Comment 69542

By Robert D (anonymous) | Posted September 13, 2011 at 11:53:21 in reply to Comment 69537

I agree, although I think it's dangerous and unfortunate to make such a move, consider the following:

Right now rush hour trains come out of hunter street - an urban station whose only parallel on the lakeshore west line, in my mind, is Union Station. All the other lakeshore west stops are little more than parking lots.

If we make such a "parking lot" station in Hamilton in the east end (stoney creek) or even on James Street North, the trains that leave from these stations will be bypassing hunter street station (the tracks don't meet up until near the York St. bridge). Now, all plans I've seen to date have suggested maintaining peak service at hunter, and off-peak service at the other stations, but if we're becoming a "bedroom community" this doens't make much sense as people who use these new stations with huge parking lots will want express service during rush hour to get them to and from work.

I'm afraid we'll gain all day GO and a parking lot, but loose rush hour GO services to Hunter Street, which in my mind would be a real blow to the core, and create an unfortunate division which exists, most visible in Mississauga, where the GO train stations and the GO Bus station are located rather far apart, making transfers not worth the hassle.

Additionally, since all day GO train service is a "money losing" proposition accoridng to Brad Clark's assessment of previous studies, I think GO will look to cut costs wherever possible, and I fear for the future of our QEW express service. We are, perhaps, the only city that has such an express serivce into downtown Toronto, and it becomes very redundant if we have all day train service.

If we lose the express bus we'll really be thanking Bratina for the "win" - until anyone tries to take the train to Toronto at off-peak times and realizes that the trains take longer than the old express buses did, especially if they're making all stops.

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