Regional Rail

Proposed by Sean Marshall - Session 2, Group 12

Using Rail Corridors for Rapid Frequent Metro-Like Train Service Across Toronto and the 905 Region

The basic concept is to use smaller trains, running more often, to provide a "back-bone" of service. It would serve "reverse-commuters". There would be more stops, but smaller multiple unit trains would be able to load and unload quicker and accelerate faster. This is similar to European, Asian and Australian systems. It would bring subway-style rapid transit not only to the 905, but to places in Toronto that are underserved. Weston, for example, would become an equivalent to a subway stop.

There's an issue of From Oakville to Guelph, there's no way to travel - either go to Hamilton and back, or go through Union Station and downtown Toronto. Intra-905 trips are not well served.

The problem is that GO, as now is centred on Union, only serves office tower commuters during rush hours. They are missing new markets and underserved markets. Suburb-to-suburb commutes, downtown-to-suburb commutes,

Question about capacity at Union Station. Already congested. GO is building more platforms. also, if trains come frequently, the dwell times would

How does one get Oakvile to Square One, a 3 hour trip?

Airport Rail Link issue. Weston. This is a job for regional rail. A new station at Woodbine Airprot would provide connections, and one branch could go into the airport, the other branch into Brampton. At Woodbine, TTC buses and Mississauga, Brampton, York Region could connect serving areas now underserved by rapid transit and make an interregional hub. VIA Trains could also stop here, making an easy connection for commuters from Kitchener, Guelph, London to the airport and other systems in the area without going to Union Station.

Issue of fares and transit integration. Bus systems in the 905 and even in Toronto stations, buses should connect and make it similar to subway stations where buses directly serve the subway.

In Britain. They paid one fare to Gatwick airport, but were able to change from train, to underground, to another train. The Oyster card there (similar to Presto here) has a zone fare structure that calculates how far you've gone a deducts your fare like a debit card. A bus-to-subway-to-train-to-bus transfer, while still inconvenient, would be all as one fare. Fares should also not penalize riders to

Hubs - if a grocery store, daycare at a GO Station would be amazing. The regional rail stations have the potential to be mied use hubs that would see buses, trains converge, but services there like shopping. There would be a community there. Subway stations drive development and these things. GO Stations, with very limited service do not. Increased density and more people moving through will help. Even thouse who drive and at least not make another trip to do a simple shopping trip or pick up the kids, so it is saving unnecessary car and even bus trips.

This is a way to move to build an urban centre in the wastelands that are many GO Stations now (Bronte being the great example of a giant parking lot and nothing else)

We drive because of the inflexibility of GO schedules, when trains run every hour or worse (Brampton has a bus every three hours from Union Station). We need to fix this.

How to start - incrementally. Maybe run buses first every 15 minutes, or get Lakeshore line down to every 30 minutes. This increases demand and starts to build a transit culture. People want to ride transit, but we are not providing the service that people would want to actually take transit.  

There is also the need to work on the local transit connecting to regional rail. Buses will need to connect properly to avoid long waits. Oakville Transit buses, for example, not scheduled to meet arriving trains, even though Oakville Transit is already a GO-centric network.

Some hubs are painfully close to GO Stations, but not close enough. Mississauga City Centre (Square One) is not close enough to Cooksville station. Is there a way to fix this? A diversion to MCC from the Milton Line and use the 403 corridor would serve this very dense area and transit hub. It would be better and faster than a subway extension from Kipling. A regional rail would stop at Kipling for local connections, and serve as a subway for points west of there. Stops would be too close together.

Metrolinx is slowly moving forward on this the "REX" proposal. It is vaguely defined, but this is what they are going for.

Need to make public transit improvements a big political issue, and need to put pressure on MPs, MPPs, municipal councillors. There are people already involved that need to be engaged more - mayors, regional chairs that already sit on Metrolinx and GO Transit Board.

Next step would be federal changes to make transit agencies control the tracks they improve and use often, and then starting with one route to prove the benefit of regional rail as a example for other corridors.

Also need to address railway chokepoints. Perhaps provincial/federal funding should give more money to transit for all highway work done.

The EA process is faster, but construction is slow.