I think Toronto is probably the only place on the planet that offers free covered parking at it's transit stations. There should be a minimum $2/day flat rate for ANY of the parking at a GO station so that you don't have surface parking lots packed while the expensive garages are empty. This would go a long way to help funding GO service and encourage people to take transit to the station especially now that transfers are free between agencies in the 905 when using GO. The only exceptions for paid parking should be for disabled drivers with decals and possibly Sundays when transit service is limited or even non-existent.

Metrolinx should have a FIRM schedule to get rid of all parking lots where there are parking garages and selling off that land to developers.
 
ssiguy2 said:
I think Toronto is probably the only place on the planet that offers free covered parking at it's transit stations. There should be a minimum $2/day flat rate for ANY of the parking at a GO station so that you don't have surface parking lots packed while the expensive garages are empty. This would go a long way to help funding GO service and encourage people to take transit to the station especially now that transfers are free between agencies in the 905 when using GO. The only exceptions for paid parking should be for disabled drivers with decals and possibly Sundays when transit service is limited or even non-existent.

Metrolinx should have a FIRM schedule to get rid of all parking lots where there are parking garages and selling off that land to developers.
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the idea is for people to use go trains instead of cars, especially for coming into the city. it's to stop congestion. making it more expensive/impossible makes people more likely to just drive.

can't forget it's a regional rail network and because of that the regions it connects to doesn't have great transit (accessibility/frequency) like toronto does. so removing parking lots would likely remove options for people and greatly increase the trip time.

Maybe one day when Toronto eventually becomes a Tokyo like city-region then they can change their minds but their intended use does make sense and shouldn't be altered. We aren't there yet.

edit: and should mention that inside the city it still makes sense, too. Every little bit helps in reducing congestion even if a bit unorthodox
 
nfitz said:
Yes and no. They are going to do one half of the Lakeshore line as A, and the other half as G. If this was Paris it would all be A. (or A1 and A2 for West Harbour versus Hamilton Centre trains)
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Yes you're right, Paris doesn't have a separate letter for each branch of a line. I meant in concept, if not the details.
DopeyFish said:
the idea is for people to use go trains instead of cars, especially for coming into the city. it's to stop congestion. making it more expensive/impossible makes people more likely to just drive.

can't forget it's a regional rail network and because of that the regions it connects to doesn't have great transit (accessibility/frequency) like toronto does. so removing parking lots would likely remove options for people and greatly increase the trip time.

Maybe one day when Toronto eventually becomes a Tokyo like city-region then they can change their minds but their intended use does make sense and shouldn't be altered. We aren't there yet.

edit: and should mention that inside the city it still makes sense, too. Every little bit helps in reducing congestion even if a bit unorthodox
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I think it's just an old fashioned mentality based on an outdated service model and misguided assumptions. Every trainload of drivers creates a traffic jam (and the ludicrous GO Train sprint) so the current strategy is clearly not working at stopping congestion. It doesn't stop congestion, it creates it. I'd wager that they'd be more effective at reducing congestion by taking the money they currently spend on subsidizing driving and putting it towards local transit and cycling infrastructure feeding into stations. The TTC has had a similar approach for decades - frequent buses feed into subway stations across the city, including the most suburban parts. They've built one of the busiest rapid transit systems in North America this way. Suburbanites will take the bus if the service is good.
 
MisterF said:
Yes you're right, Paris doesn't have a separate letter for each branch of a line. I meant in concept, if not the details.

I think it's just an old fashioned mentality based on an outdated service model and misguided assumptions. Every trainload of drivers creates a traffic jam (and the ludicrous GO Train sprint) so the current strategy is clearly not working at stopping congestion. It doesn't stop congestion, it creates it. I'd wager that they'd be more effective at reducing congestion by taking the money they currently spend on subsidizing driving and putting it towards local transit and cycling infrastructure feeding into stations. The TTC has had a similar approach for decades - frequent buses feed into subway stations across the city, including the most suburban parts. They've built one of the busiest rapid transit systems in North America this way. Suburbanites will take the bus if the service is good.
Click to expand...
ssiguy2 said:
I think Toronto is probably the only place on the planet that offers free covered parking at it's transit stations. There should be a minimum $2/day flat rate for ANY of the parking at a GO station so that you don't have surface parking lots packed while the expensive garages are empty. This would go a long way to help funding GO service and encourage people to take transit to the station especially now that transfers are free between agencies in the 905 when using GO. The only exceptions for paid parking should be for disabled drivers with decals and possibly Sundays when transit service is limited or even non-existent.

