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Read In Transit on
Tuesdays and Thursdays in
Metro
Toronto, the daily commuter paper.
"Expansion Pt. 2" (From Page 1)
... between
York University and Mississauga’s Square One -- so riders won’t
see the Scottish-built “bi-level” coaches in every time slot.
Everyone
knows that what GO needs most is a dramatic improvement to rail
service, but officials are rightfully pleased to be launching a
brand new bus route aimed at those transit users who aren’t
heading to downtown Toronto. Route 40 will serve Pearson Airport
beginning Saturday, with 86 daily trips to and from central
Mississauga. The Square One GO terminal is already a major
transit hub as is Richmond Hill Centre terminal, which will have
44 buses connecting with Pearson daily.
This new
line not only boosts transit access to the airport (almost
everyone currently arrives by auto), it adds another 905-to-905
corridor to the regional network.
However
there remains at least one crucial hole in GO’s grid. Despite
relatively good weekday train service between Brampton and
central Toronto -- the Georgetown corridor actually boasts
midday trains -- the off-peak buses between these points run
only every three hours. Contrast this with evening and weekend
bus service between Milton and Union that is super-frequent.
Although
buses do run often between Brampton and York Mills subway
station, transit observer Sean Marshall points out riders must
pay TTC fare plus spend an extra 45 minutes to reach downtown.
GO
Transit’s Bill Jenkins tells In Transit that an early philosophy
at the agency was to serve subway lines. However he says, “what
people really want is point-to-point service into the downtown
core, so we’re certainly looking at that in terms of how we
improve things in the Georgetown corridor.”
As for me,
I recognize GO is aiming to improve rail service through
Brampton, but this city of 435,000 people shouldn’t have to wait
any longer for better bus links directly to Union.
Send e-mail
to
transit@eddrass.com.
Include address and phone number.
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