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The Ticats are pretty much selling out Tim Hortons Field for every game. They're at 99% capacity this season according to CFLDB. No Ticats fan would be caught dead at an Argos "home" game in Hamilton though.
 
Etobicoke Councillors Justin DiCiano and Mark Grimes of wards 5 and 6 presented the following recommendation to Toronto City Council today, urging Metrolinx to move forward on the plans for a Park Lawn GO station:

http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2015/ey/bgrd/backgroundfile-84515.pdf

backgroundfile-84515.pdf


The recommendations passed at City Council.

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It would be very foolish to say the least if Metrolinx passed up on building a Park Lawn GO station (even according to their own logic). Thousands of residents are going to be moving into the area in the next 5-10 years, there is development potential (albeit hopefully no more residential) around the area, and there are local connections available to TTC routes.

If for whatever reason Metrolinx doesn't agree with having a new station in this area, Humber Bay will become a crippled mess of a community (think Liberty Village but on a much larger scale).
 
Amare said:
It would be very foolish to say the least if Metrolinx passed up on building a Park Lawn GO station (even according to their own logic). Thousands of residents are going to be moving into the area in the next 5-10 years, there is development potential (albeit hopefully no more residential) around the area, and there are local connections available to TTC routes.

If for whatever reason Metrolinx doesn't agree with having a new station in this area, Humber Bay will become a crippled mess of a community (think Liberty Village but on a much larger scale).
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Absolutely agree. Even if there were only a couple of trains in the morning and a couple in the evening, it would be a huge help. Cutting the commute from this area from an hour down to probably 30 minutes to Union would be amazing.
 
T-Bor said:
Absolutely agree. Even if there were only a couple of trains in the morning and a couple in the evening, it would be a huge help. Cutting the commute from this area from an hour down to probably 30 minutes to Union would be amazing.
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More like 12 minutes!
 
Grimes and Di Ciano should be fighting for a Waterfront West LRT and building up the TTC presence in Etobicoke, not more GO stations within Toronto itself. GO is intended to be a regional service. What about upping service on The Queensway? Increased service on 66 Prince Edward, which is running at capacity (I've been turned down at Old Mill station because the bus was full, and had to wait about 15 minutes for the next one, which as it turned out, was a "66A" not "B" branch, so I had to talk another 10 minutes to get home from the Humber Loop). Of course, Grimes and DiCiano only care about people who only use transit to get to and from downtown for work, and use their car the rest of time; and thus don't care about other transit options in Etobicoke.
 
What? I regularly use the GO train for intra-Toronto travel....and no, that isn't to get downtown for work. Not to mention that some of us use it to travel around the Golden Horseshoe to visit friends and family. What, we don't need better regional transit? In fact, I use GO more than TTC because I can walk to everywhere I need to in my neighbourhood and I'm sure as hell not taking a streetcar, two subways, and a bus to get to Guildwood...for just one example...not when I can walk to Exhibition Station in less than 15 minutes and hop on a train.
The system is currently mostly used for work travel to and from downtown because it's set up to be most convenient for that...that doesn't mean it can't and shouldn't be made useful for other types of travel and for even more people.

In fact, this sort of jurisdictional selfishness is exactly why our transit system in the GH is pretty weak for what it should be.
 
MTown said:
I'm sure as hell not taking a streetcar, two subways, and a bus to get to Guildwood...for just one example...not when I can walk to Exhibition Station in less than 15 minutes and hop on a train.
The system is currently mostly used for work travel to and from downtown because it's set up to be most convenient for that...that doesn't mean it can't and shouldn't be made useful for other types of travel and for even more people.

In fact, this sort of jurisdictional selfishness is exactly why our transit system in the GH is pretty weak for what it should be.
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You pointing out how difficult it is to get to somewhere within the City of Toronto proves the point that TTC travel is inefficient. The issues go far beyond preference for Go vs TTC. It becomes an issue of wealth, socioeconomic status, and privilege. Many cannot afford Go fares on a daily basis, and must rely on TTC for their transport needs. Until we have an integrated system, providing additional GO infrastructure in lieu of TTC infrastructure works to help the privileged, at the expense of the poor. It is also poor urban planning to focus on finding efficiencies to get the rich out of your community to work, instead of trying to foster growth and opportunity within it. I was quite clear in my concern, which spoke directly to the well-documented transit inefficiencies in Etobicoke. You're inability to get to somewhere in Scarborough from Exhibition via TTC proves to be irrelevant to the discussion.

With that said, I'm not against a Park Lawn/ Lake Shore Go, if it co-incided with more TTC transit alternatives. Grimes has not been an advocate for solving these transit issues, opting instead to get the rich to work and back.

