonders if York's HOV lanes will prove more successful than the diamond lanes Toronto flirted with years back, like those on Eglinton Ave. and Don Mills Rd. Those lanes are supposed to be reserved for vehicles with three or more riders. But only 10 to 15 per cent of cars travelling in them during peak hours abide by the rule, because it's not consistently enforced.

If and when light rail is built along those routes, McPhail suggests the diamond lanes could become transitways.

That's not to say all HOV lanes are bad, he said. The province has taken the right approach in building the lanes and requiring only two occupants per vehicle.

Sixteen months after they opened, HOV lanes on Highway 403 in both directions and southbound on Highway 404 have been declared a success. They shave up to 17 minutes off some trips and usage has steadily risen, suggesting more people are driving with passengers.

The Highway 404 HOV segment is in York Region between Beaver Creek and the 401. A northbound lane is due to open this summer. York has also designated about a kilometre of Yonge St. from Centre St. to Steeles as an HOV lane.

But what works on highways won't necessarily translate to city streets, McPhail said. In the 1970s, studies showed cars on Toronto roads carried an average of 1.25 people. Planners figured that if they could raise that to 1.5, they could declare success. Instead, the average has dropped to 1.1.

Toronto city councillor and TTC commissioner Anthony Perruzza's ward borders York Region at Steeles and Dufferin. He supports Giambrone's position that more transit, not more car lanes, is the right approach.

"I don't fully know the pressures up in York Region, but I know they've created these huge distances between the places where people live and where they shop, where they live and where they work.

"You live in these subdivisions with no transit, I don't know how you get out to an arterial road," said Perruzza. "They need to improve their transit, but the cost of that, given the distances they have to cover, will be so prohibitive I can understand why they're perhaps thinking of widening roads."

I've said it before, and I'll say it again:

The Greater Golden Horseshoe is an integrated region, and cannot be operated as a group of isolated islands. Steeles Avenue, the Rouge River, the Etobicoke Creek - these are all artificially drawn boundaries, and serve no real purpose to the average citizen. The development doesn't stop at Steeles, and we cannot act like it does. The GTA needs an integrated transit planning policy with consistent goals region-wide.

York Region's plan is doomed to fail because the traffic heading into Toronto will have no place to go once it gets to Steeles. It will only shift congestion to the southernmost areas of the region. Shifting more people to transit by making transit more attractive in the suburban areas is the way to go, in addition to streamlining the planning process and objectives across the GTA. Turning all our roads into freeways is not the road to success.

Labels: politics, ttc, urban design, york region transit

posted by Andrae Griffith @ 1:10 p.m. 0 Comments

What We Can Learn From YRT

Among my circle of friends, I often bash York Region. This stems from what I call "village name misuse" in Woodbridge and Maple. According to some, Woodbridge extends from Steeles to Major Mackenzie, and from Highway 50 to Highway 400. Similarly, Maple is anywhere from Teston to Steeles, and from Highway 400 to Bathurst. Essentially, this makes the Vaughan redundant. Why not call it "The City of Maple-Woodbridge." Developers and real estate agents trying to make property more attractive to buyers have corrupted our collective sense of history. For me, Vaughan and Maple will only be the original villages which grew up around their respective train stations. Everything else is just Vaughan.

But I digress. Here's what we can learn from York Region Transit:

Low Cost Rapid Transit
VIVA has show us that subways don't always have to be built to bring rapid transit to the cities. We shouldn't be building permanent stub lines at the end of subways, but we should be building Bus Rapid Transit and Light Rail Transit on most new corridors.

Miniature Park and Rides
Large Parking Lots at subway stations are necessary, but are a waste of space. By reserving a few rows of parking at malls and community centres along high-frequency corridors, parking problems at the major terminals can be reduced. The YRT lot at Al Palladini Community Centre is a half example - it's at a community centre, but it's not a high-frequency corridor.

Mini Buses
This is an ElDorado National EZ-Rider II. It's 30 feet long, seats 21 people in YRT spec, and has two wheelchair positions. Most importantly, it's small and can navigate narrow streets which a 40 foot bus couldn't dream of driving down. This gives them the ability to run buses deep into neighborhoods. Giving people as close to door-to-door service as possible is key to improving ridership.

One of the possible uses of these vehicles is the community bus concept, where buses travel deep into neighborhoods, and can be flagged down anywhere along the route. Residents could be more accepting of these vehicles, due to their smaller, less imposing size.

