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Coruscanti Cognoscente said:
I can't figure out why Toronto doesn't build above-ground subways.
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From my Scarborough friends, the transfer at Kennedy was a bigger deal than anything, but the SRT may have given elevated transit a bad name. I did not hear that many complaints about the appearance itself.

Somehow, fear of the EA process and public comments probably made TTC shy away from elevated transit - not even suggesting it as an option for locals to consider.

More recently, I think Ford did not know enough about transit to know the difference between elevated and underground transit. As for the other Councillors, they were more interested in politically defeating Mr. Ford than optimizing our transit system.
 
denfromoakvillemilton said:
Par course for Toronto...
It's just so sad CC, Chicago with all its violence is a better city for transit...
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I can tell you haven't spent much time in Chicago, particularly outside the loop; and waiting for a train on a loop platform on a cold/windy winter night is enough to make you stop by a car dealership on the way home.

You get better service on Toronto bus lines like York Mills than you do on most Chicago metro lines.

I'll give Metra Electric District and North Central Service 2 thumbs up though. Both these Metra links allow you to avoid the L and get to your destination in a reasonable timeframe.

Chicago is a car town. Even in heavy traffic it's still far faster to take a cab.
 
Coruscanti Cognoscente said:
You can just add another "fail" in Toronto's pocket. Fun times to be had for all.
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We're getting a huge new 19km transit line, the majority of which will be grade-separated, and it's a "fail" because people are going to have to walk 1 flight of stairs to transfer between this line and two other rapid transit lines, all with very frequent service? All things considered, I would still say that it's a pretty major win; the transfer is a minor inconvenience at most.

Transfers suck when they involve either a long walk or a long wait, but they're pretty painless when they're easy and fast. Compare the transfers at Spadina and St. George -- at Spadina it's an annoying ordeal because of the walk, but at St. George you don't even notice it. The current Kennedy transfer is more like Spadina (except the distance is vertical rather than horizontal); the new one will be more like St. George. I know that won't satisfy the "transfers are stupid" people here, but I think that once it's in operation it'll actually make a big difference in how users feel about the transfer.
 
car4041 said:
We're getting a huge new 19km transit line, the majority of which will be grade-separated, and it's a "fail" because people are going to have to walk 1 flight of stairs to transfer between this line and two other rapid transit lines, all with very frequent service? All things considered, I would still say that it's a pretty major win; the transfer is a minor inconvenience at most.

Transfers suck when they involve either a long walk or a long wait, but they're pretty painless when they're easy and fast.
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Major interchange stations also aren't that uncommon.

Nobody in Mexico City freaks out because the A line isn't connected to the 1 line, or that lines 9 and 5 are separate. Transfers (both at the same station) are quite easy.

I can think of dozens of lousy transfers out there. MTR's orange North Island line to the Blue Hong Kong line is pretty darn painful.

Red line to almost anything at Jackson in Chicago isn't pleasant. The pedestrian tunnel isn't always big enough for the crowds going through it. A single very large person can effectively block pedestrian traffic in both directions.


Of course, the worst transfer (East Rail to Shenzen Green requires clearing customs) has been fixed with an express through train. Looking forward to trying out this line in the fall as I found Shenzen customs wasn't very tourist friendly last time I went through here.
 
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^ My current commute involves me going up a flight of stairs, down a hallway, down a long flight of stairs, down another hallway, down a long escalator, one other flight of stairs and a hallway for good measure to transfer from the Circle line to the Jubilee line at Baker Street Station.

Tl;dr Suck it the hell up.
 
The_Architect said:
^ My current commute involves me going up a flight of stairs, down a hallway, down a long flight of stairs, down another hallway, down a long escalator, one other flight of stairs and a hallway for good measure to transfer from the Circle line to the Jubilee line at Baker Street Station.
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Hah, yeah, but London is royally screwed up. They've got to be the only city that purposfully makes some transfers difficult as a form of crowd control. At a few stations, they're even known for reconfiguring the transfer on the fly by closing/opening gates at shorter corridors to create a time-delay allowing platforms/escalators/elevators to clear.

I tried to stick with examples that weren't actively trying to punish their customers.
 
Transfer from the Green Line (streetcar) to the Orange Line (subway) at Park Street station in Boston. Then get back to me about "awful" transfers.

It's the nature of public transit to transfer modes. I drive quite a bit and when I do use transit (more frequently I might add) I don't even care for the transfers.

The notion of one seat rides and fewer transfers has to stop. Or else we might as well build a bus stop, an LRT stop and a subway station at everyone's front door.
 
It's amazing listening to Torontonians complaint about transfers, given how painless transfers often are in Toronto compared to many cities.

Even the one people seem to complain about the most, at Kennedy, is only up a few flights of stairs ... and is going to be replaced.

Transfers are one of the things TTC got right.

Now, there's some GO/TTC transfers that could do with some work ... Leslie/Oriole ... Main/Danforth ... etc. Even Exhibition Loop to Exhibition station seems to require an undue amount of walking, given the streetcar tracks go so close to platform 1 and the main entrance of the station.
 
nfitz said:
It's amazing listening to Torontonians complaint about transfers, given how painless transfers often are in Toronto compared to many cities.

Even the one people seem to complain about the most, at Kennedy, is only up a few flights of stairs ... and is going to be replaced.

Transfers are one of the things TTC got right.
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I am glad the TTC did not put in a trasfer at St. George when the extended the Spadina subway. I think there would be lots of complaints about a lack of a one seat ride if riders had to get off the Spadina subway and transfer to the Yonge-Univertisy line.

When they build a subway to Richmond Hill and Vaughan, will there be a transfer at Finch (or Steeles) so that the York Region riders have to make a transfer to get onto the Y-U-S line.
 
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