The Trains that Subsidize Suburbia - GO Transit Commuter Rail

[Music] in the previous video we talked about via rail the intercity train service in canada and why it's really hard to justify taking the train instead of driving i took via rail again this summer and though they didn't ask me to weigh my bags they do have a check-in process now one step closer to making train travel as painful as airline travel and due to corona restrictions the seven trains per day from london to toronto has been reduced to three trains per day did you miss your train to toronto that's okay there's another one coming in nine hours but enough about via rail in this video i want to talk about the least terrible heavy rail trains in canada go transit go transit is a commuter rail service run by the government of ontario g o go get it it's right there in the name these days the infrastructure and trains are managed by metrolinx the government agency responsible for regional travel in the greater toronto area go also operates a network of buses but these run on regular roads and routinely get stuck in traffic so they're really not that interesting let's talk about trains as a rider taking the go train is quite nice the stations are clean and well maintained the trains are two levels with plenty of space and comfortable seats trips can be paid for using the presto card a contactless payment card used for public transit in several cities in ontario in general the experience is pretty good and it sure beats driving in toronto traffic and you don't even need to weigh your bags book an advanced ticket or cue to board it's like a real train several go stations are also via rail stations so you can theoretically connect to other train services that is if you happen to be leaving at that one time via decides to run a train one thing that go does very well is accessibility for wheelchair users every station has a designated area that has level boarding for wheelchair access and there are good quality elevator connections at most stations it is strange to me though that they know how to build level boarding but only do it at this one accessibility car why not along the whole platform but beyond the step up boarding one thing that really annoyed me when trying to take a bicycle on the train is this bar in the middle of the doorway that gets in the way when trying to board with a bicycle yet on some doors including doors that don't allow bicycles they don't have that bar why why metro metrolinx why do you do this to us the history of go transit is similar to commuter rail in the u.s after the second world war u.s and canadian cities heavily subsidized car infrastructure and didn't care that they were bankrupting passenger rail which was seen as obsolete but by the 1960s it was pretty clear in major cities at least that this was a bad idea because there wasn't enough room for all the cars so commuter rail lines like the go train were created for one purpose to reduce the number of suburban commuters on the roads during rush hour by that metric the go train is a huge success for people who live in the suburbs but work in downtown toronto 67 percent take the go train while only 20 go by car as a driver or passenger that's a lot of cars taken off the road unfortunately while commuter rail does a good job of servicing suburban 9-5 commuters who work downtown it is almost useless for any other kind of trip for example the graph for suburbanites who work anywhere other than downtown toronto looks like this with almost 90 percent of people going by car and only one percent who take the go train so by this metric the go train is a colossal failure commuter rail is only built to bring suburban commuters downtown so if you want to travel from one suburban station to another suburban station you need to travel via downtown but this trip wouldn't be possible anyway as it's common to see schedules like this four trains out in the morning then those four trains come back in the afternoon want to travel outside of these times or in the opposite direction too bad my european viewers hearing this might ask isn't building an entire heavy rail network buying and maintaining rolling stock and staffing the trains and stations a huge waste of money just to run a few trains per day and to that i say yes yes it is these trains sit here all day doing nothing and taking up some of the most valuable real estate in the entire country just so that they're ready for the afternoon when they'll be used to take suburbanites back to their cars this is insane systems like go transit are what i like to call car dependent transit that is transit that only works or at least works best if you're already driving there's nothing inherently wrong with the concept of a park and ride but when your entire rail network is nothing but park and rides that only work at rush hour that's a very dysfunctional transit system proponents of commuter rail will argue that it's necessary to have these systems otherwise urban city centers will be flooded with cars from the suburbs this is an incredibly car-centric view of the world of course but it's also like a mafia threat approach to public transit nice uh city it got there shame if some suburbanites were to drive into it i think the existence of commuter rail really highlights just how horrendously expensive car infrastructure is that even as far back as the 1960s it was considered cheaper to build a heavily subsidized parallel rail network that was only used for a few hours per day rather than to expand the highway network this should have been a giant flashing warning sign that car infrastructure was not sustainable long before strong towns discovered that it was bankrupting american cities when i was living in downtown toronto in the early 2000s the go train always frustrated me here was this extensive rail network with a major station not far from where i lived but it was totally useless to me for example i once went to a friend's party in guelph on a sunday and wanted to take the go train home because i'm a train-loving masochist of course since commuter trains don't run on the weekend i had to get a hotel by the station and catch the early morning train back to toronto on monday but the biggest problem with using commuter rail for non-commuting trips is that most train stations are in suburban wastelands they are designed for drivers which means every suburban go train station is surrounded by massive parking lots so even if you wanted to go to the suburbs outside of computing hours where would you go you're completely stranded without a car is this really the best use of the land next to a major rail station connected to the largest city in canada in fact go transit is the single largest parking provider in the entire province of ontario bigger than the toronto parking authority and bigger than any private parking garage operator and yet almost all of their 70 000 parking spots are free to use completely subsidized by the taxpayers of ontario yet another way that suburbanite drivers are being subsidized by productive urban places every person who drives to a go station parks for free and takes the train is enjoying a subsidy there's no discount on ticket prices for those who walk or for those