[innsertnamehere]

Two weekends a year for construction, and one Sunday for the Ride for Cancer. I guess that's technically considered multiple.

But no, the MTO does not manage to avoid closing highways entirely. Sure, in some cases they are able to stage the work so that only the collectors or express lanes are closed at a time where the highways are set up to allow that, but they absolutely do close highways in their entirety overnights and sometimes over whole weekends. Have you forgotten about the replacement of the Finch West bridges under the 400? Or what has been going on in Ottawa for the past several years?


I suspect that they likely will, but at the cost of having multiple overnight closures instead.

Dan

yes, full closures do happen but they are exceedingly rare for day-time periods, and when they do happen they are tied to specific projects that make them effectively unavoidable. Certainly not 3 regularly scheduled weekends a year.

Overnight closures are more common, but even then generally limited to lane restrictions (even if it's down to only 1 lane on a 5-lane freeway). But these don't matter as much as traffic levels are generally very low at 3am when this is happening. If you drive late at night around the GTA, especially on the weekend, it's actually almost a guarantee you will see these at any given time, but they have very minimal impact to travel times as traffic volumes are so low.

Three closures during the warmer months (let's say 6 months a year are "warmer") is about a 12.5% closure rate for warm-weather weekends. Even annually, that's a 5% weekend closure rate. It's more than you make it out to be.

MTO's average for a given highway to be closed for an entire weekend is probably like 0.01%.

 

[crs1026]

My weekend travel was affected far less by transit/road construction closures than by lane/highway closures attributable to accidents, ie bad driving. I spent a lot of time on the 401 going nowhere.

Why was I on the road? Because the rail and transit lines I needed to get where I was going were not yet constructed, and/or simply promised but not seeing action going forward.

It may be reasonable to ask whether TTC/ML is piling all possible work into a single closure, so these happen where truly needed. I suspect however that piling in more work might actually make less get done.

Ask Bostonians how life was during the Big Dig. Ask Londoners what it took to complete the Elizabeth line. The good news is, things are happening to get our system restored to SOGR and built out to carry more people. Not convenient, but I can live with the disruption.

- Paul

 

[Bordercollie]

My weekend travel was affected far less by transit/road construction closures than by lane/highway closures attributable to accidents, ie bad driving. I spent a lot of time on the 401 going nowhere.

Why was I on the road? Because the rail and transit lines I needed to get where I was going were not yet constructed, and/or simply promised but not seeing action going forward.

It may be reasonable to ask whether TTC/ML is piling all possible work into a single closure, so these happen where truly needed. I suspect however that piling in more work might actually make less get done.

Ask Bostonians how life was during the Big Dig. Ask Londoners what it took to complete the Elizabeth line. The good news is, things are happening to get our system restored to SOGR and built out to carry more people. Not convenient, but I can live with the disruption.

- Paul

How about instead of a tunnel on the 401 Bus lanes would be a good idea?

 

[DSCToronto]

Two weekends a year for construction, and one Sunday for the Ride for Cancer. I guess that's technically considered multiple.

But no, the MTO does not manage to avoid closing highways entirely. Sure, in some cases they are able to stage the work so that only the collectors or express lanes are closed at a time where the highways are set up to allow that, but they absolutely do close highways in their entirety overnights and sometimes over whole weekends. Have you forgotten about the replacement of the Finch West bridges under the 400? Or what has been going on in Ottawa for the past several years?


I suspect that they likely will, but at the cost of having multiple overnight closures instead.

Dan

I think there are now 3 or 4 “charity closures” each year.

 

[LNahid2000]

Pretty sure GO ran out of options since they can't do closures during the World Cup, and they were forced to cancel closures because of the Jays last year.

 

[lastcommodore]

I really think that they should run Richmond Hill trains even hourly to Old Cummer when there is a closure. They can do it when there is a special event and they own the trackage. There is no reason why they cant do that. Buses can go from Old Cummer to Bloomington VIA Leslie and 404 or if you want to serve Langstaff it can take Steeles to Bayview and then Langstaff Rd to avoid traffic.

Unfortunately Union -> Old Cummer is 36 minutes, total trip time would be 72 minutes + some terminal downtime means that realistically it'd be 85 minutes bare minimum for a loop btwn Union and Old Cummer. Given the single track, that's the most you could do. Suppose it'd be better than nothing, though you do lose clockface unless you're willing to do bi-hourly trains.
I have to agree though that RH is a huge opportunity for both an express Line 1 and a DVP bypass. It's a shame that MX has no plans for it, despite owning trackage to the York sub. If i was in charge i'd have double tracking for 15 minute service from Union to Langstaff and reactivate the Don Mills ROW.

 

[johntauren]

I recall discussion from the mayor (no idea which mayor, and hard to find something that isn't about this weekend to find a proper article) about coordinating closures better before, but it clearly hasn't be kept up.

 

[Amare]

At least there's somebody in the city who's finally looking into the piss pour coordination between agencies.

Jamaal Myers brought forward a motion on June 3 (which carried), that will direct the TTC to formally work with the city, Metrolinx, and Toronto police, to properly coordinate around future planned closures and events:

‘What happened on Mother’s Day should never have happened’: TTC Board Chair pitches motion to streamline transit, road closures

TTC Board Chair Jamaal Myers is acknowledging that the past few weeks have been “tough” for Toronto commuters amid rolling transit and road closures as he pitches a plan for better coordination.

www.cp24.com

 

[Bordercollie]

Unfortunately Union -> Old Cummer is 36 minutes, total trip time would be 72 minutes + some terminal downtime means that realistically it'd be 85 minutes bare minimum for a loop btwn Union and Old Cummer. Given the single track, that's the most you could do. Suppose it'd be better than nothing, though you do lose clockface unless you're willing to do bi-hourly trains.
I have to agree though that RH is a huge opportunity for both an express Line 1 and a DVP bypass. It's a shame that MX has no plans for it, despite owning trackage to the York sub. If i was in charge i'd have double tracking for 15 minute service from Union to Langstaff and reactivate the Don Mills ROW.

There are two passing tracks between union and Old Cummer. But even hourly service would be great. Any service on weekends would be great.