On Mass Transit

[dewline]

Call this an infrastructure rant.

I had a look at the system map of GO Transit this morning.

I got curious, partly because of these facts: I use OC Transpo here in Ottawa every day to get from point to point for whatever reasons matter most at a given moment, and most of my intercity travelling - what little there is of it right now - is done through VIA Rail. I've therefore become a public transit supporter and a bit of a railfan as well.

So I'm starting to wonder why, given the extent of real estate served by GO Transit these days, as well as the fact that it's being once again funded by the provincial government of Ontario...why not extend the network to cover the whole province, and thereby provide true intercity bus and rail transit to cities in Ontario not currently served by VIA Rail?

I don't see why we should settle for GO Transit confining itself to the area bounded by Oshawa, Barrie, Guelph and Hamilton.

Comments

[madlycool.livejournal.com]

GO is mass commuter rail, mainly, between Toronto and its suburbs, the kind of transit VIA Rail doesn't do. It's essentially an extended municipal transit system. And there already is VIA and bus companies doing the other stuff. Not sure what would be gained, except transferring financial responsibility for VIA from the federal government to the province, and disrupting connections outside the province (notably, for Ottawa and Toronto, to Montreal). Montreal itself also has a commuter rail system.

GO is only partially funded by the province, unlike before the Harris government, where it was totally funded by the province (aside from fares). Essentilly it's a substitute for building more roads in and out of Toronto. The province also partially funds municipal transit (such as OC Transpo), but contributes almost nothing to the TTC (again, thanks to Harris).

[orleans.livejournal.com]

GO trains are insanely expensive. A monthly pass to go from Mississagua to Toronto is nearly $250 a month. That's probably not much further than Kanata to Orleans, to put that in perspective. I don't think we want that here.