A Slick Website
YRT website has all the tools that a good transit website should have

• Easy to navigate
• Schedules in spreadsheet form, accessible from the main page and via a search box
  
• Easy to print schedules
• The ability to see service updates and news from the main page.
• A trip planner (in the works)
• It doesn't look like a bunch of code hacked together in 45 minutes.

Lifestyle Marketing
If you head along Highway 7, you'll see YRT banners hanging from the streetlights with messages like "whoose meets wow", "unbus 2 work", and "from A to Being". Some would argue that it's lame, but it markets transit as a lifestyle choice. Hopefully one day, it will become more than a lifestyle choice - it will be a given.

Labels: GTTA plan, york region transit

posted by Andrae Griffith @ 9:28 a.m. 0 Comments

Subway a thrill ride for Vaughan - Toronto Star

Subway a thrill ride for Vaughan
$3 billion windfall a boost for 905 transit, though Miller warns it's just a start
March 04, 2007
Jim Byers
CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF

Overdue. Hugely welcome. But only just a start.

GTA politicians reacted with emotions ranging from uncontrolled glee to cautious optimism yesterday at news that the Tory government in Ottawa is ready to throw a huge pile of cash at everything from a subway extension to York University and Vaughan to better bus service in car-crazy Mississauga, Brampton and York Region.

As reported yesterday by Bruce Campion-Smith in the Star, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Premier Dalton McGuinty this week will announce some $3 billion in public spending on public transit in the GTA – just as talk of a federal election heats up across the country.

"We're all just thrilled in Vaughan," Mayor Linda Jackson told the Star.

"It's a great day for all of York Region and all residents of the GTA."

Jackson said the subway extension, which has been talked about for two decades and represents the first subway in the 905, will enable her city to intensify development in the city centre as well as help the environment.

The promise of new funds "is the first spike in the development of an overall GTA transit network," a more restrained Toronto Mayor David Miller said yesterday.

"The York subway is a very important transportation connection in Toronto and York Region.

"It's good they're paying attention to transit. But we hope this is a sign that both governments are moving to permanent, sustainable funding for transit so we can build networks ... in Scarborough, Calgary and Montreal."

Miller has talked in the past about building a series of dedicated streetcar lines in North Etobicoke, Scarborough and along Don Mills Rd. and Eglinton Ave.

Jackson, meanwhile, said as great as the subway extension will be for Vaughan, the money to help York Region build dedicated bus lanes is just as important.

"Residents of York Region have a love affair with their cars, and this is a big step," the mayor said.

"You can build subways but they take a long time. The changes for VIVA (York Region's bus network) can be almost immediate."

In Mississauga, Mayor Hazel McCallion cautioned the busway planned for her city won't be ready until 2009.

"It's good that the money's starting to flow, but I don't know what impact this will have on gridlock.

"In the short term, it does nothing."

TTC chair and Toronto Councillor Adam Giambrone said the subway extension, which will cost Ottawa, Queen's Park and the City of Toronto andYork Region some $2 billion, won't be ready until 2014.

Ottawa will pay $697 million as its share of the subway extension, as part of its total transit contribution of more than $1 billion. The subway will run 8.7 kilometres from Downsview Station to the Vaughan City centre, with a stop at York University.

Other projects that will get federal money include:

# A bus-only road along Highway 403 and Eastgate Parkway from Burnhamthorpe Rd. to Eglinton Ave.

# Brampton's AcceleRide program, aimed at speeding up buses in the car-dependent city;

# A program to get York Region buses out of clogged roads and into dedicated bus-only lanes;

# Widening Highway 7 and looking at an extension of Highway 407 east to link up with Highway 401.

# A study of rapid transit options for Durham Region.

"We're symbolically piercing the 416/905 barrier, which is huge," said Toronto Councillor Brian Ashton, a member of the newly created Greater Toronto Transportation Authority.

Ashton said the fact so much money is being poured into the suburbs recognizes that traffic in the 905 is just as bad, if not worse, than in Toronto.

That's the point Miller makes when he rejects the idea of a congestion tax on cars coming into downtown Toronto.

Tomorrow in Montreal, Miller and the other big-city mayors in the caucus of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities are scheduled to unveil their plan for a national transit strategy.

A couple points I'd like to highlight:

• "is the first spike in the development of an overall GTA transit network," - The first spike must be laid somewhere, and sadly, there would be detractors and opponents, regardless of where the next project was built. I recall that some opponents to the St. Clair right-of-way complained of a political bias towards downtown.
• "We're symbolically piercing the 416/905 barrier, which is huge... the fact so much money is being poured into the suburbs recognizes that traffic in the 905 is just as bad, if not worse, than in Toronto." - The GTA needs to stop thinking of itself as a superior city with inferior suburbs. We are an integrated region with blurred borders, and we will not succeed unless we recognize that point.