Density in Etobicoke is up, particularly in and around the Islington City-Centre West and Humber Bay Shores areas. The former is well served for transit outside of Etobicoke east-bound via the subway. The latter, unfortunately, is not. The area is already clogged during rush-hour, because there are few reasonable affordable transit options.
 
Adding a GO stop at Park Lawn/Humber Loop will cost some millions of dollars and take a relatively short time to build. Building a Waterfront West LRT will cost some hundreds of millions of dollars and many years. Both are needed, but when you've got a cheap option that you can act on quickly and which will improve transit for many people, you should act on it. That's the reasoning behind the motion that was passed at City Council.

Meanwhile, pushing for this station should not be seen as problematic in terms of socioeconomic inequalities amongst those relying on transit. Bringing GO fares within the 416 more in line with TTC fares is a separate issue which must be addressed, as GO RER/SmartTrack represents the best chance for us to move more people sooner and for much less cost than other options, and no, it cannot only be affordable for "the rich". We must ensure that it works for all.

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You can make TTC as efficient as you want, but you'll never be able to best the GO train for the convenience of certain trips. There's literally nothing you can do to TTC service that will beat an Exhibition to Guildwood train trip, for example.
I also don't understand why it need be either-or. I wouldn't call myself financially priviledged....just able and willing to pay more to get places more efficiently and the variation in cost structure is just another problem with our fractured regional transit jurisdictional foolishness. It's not reason to not better develop regional transit at the same time as bettering local transit. Not that I'd call missions such as Exhibition-Guildwood "local".
 
MTown said:
You can make TTC as efficient as you want, but you'll never be able to best the GO train for the convenience of certain trips. There's literally nothing you can do to TTC service that will beat an Exhibition to Guildwood train trip, for example.
I also don't understand why it need be either-or. I wouldn't call myself financially priviledged....just able and willing to pay more to get places more efficiently and the variation in cost structure is just another problem with our fractured regional transit jurisdictional foolishness. It's not reason to not better develop regional transit at the same time as bettering local transit. Not that I'd call missions such as Exhibition-Guildwood "local".
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Agreed - if there is any hint of bad traffic, I'll take the GO Train and deal with the 10-15 min walk home from Mimico. Much better than spending upwards of an hour stuck on Lake Shore.

In other news, traffic at Park Lawn and Lake Shore is now so bad (due to Eau du Soleil dump trucks, Gardiner construction overflow traffic, poorly planned road network) that Cllr. Grimes is tabling a motion in community council to restrict right turns from the Park Lawn offramp to Park Lawn southbound during AM peak. This will prevent 905ers from getting off at Park Lawn and clogging my community. I just don't understand how stupid these people are. By going onto Park Lawn you are getting stuck in way worse traffic, because the Gardiner (albeit slow) still moves!

If Metrolinx wants to give itself a better case for building Park Lawn GO - then see if it is possible to build an offramp directly into a parking garage attached to the station from the Gardiner eastbound. Park Lawn/Humber is when the Gardiner usually conks out anyway...
 
MTown said:
You can make TTC as efficient as you want, but you'll never be able to best the GO train for the convenience of certain trips. There's literally nothing you can do to TTC service that will beat an Exhibition to Guildwood train trip, for example.
I also don't understand why it need be either-or. I wouldn't call myself financially priviledged....just able and willing to pay more to get places more efficiently and the variation in cost structure is just another problem with our fractured regional transit jurisdictional foolishness. It's not reason to not better develop regional transit at the same time as bettering local transit. Not that I'd call missions such as Exhibition-Guildwood "local".
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The "express" bus from the Humber area costs 2 tokens ($6). A GO Train from Mimico costs $5.60. And if you want to compare the cheapest rate TTC would be $5.60 and a Presto enabled GO would be $5.04. Pretty good price comparison (albeit without the ability to transfer).

So the price comparison is accurate...a premium service costs the same under the GO and for the TTC. An express service that costs almost the same as a TTC express service option. The TTC can also redeploy the busses that are on this route.

If you are travelling to the CBD you would not need to transfer. And if you are going to other points (such as Yonge and Bloor) you can take the bus up to the Bloor line. So a very effective substitute without the need to integrate fares (yet)
 
Filip said:
In other news, traffic at Park Lawn and Lake Shore is now so bad (due to Eau du Soleil dump trucks, Gardiner construction overflow traffic, poorly planned road network) that Cllr. Grimes is tabling a motion in community council to restrict right turns from the Park Lawn offramp to Park Lawn southbound during AM peak.
Click to expand...
I live in the area too. Traffic southbound on Park Lawn is not a big issue. It's Park Lawn northbound from Lake Shore to the westbound Gardiner on-ramp that is ludicrous. Can take upwards of 15 minutes to get through it if you stay in the left hand lane the entire time (which most people do, to turn left onto the on-ramp).
 
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