Big Ideas: Can GO relieve TTC crowding?

GO trains could make more stops in Toronto. But how would that impact riders in the region and what would it cost?

Thestar.com
April 8, 2014
By Tess Kalinowski

What if transit relief were as near as the closest GO train track?

The Lakeshore East GO train runs directly beneath a pedestrian bridge near Pape Ave. and Gerrard St. It looks like there’s room for a GO platform, with an obvious connection to the Gerrard streetcar.

Why couldn’t GO stop there and pick up commuters headed downtown? GO trains already stop in Toronto at places like Mimico and Danforth.

It is the kind of question being asked more frequently as TTC crowding grows. Why not add more GO stops in the city?

Toronto wants to build a relief subway from the Danforth line around Pape or Main to somewhere between Front and Queen Sts. It would reduce crowding on the Yonge-University line south of Bloor and send fewer people through the overflowing Bloor-Yonge transfer node.

Some think GO trains could be a nearer-term, less expensive solution than the $7.4 billion and five to eight years required to build another subway.

Metrolinx, the city and the TTC are already studying the possibilities for adding transit capacity in Toronto through the GO system. The second public consultation on a long list of relief options, part of the Yonge Relief Network Study, takes place Tuesday in Richmond Hill, with more to come Thursday and Saturday in Toronto. Meantime, the city and TTC are looking at potential routes for the new relief subway.

GO hasn’t looked at adding a stop at Pape and Gerrard. The narrow right-of-way and curve wouldn’t be ideal for a stop, said Leslie Woo, Metrolinx’s vice-president of policy, planning and innovation. But even in a more suitable location, adding a GO stop “is not simply a matter of putting a slab of concrete on either side of the tracks,” she said.

“People need to access the platform. So it’s not just the narrow piece of the platform itself. It’s the station facilities around and behind it. If there’s some pick-up, drop-off areas, the footprint gets a little bigger every time you add these amenities,” she said, adding that TTC connections and car access also need to be explored.

In addition to platforms and station considerations, new stops affect journey times all down the line and freight movements on that track.

Then there’s the issue of whether new stops are justified by ridership and whether, if there were more riders, there would be room for them on the trains, particularly in the peak hours when the TTC is at capacity.

Rush-hour capacity on GO is also limited. The trains are often full by the time they get to Toronto, which means that GO would have to expand its infrastructure.

“Anything in the Toronto area that is on the Richmond Hill or the Stouffville line, we would need to look at double-tracking where there’s single tracks, to create more capacity,” Woo said.

GO has a critical role in adding capacity to the transit network. But it’s not the “golden goose,” said Toronto chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat.

Given that the Yonge line is already over capacity and there’s a pent-up demand for transit in the core, she said, “A relief (subway) line is going to be critical in any scenario.”

“GO can only do more if we add more service, add more frequency; adding more stations needs to be looked at,” she said.

Toronto also needs to be clear about the role of regional and local transit.

“Of course people who live in the city are completely annoyed that the train is going by their house and they can’t get on it,” said Keesmaat.

At the same time, is it fair to ask someone who’s been on the GO train from Barrie or Hamilton - trips that already take up to 90 minutes - to suffer a longer commuter with more stops in the city?

At Yonge and Eglinton, where about half of commuters use transit, people struggle to get on the subway going downtown in the morning. It’s already full of people who get on at Finch, many of them from York Region.

“It’s not very efficient for someone to sit on the train at Finch and stop all the way along the system ... as the capacity problems grow, the closer you live to the core, the more impossible it is to get on the transit system you pay for,” said Keesmaat.

Transit blogger Steve Munro agrees that if GO is going to provide relief, it should be for those regional riders getting on at end-of-line stations such as Finch, because they are the ones who are filling up the subway. It’s about how the network functions, he said.

“GO has good potential as an alternative route because it offers the most time saving for these trips, not for short hops, where station access and wait times will dominate,” he said.

How GO runs more service is one question. Fares are another, according to Munro.

“What people regard as a viable (transportation) alternative will be influenced by how much you propose to charge them... . The fare levels for what people regard as TTC-distance trips are not competitive,” particularly given GO’s relatively infrequent service, he said.

GO charges $5.30 one way from Mimico to Union Station ($4.77 with a Presto card discount), compared with $2.70 for a TTC token or $3 cash fare.

Munro wondered: If Metrolinx negotiates a competitive fare for Toronto GO riders, will regional riders be subsidizing those trips?

The advent of the Presto card opens the door to negotiations on a different fare structure, said Metrolinx’s Woo.

But with nine regional transit systems, plus the TTC, all operating on their own fare structure, she said, “It’s a big-step change to move to a regional, integrated fare system.”