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@sixrings I know what you mean about the bus - I experience something similar. That being said, if the BRT line is done properly - with frequent service, dedicated lanes, signal priority and well appointed vehicles and stops - I would love to use it.
 
sixrings said:
Rail is smoother with nicer vehicles. BRT or not I feel poorer on a bus and flashes of Rosa Parks come to mind. Rail on the other hand feels like the better way. At best it's subway fast and efficient. At worst it's a decent street car ride. I hate the bus and I assume many others do by how many people are picked up at kiss and rides.
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I hate TTC buses, and their racket, rattling windows, hard braking, swerving, etc.
 
Admiral Beez said:
I hate TTC buses, and their racket, rattling windows, hard braking, swerving, etc.
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Actually the Nova buses are much better in terms of braking, swerving and windows.

I once saw a GM New Look blow out a window hitting a pot hole. Another time I was on a classic (6600 series) that had slammed on the brakes and boy could they stop on a dime.

My point is that the buses aren't so bad anymore, they used to be alot worse in Toronto. When my father started on the job in 1988 they didn't even have power steering!
 
Richard White said:
Actually the Nova buses are much better in terms of braking, swerving and windows.

I once saw a GM New Look blow out a window hitting a pot hole. Another time I was on a classic (6600 series) that had slammed on the brakes and boy could they stop on a dime.

My point is that the buses aren't so bad anymore, they used to be alot worse in Toronto. When my father started on the job in 1988 they didn't even have power steering!
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My grandad drove an AEC Routemaster in London for 40 years. I used to love getting on his bus near my house in Lewisham, SE London.
 
Richard White said:
My point is that the buses aren't so bad anymore, they used to be alot worse in Toronto. When my father started on the job in 1988 they didn't even have power steering!
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My late father started in '74, and of all the buses he drove by far the worst were the (Flyer) trolley coaches. No power steering either plus the added fun of re-wiring poles when they slipped off. Classics were his favourite, the later New Looks (8500 onwards) after that.
 
sixrings said:
Rail is smoother with nicer vehicles. BRT or not I feel poorer on a bus
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Neutrino said:
I know what you mean about the bus - I experience something similar. That being said, if the BRT line is done properly - with frequent service, dedicated lanes, signal priority and well appointed vehicles and stops - I would love to use it.
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All one has to do is compare the ride through Mississauga on the busway compared to buses on regular roads. I often end up taking the Mi-Way 109 express bus from Square One to Islington Station, and then the subway to Dundas West, as it's faster than taking the GO 21 to Union, then taking UPX or the subway back up to Dundas West. I often travel in on the 25 or 29 bus from Guelph or K/W only to be dumped in Square One.

The only thing worse than a busway is no busway. They are considerably cheaper and more flexible to build and use than rail. GO run their buses along the busway too when possible. And I should hope so, they financed a good chunk of it. The busway can always be upgraded to an LRT later if demand and funding allow.

I'd like a personal Lear Jet myself, but hey...
 
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steveintoronto said:
The busway can always be upgraded to an LRT later if demand and funding allow.
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A short stretch of the Busway could become single lane bidirectional, while tracks are laid. The buses could travel with minimal delay through this area. Construction alternates to the other side, and moves along until the entire length is converted. Then it can be switched to LRT virtually overnight.
I'd like to see them convert the LRT to subway without disruptions.
 
BurlOak said:
A short stretch of the Busway could become single lane bidirectional, while tracks are laid. The buses could travel with minimal delay through this area. Construction alternates to the other side, and moves along until the entire length is converted. Then it can be switched to LRT virtually overnight.
I'd like to see them convert the LRT to subway without disruptions.
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My major concern would be installing the tracks in such a way as to allow higher speed bus travel on a shared RoW without loss of directional or braking ability. I'm sure someone has written on that, will delve for it later. Even if all Miway vehicles are superseded by an LRT, GO buses will still have to use it.

I was curious as to what has been written on the "Transitway" (to be more correct) that was up-to-date, and the following has been revised very recently:

THE MISSISSAUGA TRANSITWAY
(Last Modified on May 8, 2018 1:48 PM)

The official map of the Mississauga Transitway

Text by Peter Drost
Revised by James Bow

[...]

THE FUTURE
Now that the transitway is completed, the next phase of the Mississauga Transitway could be to extend the line west to Ridgeway Drive, where a new station will be built. Also, dedicated transit lanes between Confederation and Erin Mills will be replaced by a grade-separated right-of-way, with a new station being built at Creditview and a possible connection with the Milton GO Train at Erindale. When Mississauga's Hurontario LRT is built, the City Centre station will be reconfigured, with the platforms along Rathburn Road shared with the LRT. Space has also been protected for a possible future station along Centre View Drive.

Other possible extensions include upgrading the planned 427 operation from mixed traffic to a dedicated busway from Renforth and Kipling, and it is possible that the transitway may become a component of a larger regional service, with transitway extensions following Highway 403 and 407 into Oakville and Burlington. It may also come to pass that the transitway will be extended east, via Highway 401 and hydro corridors, across the north end of Toronto and through York Region and into Pickering. If this comes to pass, the Transitway will be a major regional installation, providing GO Transit buses quick access across the Greater Toronto Area, bypassing congestion on all major highways.

Mississauga's Transitway has been a long time in coming, partly due to bad luck, and partly due to a city that has only recently become very serious about urban intensification and public transit use. The original planners who proposed the transitway in 1970 may have been visionaries, but in many ways their vision was obscured by a lack of political will that prevented a very pragmatic proposal from becoming a reality. Still, on November 17, 2014, Mississauga could finally claim that the future had arrived.
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https://transit.toronto.on.ca/regional/2109.shtml

I was just checking the TTC's awkward to navigate site for the latest on bus connections from Renforth to Kipling. They mention the "E" bus, but it's nowhere to be found in schedule posted.
http://www.ttc.ca/Routes/112/Northbound.jsp

I mention that because the article above that I quote also posts this:
DOCUMENT ARCHIVE
Nothing but local service that happens to terminate at Kipling one end, Renforth the other! I'm still forced to use the Miway 109 to connect Square One to Islington, three fares counting the arriving GO buses at Square One to get to Dundas West. Sure I can take the connecting GO routes (two of them) to Renforth, and then the 112 milk run to Kipling to cut that to two fares (the TTC now being co-fare) but what a freakin' hassle!
 
The problem is that unlike ottawa or mississauga there areimited options for busways in toronto. Plus we have built our system on a grid.
 
sixrings said:
The problem is that unlike ottawa or mississauga there areimited options for busways in toronto. Plus we have built our system on a grid.
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It's an excellent point in general, but there are the electric transmission corridors, which have been used for the B-D subway, and were proposed to be used for Transit City.

Googling for examples, I see UT has a string on it:
https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threads/what-we-can-learn-from-city-busways.18293/

York U has/had a busway.

And Lorinc at Spacing.ca wrote a great piece on buses:
http://spacing.ca/toronto/2016/01/13/buses-buses-buses/

We cross posted!
sixrings said:
That said I am all for roads like lawrence, ellesmere, Wilson, Kipling, islington, warden all get bus/911 lanes.
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Yes...and where possible/sensible, connect those to 'busways' such that congested stretches can be by-passed.
 
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@Richard White One problem I find with the Novas is that their seats seem to be noticeably stiffer than the Orions. Not to mention fewer seats overall. However, the Novas' ride quality is good.
 
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