Metrolinx should have a FIRM schedule to get rid of all parking lots where there are parking garages and selling off that land to developers.
Click to expand...

Look at the gardiner on weekends especially during active to. Everyone here forgets go is basically useless if your destination is more than 5 blocks north of union.

I had to get from Mississauga to the distillery district a few weekends ago. It was ~30 mins driving OR I could take the go that runs each half hour, then take a ttc bus 30 mins that didn't coincide with the go schedule. For fun we planned out how long it would take waiting for all the schedules to sync and it was something like an hour and 40 mins!
 
ssiguy2 said:
I think Toronto is probably the only place on the planet that offers free covered parking at it's transit stations. There should be a minimum $2/day flat rate for ANY of the parking at a GO station so that you don't have surface parking lots packed while the expensive garages are empty. This would go a long way to help funding GO service and encourage people to take transit to the station especially now that transfers are free between agencies in the 905 when using GO. The only exceptions for paid parking should be for disabled drivers with decals and possibly Sundays when transit service is limited or even non-existent.

Metrolinx should have a FIRM schedule to get rid of all parking lots where there are parking garages and selling off that land to developers.
Click to expand...
Actually they did have a plan to charge for parking, until they all of a sudden forgot about said plan.

The plan was to start conversing some free spots to paid ones beginning April 2022, and half would be paid by September 2022. We're in November 2022 with 0 paid parking on the system so we know where Metrolinx priorities are at these days...

www.theglobeandmail.com

Metrolinx plans to convert tens of thousands of GO station parking spots from free to paid

The shift is planned to begin within months and will be a pricey change for many of the roughly 65,000 GO customers who drive to the stations
www.theglobeandmail.com www.theglobeandmail.com
 
turbanplanner said:
Look at the gardiner on weekends especially during active to. Everyone here forgets go is basically useless if your destination is more than 5 blocks north of union.

I had to get from Mississauga to the distillery district a few weekends ago. It was ~30 mins driving OR I could take the go that runs each half hour, then take a ttc bus 30 mins that didn't coincide with the go schedule. For fun we planned out how long it would take waiting for all the schedules to sync and it was something like an hour and 40 mins!
Click to expand...
I don't think anyone is forgetting that at all. GO's overreliance on Union Station is part of the reason that new and expanded interchange stations are being built around the city to create a tightly integrated local and regional rapid transit system..

The Distillery District is a 20 minute walk from Union. No need to wait for schedules to sync. Or driving can make sense too, especially if there's a group going. It doesn't have to be all one or all the other.
 
turbanplanner said:
I had to get from Mississauga to the distillery district a few weekends ago. It was ~30 mins driving OR I could take the go that runs each half hour, then take a ttc bus 30 mins that didn't coincide with the go schedule. For fun we planned out how long it would take waiting for all the schedules to sync and it was something like an hour and 40 mins!
Click to expand...
It's only a 20-minute walk from Union to Distillery.

Though if I don't want to walk, I just walk 2 blocks to King (or jump on the subway), and take the 504 streetcar to Parliament or Cherry.

The Esplanade bus isn't much use if there isn't one coincidentally there at the right time.
 
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Mimico’s parking lot is not huge and I would estimate that 75% of the spaces are already paid -parking - as Reserved parking. I don’t like the Reserved because it limits use to one car per slot per day, where if it were unreserved (but paid) one might see two or more users per day. (I have taken a chance or two when going downtown for the evening…. if a Reserved spot is empty at 4 PM, odds are that the user has left work early, so won’t care if others use the space)

Why is GO so reliant on parking? Simple - If I park at Mimico I can be home 5-8 minutes after I step off the train. If I use the bus, it can be a half hour. At midnight, after being downtown for the evening, that bus ride is excruciating - driving is more secure and avoids some walks in dark places. This is a case where the automobile is the most attractive option - turns out cars are good for some things.

