salsa
Senior Member
Orillia doesn't need rail service. For the size of the city, a simple GO bus would be sufficient.
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GO has already exceeded its Regional area and why I have beings saying for years to be Southern Ontario Region System running from Windsor to Kingston, Buffalo/NF to Sudbury.I said it before. There is an upper limit on how much further we can extend GO Service before we begin drifting from a Regional Rail Service (really a peak commuter rail service at the moment) to a passenger rail service, and I think we are already there. How can an Orilla resident even consider a GO rail service on the Barrie corridor economical when the travel time to Union from Allandale is already nearly 2 hrs. How can someone rationalize spending 4-5 hours a day simply commuting to and from work everyday.
I realize that part of GO's new mandate is to have growth nodes and have service to these locations, as such, not all demand will be destined to Union. However the majority of riders are still bound for Union and even significant growth in the growth centres will only be a fraction of the demand at Union. So, the main concern remains travel time to Union which is getting obscenely long.
At these distances I can't help but believe that the better option in a passenger rail service (provided by VIA, or express go trains) rather than a Regional Commuter Rail system.
I said it before. There is an upper limit on how much further we can extend GO Service before we begin drifting from a Regional Rail Service (really a peak commuter rail service at the moment) to a passenger rail service, and I think we are already there. How can an Orilla resident even consider a GO rail service on the Barrie corridor economical when the travel time to Union from Allandale is already nearly 2 hrs. How can someone rationalize spending 4-5 hours a day simply commuting to and from work everyday.
Orillia doesn't need rail service. For the size of the city, a simple GO bus would be sufficient.
Yes. Something will have to give as the GTA keeps growing. That's why Metrolinx needs to move faster with rail expansion on all corridors, before we get the critical mass.Same argument we rehash regularly about how far out to build subways. Orillia may not be a huge center, but is no further from Union than Stratford, London, or Niagara Falls, and has substantial density along the route - all of which had very successful regional RDC services twenty years ago, before VIA got squeezed. And a gateway to cottage country.
One could design a bus to Newmarket to connect with RER, or one could design a through service with some trains having limited stops so the end to end time is much faster. I would prefer the latter, just as I would prefer a Regional service to Kitchener instead of bus to Bramalea and then train downtown.
Bus to downtown just isn't going to work as our expressways continue to congeal.
- Paul
GO has already exceeded its Regional area and why I have beings saying for years to be Southern Ontario Region System running from Windsor to Kingston, Buffalo/NF to Sudbury.
What GO was to be to What it should be are totally 2 different animals. It needs to offer different type of service as well how it service different hubs to meet the needs of those hub.
Not everyone works in Toronto or need to get there but to get to/from other locations at lot easier without the need of a car.
Don't need 12 car trains for everything to the point you only need 3-5 car trains for a fair number of service with 12 being for peak and heavy service areas.
I said it before. There is an upper limit on how much further we can extend GO Service before we begin drifting from a Regional Rail Service (really a peak commuter rail service at the moment) to a passenger rail service, and I think we are already there. How can an Orilla resident even consider a GO rail service on the Barrie corridor economical when the travel time to Union from Allandale is already nearly 2 hrs. How can someone rationalize spending 4-5 hours a day simply commuting to and from work everyday.
I realize that part of GO's new mandate is to have growth nodes and have service to these locations, as such, not all demand will be destined to Union. However the majority of riders are still bound for Union and even significant growth in the growth centres will only be a fraction of the demand at Union. So, the main concern remains travel time to Union which is getting obscenely long.
At these distances I can't help but believe that the better option in a passenger rail service (provided by VIA, or express go trains) rather than a Regional Commuter Rail system.
If only there were a rail system that serviced just Ontario that wasn't GO.... Oh, wait, there was, until this government saw the need to cancel it - The Northlander.
The ONR Should have become an Ontario intercity Rail service. It should be express on the GO lines.
But alas, the government wanted to save about $100 million annually.
Orillia doesn't need rail service. For the size of the city, a simple GO bus would be sufficient.
...and Barrie had great foresight to keep the ROW to bring back GO. However, north of Allendale they did not keep the ROW intact. A new ROW could be developed through a land reclamation project (filling in the lake)...but kinda costly and kinda non-environmentally friendly.
Aside from the possibility that the figures bandied at the time constituted Hollywood accounting, if Northlander had operated a 651/650 type train (North Bay-Toronto-North Bay) to get northerners to appointments without spending the night, with a train which didn't need to drag an APU around, maybe it could have done some decent trade. Would have helped too if VIA's push to multimodal ticketing had happened sooner as Northlander ticketing portal was awful.If only there were a rail system that serviced just Ontario that wasn't GO.... Oh, wait, there was, until this government saw the need to cancel it - The Northlander.
The ONR Should have become an Ontario intercity Rail service. It should be express on the GO lines.
But alas, the government wanted to save about $100 million annually.
Agree with your main point, ie that Orillia may be SOL. Nitpick: Rails did exist, and were ripped out, from Bradford to Orillia. GO did restore the rails as far as Barrie. But redevelopment of Barrie's waterfront, and construction of new buildings north of there, makes it much more difficult to go any further. Orillia is the one that got away.
- Paul
The Allendale line extends along Tifton St and then head out of town. They could add a new line to spur it to the old ROW eventually. Certain future extensions will be a challenge.
I said it before. There is an upper limit on how much further we can extend GO Service before we begin drifting from a Regional Rail Service (really a peak commuter rail service at the moment) to a passenger rail service, and I think we are already there. How can an Orilla resident even consider a GO rail service on the Barrie corridor economical when the travel time to Union from Allandale is already nearly 2 hrs. How can someone rationalize spending 4-5 hours a day simply commuting to and from work everyday.
I realize that part of GO's new mandate is to have growth nodes and have service to these locations, as such, not all demand will be destined to Union. However the majority of riders are still bound for Union and even significant growth in the growth centres will only be a fraction of the demand at Union. So, the main concern remains travel time to Union which is getting obscenely long.
At these distances I can't help but believe that the better option in a passenger rail service (provided by VIA, or express go trains) rather than a Regional Commuter Rail system.
So what services will the Liberals expand to get 905 votes in the next election? I see the Barrie Line (to Aurora or Newmarket), Stoufville (to Mount Joy), Lakeshore West Hamilton expansion, and Finishing Brampton service to Mt Pleasant at least?
Aside from the possibility that the figures bandied at the time constituted Hollywood accounting, if Northlander had operated a 651/650 type train (North Bay-Toronto-North Bay) to get northerners to appointments without spending the night, with a train which didn't need to drag an APU around, maybe it could have done some decent trade. Would have helped too if VIA's push to multimodal ticketing had happened sooner as Northlander ticketing portal was awful.