[SunriseChampion]

Urban setting? Ajax? lol thats a joke!
Urban in name only, entirely suburban in reality where 99% of the population uses cars to get around. This is why a highway connection is important.

Actually the geographic center of Ajax is between Harwood and Westney, though it is true the population density is generally higher around Harwood, what with a less than impressive total of 9 high-rises in the vicinity.
In any case the difference between Harwood & Westney is 0.95 miles, i.e not much unless your walking, which in Ajax is a rarity.

Though Harwood would have been optimal, the difference is not worth building an entirely new station.
All thats left for one to do is to complain about it on public forums.

Highway access is still irrelevant. The 401 is not used as an intra-Ajax thoroughfare. Achilles and Station Streets can be used for highway access to Harwood. If driving, those distances are laughable. When walking in January, the distance between Harwood and the current station is not.

I know it barely registers as something that needs to be done on the system but at Westney is a shite location compared with Harwood. I guess it's cause Harwood used to have highway access? Did it? I'm kind of young and I only first moved to Pickering in 2000 so I don't know. But if it never did, I'd really like to know who came up with the station location and what they were smoking and if what they were smoking is still available on the streets these days cause I know a few people who'd love some.

I don't know about walking being such a mad, out-of-this-world, WTF is going on? occurrence. A vast majority of my friends in Pickering-Ajax, all between the ages of 19-23 do not own cars, do not drive, and yes....walk to the Pickering and Ajax stations most of the time because the bus system in West Durham is a joke. They also walk to do shopping and don't own bikes for some reason or other I haven't figured out yet.

I know driving is a God-given right in the eyes of the vast majority of baby-boomer Durham, but they's slowly on the way out and are no excuse for short-term planning.

And yeah, if all that can be done is whinge on internet forums, then that's what will be done!

PS:By "central Ajax" I didn't mean geographical centre, I mean actual civic centre. You have city hall here, highest density, biggest commercial area just to the north at Harwood, a fair-sized commercial area at this area, and significant employment stretching to Westney.

 

[DavidH]

Highway access is still irrelevant.

Not entirely given that GO buses use the 401 to access the station, and I expect this to be more common in future years as GO hands over Hwy 2 service to DRT. Also, once the 407 West Connector is open, there will be some drivers from northern Durham who will use it and the 401 to access GO stations and - possibly - transit routes doing the same thing.

PS:By "central Ajax" I didn't mean geographical centre, I mean actual civic centre. You have city hall here, highest density, biggest commercial area just to the north at Harwood, a fair-sized commercial area at this area, and significant employment stretching to Westney.

Ajax Town Hall would probably have to be demolished to make room for parking if GO were to move to Harwood.

I don't disagree that Harwood in general would be a better location, but there are some serious barriers in the way.

 

[SunriseChampion]

That's all I was saying. I was just sayin'.

I totally forgot about the buses because I'm used to the Kingston Road bus which obviously doesn't use the highway.

 

[DavidH]

I totally forgot about the buses because I'm used to the Kingston Road bus which obviously doesn't use the highway.

Of course, but I fully expect GO will implement full day service on Route 96 once DRT takes over Highway 2. They've clearly stated their focus in the corridor will be on express service, and making them run over to harwood for highway access to and from the station would be a significant barrier.

I'd hope, though, that we can eventually get some greater densities over on Westney. At some point, we need to start thinking about expropriation near GO stations in order to promote that kind of development.

 

[SunriseChampion]

Why start with expropriation? They can easily start by getting rid of those ridiculous surface parking lots and replacing them with underground parking, making way for intensification around their stations with the underground parking as part of that development.

I know, I know....I'm dreaming.

But I look at all these vast areas of wasted space currently being used as parking spots all over the GTA and I just picture the thousand and one better uses for that land. To think that so much of some of the best farm land in North America was paved over for possibly the least efficient use of space ever is actually sort of sickening.

The parking lot at Westney's one of them. They already have the office tower stuck in there, why not expand on that?

 

[Second_in_pie]

Why start with expropriation? They can easily start by getting rid of those ridiculous surface parking lots and replacing them with underground parking, making way for intensification around their stations with the underground parking as part of that development.

I know, I know....I'm dreaming.

But I look at all these vast areas of wasted space currently being used as parking spots all over the GTA and I just picture the thousand and one better uses for that land. To think that so much of some of the best farm land in North America was paved over for possibly the least efficient use of space ever is actually sort of sickening.

The parking lot at Westney's one of them. They already have the office tower stuck in there, why not expand on that?

I was thinking that it might be smart to propose the construction of some high density units around Subway and Go Stations (myself, of course.) The opportunity, funds and research haven't quite come through yet though, but it's certainly something I'd like to do if I could.