There ought to be strong appeal for first/mile last mile services, but traditional city bus is not attractive and nobody has figured out a good alternative. One day shared use AV’s might provide a more personalised shuttle, but that’s just as much traffic in and out of the station, but less need for parking. Of course, all those AV’s will have to park somewhere until the Jays game lets out.

- Paul
 
It’s
MisterF said:
I don't think anyone is forgetting that at all. GO's overreliance on Union Station is part of the reason that new and expanded interchange stations are being built around the city to create a tightly integrated local and regional rapid transit system..

The Distillery District is a 20 minute walk from Union. No need to wait for schedules to sync. Or driving can make sense too, especially if there's a group going. It doesn't have to be all one or all the other.
Click to expand...
It’s more than 20 mins I’m pretty tall and for me it’s a bit over half an hour. I'm really happy they're making multiple "union stations" as I've seen them call it but then it's silly to get rid of free parking on weekends until then.

I'm not picking on anymore here but I saw so many rude reddit comments last year about people choosing to drive in during Active TO. OMG there is a go station! Great I was stuck waiting 2 hours at a station because I missed my train and the next one was cancelled due to a trespasser.

I don't get some peoples hatred of the idea of driving because transit doesn't work for everyone, so lets ram through parking fees on the weekend despite even the TTC lots being free
 
crs1026 said:
Mimico’s parking lot is not huge and I would estimate that 75% of the spaces are already paid -parking - as Reserved parking. I don’t like the Reserved because it limits use to one car per slot per day, where if it were unreserved (but paid) one might see two or more users per day. (I have taken a chance or two when going downtown for the evening…. if a Reserved spot is empty at 4 PM, odds are that the user has left work early, so won’t care if others use the space)

Why is GO so reliant on parking? Simple - If I park at Mimico I can be home 5-8 minutes after I step off the train. If I use the bus, it can be a half hour. At midnight, after being downtown for the evening, that bus ride is excruciating - driving is more secure and avoids some walks in dark places. This is a case where the automobile is the most attractive option - turns out cars are good for some things.

There ought to be strong appeal for first/mile last mile services, but traditional city bus is not attractive and nobody has figured out a good alternative. One day shared use AV’s might provide a more personalised shuttle, but that’s just as much traffic in and out of the station, but less need for parking. Of course, all those AV’s will have to park somewhere until the Jays game lets out.

- Paul
Click to expand...
I agree that GO should shift from reserved to paid at several of it's stations - particularly the ones that are almost entirely reserved parking at this point like Long Branch, Mimico, and Hamilton Centre.
 
innsertnamehere said:
I agree that GO should shift from reserved to paid at several of it's stations - particularly the ones that are almost entirely reserved parking at this point like Long Branch, Mimico, and Hamilton Centre.
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Hamilton Centre has always been 100% reserved as far as I can remember (at least since 2014).

Screenshot_20221111-191048.png

The first heading should actually have read "Stations where no parking is available"
 
I thought Long Branch was also entirely reserved? Or maybe enough people cancelled reservations through COVID there are now some non-reserved spaces.. looking at streetview, it looks like there are maybe 20 spaces which are uncontrolled, free parking.

I'm curious to see if Hamilton Centre stays fully reserved with West Harbour opening. Why drive to a station with paid parking and only 4 trains a day if just down the street is a station with all day service and excess amounts of free parking?
 
I hadn't realised there was free parking at Union. Did they put parking back now that the decade of construction is winding down?
 
nfitz said:
I thought the proposed GO station at Spadina (closer to Bathurst I thought) was only going to be for Barrie trains, because of it being on the north side of all the tracks - perhaps Kitchener.

I also thought they shelved it.
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It's happening as part of this

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