who cycle to the station so they built a system that provides financial incentive to drive to the train there are a few stations around downtown toronto that do not have parking and at some suburban stations it's possible to pay for a reserve parking space to ensure a spot is available for you at this station each morning but the vast majority of parking is free the station with the most parking spaces is picker and go where they have this surface parking lot this giant parking garage and in case that's not enough there's another parking garage on the other side of the tracks which requires this huge pedestrian overpass to cross the freeway at least you can also use this pedestrian overpass to get to a nearby mall so in that sense it has better pedestrian access than most suburban stations though you still need to go outside and cross the mall parking lot to get there it's really strange to see parking garages this large without any payment gates at all because it's all free metrolinx also provides free bicycle parking at every go station for both cyclists who are comfortable cycling along strodes like this to get to and from the station each day and most stations have access by bus for those who want to pay for both a bus ticket and a train ticket and enjoy subsidizing the people who drive metrolinx has plans to convert some of their parking spaces to paid parking and they have talked about converting parking lots to transit-oriented communities neighborhoods of mixed-use development near go train stations but progress on these activities is slow but thankfully all hope is not lost while the go train was originally built as a commuter rail network metrolinx has started to realize that an extensive train network could be useful for other trips as well for example the lakeshore west line has had all-day train service every 30 minutes since 2013. we've used this many times to visit friends in the suburbs yes i admitted we have friends in the suburbs i'm gonna get so canceled for this but the biggest improvement will come with the go expansion project where metrolinx plans to electrify several grow transit lines run service every 15 minutes or better on several lines and increase service from 1 500 trains per week to over 6 000 trains per week this will fundamentally change rail travel in the toronto area and i'm really looking forward to it if you're interested in the future of go transit then you can watch the youtube channel rmtransit for more information i'll provide some links in the description but while there's a lot to look forward to for the future of go transit metrolinx hasn't exactly stopped digging a deeper hole of car dependency that they'll need to climb out of the newest station on the gotrain network bloomington go opened only a few months ago and it is the pinnacle of car dependent transit bloomington go is in the middle of nowhere literally it's in the green belt a protected green space and urban growth boundary for the greater toronto area which is theoretically not supposed to have any new development in it this train station is absolutely massive it has a large surface parking lot with a kiss and ride area for people being dropped off by car the station is off a rural highway next to a major freeway everybody is going to have to drive there and yet it has this painted bicycle gutter along the access road to the station it's crazy that this huge station was built from scratch and yet this painted line was considered acceptable access by bicycle this was almost certainly just a checklist item for some kind of sustainable active transportation requirements nobody will ever use this painted bicycle gutter speaking of checklists the bloomington go station meets the sustainable building requirements to be leed gold certified because of environmentally friendly features like solar panels led lighting and low flow plumbing and yet over ninety percent of the area is dedicated to free parking for over a thousand motor vehicles i've been saying this for years but i think it should be impossible to get leed certification for buildings in car dependent places because it would be an order of magnitude more environmentally friendly to build a small compact station surrounded by mixed-use neighborhoods within walking distance instead we get this cathedral of car dependency of course even with a rule like that this building would still be leed certified because it's at a train station but all of this the parking for over a thousand cars the roads in and out the water permeable pavers the checklist bike shed and a total cost of over 82 million dollars is here to support this one train platform that serves four trains and only at rush hour one platform the ticket prices will never be able to recoup this investment it's just one more massive subsidy provided to car dependent suburbanites this is something right out of 1960s travel planning it genuinely annoys me that this was built in 2021 and this will forever be a car dependent station because new developments aren't supposed to be built in the green belt my biggest issue with car dependent transit development is that it completely ignores the biggest benefit of public transit yes transit is meant to bring people to where they want to go but it's actually most useful by being a catalyst to build the places where people want to go both the us and canada were built on their railroads in the 19th century most railroads established profitable land departments that would sell the land made valuable by the railroad they built public transit has an unbelievable ability to build wealth in places to make places worth going to but commuter rail tosses those benefits in the garbage relegating transit to a background activity in a world designed for cars where the only real benefit provided is that you're not driving in traffic in maybe that you don't need to pay for parking downtown this is a really sad role for transit which has the potential to be the largest wealth creation opportunity for cities if done correctly bloomington go and stations like it will attract development but not the development we actually want or need for example a short drive away i came across this neighborhood under construction which is an exurb a car dependent suburban development not attached to any city it's just a disconnected neighborhood in the middle of nowhere devoid of any context and nowhere near anything now this neighborhood isn't being built just because there's a go station nearby but it's listed as a benefit of the neighborhood on the builder's marketing material and this is the kind of development that's encouraged by car dependent transit the future of go transit is definitely promising electrification and more all-day service will definitely make a difference but as long as the go transit network is designed primarily as a way of getting to and from downtown and as long as the suburban stations continue to house cars instead of people it will always be one thing a colossal wasted potential i'd like to thank my supporters on patreon who pay me to make films that are nothing like their trailers if you'd like to support the channel and get access to bonus videos visit patreon.com not just bikes as time goes on it will be extended