I'm also looking forward to the national transit strategy the mayors plan to announce. It may help solve the many other transit problems this region and this country faces.

2014 is a far away, but the tangible and symbolic benefits are worth the wait.

Labels: brampton transit, durham region transit, mississauga transit, politics, subways, ttc, york region transit

posted by Andrae Griffith @ 12:30 p.m. 0 Comments

$697M seals subway deal

I cannot put to words how exciting this morning's news was. Toronto is long overdue for large-scale transit projects, and hopefully, when the financial, environmental and political benefits of this project are realized, it will lead to a wave of transit projects in the GTA. Here's how I see it:

• A subway to York University and Vaughan will reduce the number of trips made to and from the area which are done by car. Vaughan and other northwestern residents will have a transit option instead of driving into the city on the congested highway 400.
  
• Overall system crowding will be reduced, as riders on the 36 Finch West, 60 Steeles West and 77 Highway 7 will be diverted onto the underused Spadina Subway and away from the overcrowded Yonge Line. Also, the overcrowded 196 York University Rocket will be eliminated, and the buses used elsewhere on the system.
• This line will spur redevelopment and intensification around the stations, just as the Sheppard Subway has done in North York. The increased transportation will cause land values to skyrocket, and will encourage the big box stores currently located there to take advantage and sell. Developers will then build higher density to better recuperate the money they spent to purchase the property.

I concede the point that this project does address the transit needs of the entire city or the entire region. However, that it itself should not condemn the project. This subway line will bring rapid transit much closer to the Jane & Finch neighborhood, and will bring rapid transit to areas which are experiencing heavy congestion.

Perhaps even more importantly than the physical infrastructure is the progress we have made furthering the transit issue with the provincial and federal government. That is priceless.

Labels: brampton transit, durham region transit, mississauga transit, politics, subways, ttc, york region transit

posted by Andrae Griffith @ 6:33 p.m. 0 Comments

$697M seals subway deal - Toronto Star

$697M seals subway deal
Harper and McGuinty to announce federal funding next week for long-awaited extension of Spadina line into York Region
March 03, 2007
Bruce Campion-Smith
OTTAWA BUREAU

OTTAWA–The final piece of the puzzle is in place to build the first-ever subway line beyond the border of Toronto into York Region, with a stop at York University, the Star has learned.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Premier Dalton McGuinty will announce next week that the federal government will pump $697 million into the plan to extend the Spadina subway from Downsview station. The province and the municipalities of Toronto and York have already committed money.

As well, the federal government will announce funding for:

• A Mississauga transitway, a bus-only road along Highway 403 and Eastgate Parkway from Burnhamthorpe Rd. to Eglinton Ave. E.
• Brampton's $280-million Acceleride project, meant to speed bus service. Ontario has already committed $95 million for the improvements.
• An expansion of York Region's Viva bus system. York Region officials want to get buses on to dedicated lanes.
• The widening of Highway 7, in the amount of $55 million.
• An environmental assessment to extend Highway 407 eastward to link up with Highway 401. This would go through federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's Whitby-Oshawa riding.
• A $5 million study of rapid transit in Durham.

The announcement comes with both the federal and provincial governments attempting to prove they are serious about protecting the environment. More public transit means fewer cars on the road and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

It comes with the possibility of a federal election this spring, and winning Ontario seats is a must for Harper to win a majority government. On March 19, the federal budget will likely have a lot of goodies for Quebec, and the Tories wanted to make a big splash in advance in Ontario.

McGuinty faces re-election Oct. 10.

Once contributions from Ontario and the various municipalities are factored in, the projects represent a $3.2-billion investment to help GTA commuters get around.

In December, Flaherty declared, "public transit generally is significant ... and environmentally important."

At the heart of the announcement is the $2-billion extension of the TTC's University-Spadina subway line to York University and into York Region to help cope with population growth north of Toronto.

About six kilometres of the 8.6-kilometre line will be in Toronto. A "preferred alignment" on the TTC website shows stations at Sheppard West, Finch West, York University, Steeles West in Toronto and Highway 407 and Vaughan Centre in York Region.

There has been a demand for years to make York University more accessible for its 65,000 students and staff.