 

[waterloowarrior]

Some KW rumours/news from ssp

On my way into UW this morning I saw a GO Transit bus which had a bunch of people (presumably GO people). The GO bus will be stopping at the Davis Centre. The driver didn't want to say too much about schedules except that they'll be appearing on the GO website soon, and that service would start on October 31.

The GO Drivers find out Friday if they are transferred to there new base in Kitchener and on Monday get to see the routing and guides.
The frustrating thing about all this is that even the front line staff of GO that will be operating there routes have no idea themselves.
All i know GO Transit is operating 24 Mon to Fri trips and 14 Weekend trips.
The trip will originate out of Waterloo University.

As for fare?
$11 something from Cambridge to the Airport... Good!!
Most trips will run Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge and on to SQ1.
Only a couple of morning and evening trips will meet the train in Milton.

Once again, nothing is concrete.

As for the U Guelph trips, much busier than last year. Very encouraging

 

[DavidH]

The parking lot at Westney's one of them. They already have the office tower stuck in there, why not expand on that?

There's no office tower in the parking lot at Ajax GO. I do agree that shrinking the footprint of parking and putting in some density near the station would be a Very Good Thing, though.

 

[waterloowarrior]

yyzman at ssp posted the fares.. finally a cheap way to get to pearson

Waterloo / Kitchener to
SQ1 $12.30
Union St $14.35
Airport $12.20

from Cambridge
SQ1 $11.15
Union St $13.20
Airport $11.35

 

[SunriseChampion]

There's no office tower in the parking lot at Ajax GO. I do agree that shrinking the footprint of parking and putting in some density near the station would be a Very Good Thing, though.

I'm tripping, aren't I? It's just south of there, right?

 

[APTA-2048]

I'm tripping, aren't I? It's just south of there, right?

Do you mean the small two level one in the south end of the plaza?

 

[EnviroTO]

I'm tripping, aren't I? It's just south of there, right?

700m. About the distance from Union Station to City Hall.

 

[DavidH]

Do you mean the small two level one in the south end of the plaza?

Yeah, it occurred to me this morning that he meant that. I didn't think of it because (a) a two level building filled with a dental hygene school is not what I think of as an office building and (b) it's not actually on the GO property.

But yeah, it's there, and I agree, the opportunity for more density is there.

First things first, though; they need to get their parking structure up starting next year, and they can't afford to give up any parking until that's done. As it is the lot is getting extremely full with illegal parking all over the place, and I shudder to think of what it will be like during the parking structure construction.

 

[SunriseChampion]

Yes, that's the one I was thinking of. I thought I had confused it with the OPG office building farther south but I hadn't.

Speaking of these lots though, Pickering's is much worse in terms of footprint. Especially with that second lot there and Pickering being a designated centre of intensification according to 'Places to Grow' really needs to be fixed up.

Though, until Durham Transit gets real in terms of service, I can understand why the east suburban wasteland (this is my new nickname for Durham) is so enamoured with these gross wastes of space.

 

[Second_in_pie]

Yes, that's the one I was thinking of. I thought I had confused it with the OPG office building farther south but I hadn't.

Speaking of these lots though, Pickering's is much worse in terms of footprint. Especially with that second lot there and Pickering being a designated centre of intensification according to 'Places to Grow' really needs to be fixed up.

Though, until Durham Transit gets real in terms of service, I can understand why the east suburban wasteland (this is my new nickname for Durham) is so enamoured with these gross wastes of space.

If Durham Transit gets real in terms of service maybe?
To be honest, I think their BRT is a joke. The money was there, and they simply took the opportunity with little motivation other than "it's there so why don't we do it?" There wasn't any "we should be fighting to get people out of their cars and increase density!" like York thought, and they're continuing to push towards being a (backwards) sprawling suburban region.

East suburban wasteland is actually a pretty good description though. Durham's really going to have to start working if they want to get back on the ball like York's doing, and they don't really seem to be motivated to do so. I hate to sound grim, but I can't see a lot of hope for the region unless they totally change their outlook on urban planning.

Of course, we could just classify Durham as the one "sprawl" region in the Horseshoe, but it'd probably make more sense in the long run to actually try to turn it around. I think I'm getting to the point that I'm gonna start drawing out some urban space dreams, and I'll definitely get on a solution for Durham while I'm doing that.

Though I actually get the feeling that Lakeshore East isn't really that bad. Even if Durham continues to be really sprawl-ey, improvements to the system mean there'd be a pretty big incentive for any Durham resident to park at a Go station and take the train downtown, and that's definitely an improvement over everyone taking the DVP. From a sustainability point of view, the whole corridor's really just in a crappy location, sitting mostly on industrial land and beside a very major highway. But that means there's lots of space for parking garages!