Channel: Not Just Bikes

Views: 286,365

Rating: 4.9452381 out of 5

Keywords: urban planning, commuter rail, go transit, go trains, go train stations, go transit stations, park and ride

Id: vxWjtpzCIfA

Length: 15min 49sec (949 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 27 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/FastestSnail10]

That Bloomington station must be one of the biggest wastes of money. Bicycle gutters on a 80 km/h road, in the middle of the greenbelt, 12 minute drive from another GO station, multi million dollar cement parking structure to serve rush hour commuters... The list goes on.

[u/mungdungus]

I've actually taken GO against the flow of traffic on a work day. It's surreal. A 10 minute walk to Union Station, a 40-minute train ride to the suburbs, and a 30 minute walk to the office (which was promoted as being "close to the GO station").

[u/graciemansion]

It's actually even worse than he makes it sound. Park and ride based systems usually get infinitesimal ridership. You can see this for instance in the Washington Metro, where the park and ride based stations generally get a fraction of the ridership of more urban stations. On the other hand, BART is basically all park and ride outside of San Francisco, Oakland and Berkley, and its ridership is piss poor, especially when you consider just how many of miles of rail they built. And to go back to Toronto, the number of people who take GO is a fraction of the number that take the Toronto subway, the 3rd busiest rapid transit system in the continent.

Park and rides just don't make sense. Why get into your car, park it, walk to the platform, take the train to your destination and walk there, when you can just drive directly there? They basically only work in places where traffic is horrendously bad and parking horrendously expensive, and even then, they're never all that popular. It's a huge, baffling waste of money, but Toronto is, at the very least, making better strides than the rest of the continent.

[u/Twrd4321]

Good transit needs good land use. Japan understands this well. This is why RTD in Denver sucks.

[u/theCroc]

Nothing wrong with commuter rail, but not like this.

A real commuter rail is only a component of an extensive public transit system. And it runs frequently all day!

Basically you can't build just the rail line. Then you get this barely used park-and-ride bs. No you have to build an extensive bus network that puts a bus stop within 500-1000 meters of every single resident and business and that converges on the train stations. Basically every train station should be connected directly to a bus station or at least a few bus stops.

On top of that every station should be surrounded by medium to high density mixed use areas. Offices, commerce and residential that is walkable and bikeable.

Every suburb and exurb that gets a station should strive to become a small town in their own right with the town center at the train station. Basically give the city residents a reason to come out to you for a change!

My main point here is that you can't implement public transit piecemeal. It's all or nothing. If even one link in the journey is too inconvenient, people take the car. Even park and ride can work, if the rest of the network is well built. And when it is, you don't need a 1000 car parking garage at the station. It's enough with a 25-50 car parking lot to the side for the few people who come in from rural areas that can't be served well by bus.

Anyone living on a suburban residential area should be able to take the bus, if a proper bus service is provided.

[u/merferd314]

I loved this video but the whole time I was watching it I was thinking "thank god I have Metra in Chicago." Metra isn't perfect but most lines have all-day service and anchors so many nice suburban downtowns that give the suburbs a bit of character, triangulation, and density. Most stations have parking (anywhere from 20 to 400 spots) but it blends in to the surrounding area pretty well, all things considered. There are some proper park-and-ride's too and they have good ridership. Room for improvement? Absolutely. But the system is getting there.

[u/TDky6]

Why hasn’t GO Transit been able to evolve into something like Sydney Trains?

Sydney Trains is technically commuter rail but more fits the role of hybrid rail with practically no level crossings/ network completely electrified/ high to very high frequency in peak etc and services a pretty damn large areas. For a lot of the lines you will get frequencies of 15 minutes or better at the majority of stations (take Penrith Station which is 50km from Sydney Central but still runs at 15 minute frequencies or better until 11:30PM)

I know Toronto has their subway, which Sydney doesn’t have (sort of partially built but complicated), which seems exceptional for the areas it does serve, but it seems crazy that outside that very limited area of subway concentrated in limited areas of Toronto that rail transport is just so near unusable.

[u/dolerbom]

You'd think it'd be intuitive to assume parking spaces have no place in front of public transit, but I guess the people in charge are this laughably incompetent.

[u/1maco]

I’m not sure how Toronto pays for the GO trains but most systems in the US are basically paid for by local tax districts.

So if only the city got transit it would be suburbs subsidizing them

Like I don’t know how you could tax 3 million people in SE Minnesota or 6 million people in DFW and then be like “well we decided that only the City of Minneapolis is worthy of Transit but thanks for the money”