The provincial government has already set aside $670 million for its one-third share of the huge project. Toronto and York Region last September set aside long-standing differences and agreed on a deal to split their $670-million share of construction work.

Despite active lobbying by the province and municipal officials, the federal contribution has been the hold-up, until now.

Now, thanks to this announcement, workers could break ground as early as this summer on the 8.6-kilometre extension from Downsview station, through the York campus and across Steeles Ave. to the Vaughan town centre.

The negotiations around the subway funding date back months with Flaherty and his Ontario counterpart, Greg Sorbara, frequently discussing the province's demand for additional transit cash. The extension goes through Sorbara's Vaughan-King-Aurora riding.

"We're going to move ahead on that project and I believe that at the right time the federal government will be a partner. There is a huge political risk for them if they're not," Sorbara said after one of their meetings last December. Speculation has been rampant for weeks that an announcement was near but it was only on Thursday that the federal cabinet gave the green light for the spending, sources say.

News of the announcement comes as big city mayors, including Toronto Mayor David Miller, gather in Montreal tomorrow and Monday to discuss plans for a national transit strategy.

With files from Allan Woods

More from me on this momentous occasion later...

Labels: brampton transit, durham region transit, mississauga transit, politics, subways, ttc, york region transit

posted by Andrae Griffith @ 2:46 p.m. 0 Comments

Late-October service changes

Here are the October service changes for some of the GTA systems:

TTC - October 15

• 23 Dawes, 15 Evans, 504 King, 102 Markham Rd & 73 Royal York all have increased service.
• 509 Harbourfront, 86 Scarborough, 85 Sheppard East & 165 Weston Rd North all have seasonal service reductions, due to fewer people going to Harbourfront, Metro Toronto Zoo and Canada's Wonderland, respectively.
• 192 Airport Rocket, 191 Highway 27 Rocket, 79 Scarlett Rd & 84 Sheppard West all have general schedule changes.
  
• 33 Forest Hill has been rerouted at the north end of the route for a trial period - again. Service is now 30 minutes instead of 20. Expect this to not be the last change this route sees.

Mississauga Transit - October 23

• Accessible service comes to 1 Dundas, 1C Dundas-Collegeway, 8 Cawthra-Indian road & 68 Windsor Hill
• 5B Dixie-Meyerside, 24 University, 34 Credit Valley & 42 Derry all have either improved frequency, more coverage or both.
• 38A Creditview-Argentia & 6 Credit Woodlands-Westdale both ahve new Sunday service, though 38A Sunday will not serve the Meadowpine Industrial area.

Brampton Transit - October 30

• Schedule adjustments come on 4 Chinguacousy (Saturday), 12 Grenoble (all days), 23 Sandalwood (all days), 53 Kingknoll (weekday) & 77 Finch Subway (weekday and Saturday)

York Region Transit - October 29

• 1 Highway 7 has its last two eastbound trips using highway 7 all the way to Markham-Stouffville Hospital.
• 4 Major Mackenzie stops serving Canada's Wonderland, and has changes to the first westbound trip.
• 9 Stouffville has more coverage in Stouffville, and changes to an afternoon rush trip.
• 20 Jane-Concord stops serving Canada's Wonderland, but like the 4, will return next year.
• 33 Wellington has changes to a morning rush trip to improve connections.
• 77 Highway 7-Centre, covered in the Brampton Transit section, has schedule changes in the afternoon rush and on Saturday.
• 91/91A Bayview South has changes to morning rush trips to improve connections.
• 300 Business Express will no longer serve Motorola, as VIVA does the job nicely. It's cut back to IBM with minor adjustments.
• 522 Markham Community Bus makes its debut, replacing Mobility Plus service in the area.
• 445 St Robert School Special has its morning 7:20 trip absorbed into the 82 schedule.
  

Labels: brampton transit, mississauga transit, service changes, ttc, york region transit

posted by Andrae Griffith @ 6:35 p.m. 0 Comments

VIVA: One Year Later

It was on this day (the day after labour day) when VIVA buses first hit the streets, and an article in the Toronto Star was published yesterday to mark the occasion. When the final extension into Cornell in far east Markham is finished, expected by the end of the winter, the first phase will be complete. Even without the benefit of transit only lanes, VIVA has caused ridership in York Region to increase 38% in a single year. It's had it's share of problems initially, as the article notes, but overall, it has been a success and may very well start a new transit renaissance in Toronto.

Happy birthday, and viva VIVA!

Labels: bus rapid transit, york region transit

posted by Andrae Griffith @ 9:25 a.m. 0 Comments