well at least better than nothing and cars jamming up an already overflowing DVP/401/400
My hope is that less is done to subsidize suburban car owners, and more is done to make cars less necessary in Toronto. Most trips within the City are still done by car.
(I also question the usefulness of Confederation GO and LSE extension in alleviating traffic on the DVP/400. Although an unknee-capped Richmond Hill line and faster Barrie line with more stations would help.)
If you still need a car to live freely in Toronto, what is the point? More traffic, worse air quality, higher property taxes, higher housing and food costs. It's no wonder sprawl is so pervasive and ongoing. Not helped by the easy-out housing construction towards the Greenbelt. (Ford's donors are licking their chops right now).
And we know sprawl is not financially sustainable for the government, unless they jack up property taxes by a LOT, which they'll never do, because winning the next election is more important.
Lived 10 minutes from Oakville GO and somehow commutes to downtown Toronto took the same time as commuting from North York. I'm supportive of the RER/Sydney Trains/Melbourne Metro Trains-like aspirations of GO Expansion, but that's starting to look more and more like
slightly faster commutes for the suburbs by 2040 to 2050 (depending on the line).
The whole point of RER is to combine commuter rail characteristics in the surburbs, i.e. wide stop spacing, with metro/subway-like service, i.e. short headways.
With narrower stop spacing closer to downtown. Emphasis on the last point.
Instead, Park Lawn, Spadina-Front, and King-Liberty are in limbo, Caledonia GO is somehow being built with only one track for the time being. And Doug Ford thought it would be smart to promise Lakeview GO in Mississauga, another sweetener for the suburbs.
Last spring, the government announced it was granting zoning order to a Mississauga development, with a promise the move would also bring a new GO statin to the area.
globalnews.ca
Conversely, we got Confederation; and Stratford, the LSE extension to Bowmanville (without electrification), and Grimsby are being built. Concord and Innisfil GO are still getting attention.
I get it, stations outside Toronto are cheap to build, but how much benefit is there, and who is benefiting?
On the bright side, East Harbour, Bloor-Lansdowne, St Clair-Old Weston, are still being built. Woodbine is nice to have, if it does end up with UPX service.
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People living in Downtown subsidize those living outside of Toronto in many ways, including GO.
“There is a widespread view that this fully pays for roads — but in fact, total revenues from road users […] cover little more than half the annual government spending on roads.”
So the income taxes of car-light downtowners tend to subsidize the roads used by others.
https://www.pembina.org/blog/qa-top-revenue-tools-torontos-transit-expansion
Major city residents, “for the most part, pay more in taxes than they receive in programs". In 2002, “the average citizen of Toronto” paid $2,113 more in federal taxes than they received in federal transfers/services.
