The stop spacing should be tailored to the role of each route. A city of Toronto size needs several trunk, high capacity subway routes, that help people get across the city faster. They cannot be fully substituted by GO trains, because in many cases there is no rail line in the right place and...

For the Yonge line, ideally I would split the three 2-km gaps that exist between Eglinton and Sheppard. Would add midblock stations and thus reduce the gaps to 1 km. Plus, would upgrade the bus service north of St Clair to 15 min (clockface) at all times. Frequency higher than 15 min would...

I can see both pros and cons with that solution. The paired service would work very well during the peak periods, as the LRTs would carry the bulk of load, and the local bus would not be too busy (packed buses is a common problem on the regular bus routes). Moreover, fast LRT means each train...

98% of riders do not read transit blogs, and their expectations cannot be built up by any group on the blog.

I like the 9xx expresses, too. VIVA is an odd duck with a very variable stop spacing pattern. Some stops are 2+ km apart (RHC and Bathurst), some sections have stops every 500 m or less (west and east of Leslie). That probably makes sense for York Region, they went for connecting the...

No big harm calling Finch LRT "rapid", but I feel it leads to the expectations-vs-reality mismatch. The 9xx express buses are more rapid than all-stop buses. Dependent on the stop spacing, the 9xx might even be more rapid than the LRT. The blue night buses are more rapid than the daytime buses...

Hard to predict if that's the case. The speed will depend on the number of stops served (and many stops will be skipped at night), plus the traffic priority if any exists. My guess would be: Night LRT = Night Bus > Daytime LRT > (a bit) Daytime Off-peak Bus >> Peak-time Bus. Mostly depends on...

If it is not about high speed, then it should not be labeled as "rapid", right? Or the label becomes misleading. We can debate the definitions of course, but for most of people, "rapid" transit is something that runs faster than local most of the time, not just during the peak hours when...

I believe it was a mistake to market Finch LRT as "rapid" transit, when its speed is only marginally better than the bus it replaces. That label creates unrealistic expectations, followed by disappointment. Disappointing the riders who will actually use the service, not just the blog posters...

I wouldn't say passenger comfort is the blocker here, otherwise subway or LRT trains would not be able to stop / start quickly. Obviously, passenger comfort sets certain limits, but I am sure the technical limitations of the existing GO trains kick in well before the passenger comfort limits...

Got it now. The time cost of an extra GO station should be a lot more than 1 min. Those begemoth GO trains, with a single engine instead of self-propelling MUs, take a lot longer to accelerate or stop. The 1 min ballpark only works for subway trains or LRT trains.

I disagree here. Just one extra stop, sure does not make a difference for Person B. But what if that's 10 extra stops, since the whole line is optimized for local travel. Time lost by Person B may be equal or greater than time lost by Person A had the design been optimized for longer trips...

I believe that's about right. York Mills to Eglinton (4 km, 1 stop in between) takes 5-6 min. Eglinton to Bloor (same 4 km, but 4 stops in between) takes 8-9 min. Each trip may be different, but 1 min per each extra stop is a reasonable rule for the estimates.

But generally, speaking of new transit planning, I disagree with the notion that every transit line has to be optimized for the locals, while people who want faster rides are somehow "selfish". Let's consider the Yonge subway line. The majority of riders using that line neither live on Yonge...

For Eglinton East in particular, I do not suggest cutting any stops. For a pragmatic reason: those stops have been printed on all maps, people expect them, perhaps some moved into the area because they want to live near an LRT stop. If we cut any stops at the last moment, the locals will get...

I get your reasoning. But on the other hand, a GO line that entirely follows the 401 would not have a good connection to the Yonge subway. It would be hard to add a Yonge subway station under the 401, and equally hard to divert the GO line to York Mills or Sheppard and then get it back...

It is a missed opportunity. It would be relatively easy to provide a premium transit access at the location with a lot of daily boardings. And, possibly add more highrises between Cummer and Steeles. Obviously, this is not the end of world. Just like the absence of mid-block stations between...

If the Cummer intersection has become so expensive for some reason, then perhaps they could move the station further north, somewhere near Homewood / Centre / Pleasant avenues. Small strip malls on the east side there could be demolished and used for the station site, and then developed on top...

One missed opportunity is the development currently underway at the southeast corner of Yonge & Cummer. There used to be a lowrise plaza with a Food Basic, and a rather large parking lot in that place. Everything was demolished a year or two ago, and new construction is underway now. Had the...

Definitely not from any development around the Royal Orchard station, there is almost nothing there today, and no plans for much new density. Maybe, a portion of the development fees generated at RH, where the proposed development is massive. But even then, I doubt all those development fees...