Quote:
Originally Posted by nito
Focusing development around transport nodes is outright sensible; it makes cities more efficient and the concentration aids retail and other amenities with footfall. I understand the need to deliver more housing to serve expanding populations, but I just find some of the planning/masterplan decisions rather peculiar. Looking at some maps, you’d assume that Cooksville and Erindale GO Transit stations would have proven to be more effective anchors for development, or a new branch line to directly serve the concentration of high-density development.
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The Milton line that serves Erindale and Cooksville GO stations only has peak period train service though, with no service mid-day, late evening and weekend service. During those off-peak periods, they have to use buses instead. This is because the rails are privately owned by Canadian Pacific and that section of railway is used by all of their freight traffic passing through Southern Ontario (both east-west and north-south traffic).
As a result they're reluctant to allow much passenger service on their tracks out of concerns it would interfere with their freight operations.
Most of the rest of the GO network is controlled by Metrolinx (provincial government agency) so there's fewer issues with service expansions there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nito
You would assume that this isn’t the only development along this lake corridor, so the question should not be around current ridership, but the upgrades and capacity to absorb future ridership.
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It's not, but a lot of the other development would be able to make use of other transit routes. The lakefront development further West in Mississauga and beyond (ex Lakeview Village and Brightwater) would mostly be using GO Trains heading into Toronto, possibly in combination with feeder buses routes (which still have a lot of room for capacity expansion). But they wouldn't be using the streetcar since the streetcar doesn't go past Toronto city limits.
The lakefront development between Mississauga and Humber Bay is mostly on a much smaller scale, so it shouldn't impact streetcar ridership too much. The main large scale development is around Mimico station, but they can just get on the GO trains there.
There's quite a lot of condo development in Etobicoke along the Queensway, Highway 427, Dundas W and a couple smaller clusters, but those would mostly be using the Queensway bus and Bloor Subway, and to an extent the Milton GO line. They would use similar arterial roads and highways as the Humber Bay residents, but they wouldn't use the Lakeshore streetcars much.
Finally, there's the development around Liberty Village/King West. This is basically an extension of downtown Toronto. Although there's a lot of development taking place here, you could in theory just add more surface routes along more streets if you need more capacity. If the Metrolinx finally pursues fare integration with the TTC, that will probably re-route a lot of transit users onto the GO trains too. There was room for a significant amount of capacity expansion along this corridor, as evidenced by the fact that the streetcars there were carrying a lot fewer passengers 1-2 decades ago. It's true that eventually those more affordable surface transit upgrades might be at capacity too, but there are plans to expand rail transit here with the new Ontario Line subway, and potential infill stations (King-Liberty & Spadina-Front) on the GO network.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nito
Perhaps it is a timing of StreetView, but if that entire neighbourhood has a solitary entry/exit point for vehicles and pedestrians, combined with poor public transit, why is it so quiet when it is a literal high-rise cul-de-sac? There must be hundreds of apartments, and as you note, a hotel and office. As for the bus schedules, I was looking at the schedule for the 43C bus which runs to the neighbourhood in question; 15 northbound services each weekday from Kennedy, with services only between 0530 to 0830 and 1500 to 1900. High-rise towers in a suburban environment is incredibly grim sounding.
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It's quiet because cul-de-sacs attract no through traffic. You have no reason to drive in there unless you live/work there. It's the arterial roads that get congested because people from hundreds, if not thousands of cul-de-sacs might consider using them. That's why traffic problems (at least in North American cities) are usually regional rather than local issues. It's only in very extreme cases of high densities with limited exit points that you get localized congestion problems, like Liberty Village:
https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.63925...7i16384!8i8192
The 43C bus doesn't come often, but 43A does. 43A doesn't go into the cul-de-sac, but it's only a 5 minute walk to the bus stop at the intersection of the cul-de-sac and Kennedy. There's even a night bus doing a few runs along Kennedy around 2-4am.
Humber Bay also benefits from being at the edge of the road network, in the sense that there's no development to the south of it (because that's the lake). As a result, there's a lot less car traffic along Lakeshore in South Etobicoke than you would normally expect for an inner suburb.
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