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by franey 2425 days ago
One thing I'm surprised this article didn't mention is commute times. To get from Weston Station (northwest of downtown) to Union Station takes:

- 22-minute drive (or 1h in rushour)

- 1.25-hour bus ride

- 13-minute LRT ride

LRT (light rail transit) really is an excellent way to get into the downtown core from distances and in time frames that were previously only manageable by car.
2 comments
spollo 2425 days ago
If you are talking about the UPX, that’s not an LRT line. It’s just a regular train.

But I don’t think it’s a fair comparison based on routes. On the UPX line those are 1 direct stop apart. For comparison taking the subway would also be more indirect and longer, taking about 40 minutes I would guess.

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Scoundreller 2425 days ago
It’s also a poor proxy for what really matters: door to door them.

UPX runs every 15 mins.

If you time it right, great, but if you don’t...

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jiofih 2425 days ago
If you don’t plan at all, you’ll have an average wait time of 7 minutes. How bad is that?
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DuskStar 2424 days ago
Average wait time of 7 minutes if the trains follow the schedule exactly and don't bunch.

If things are allowed to drift randomly, you end up approximating the exponential distribution - which has an average wait time of 15 minutes for 4 trains/hour.

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ramshorns 2425 days ago
That example isn't really LRT, it's either commuter rail or an airport train, which (either way) only stops once during that 13-km trip. LRT normally involves much closer stops.
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franey 2425 days ago
That could be getting at what confused me about the article. The author mentions the crosstown LRT favourably, and that will link up to the UP commuter/airport line I mentioned, adding another stop.

LRT linking to commuter rail lines, subway lines, and bus stops is something the author didn't really mention, but it certainly seems to be the strategy for that line in Toronto.

The author is against cutting funding for bus routes, which is reasonable. I guess I just don't see how that is also an argument against using LRT for arterial transportation into downtown cores. If the retort to that is "budgets", then we need increased funding for public transportation, not fewer trains.

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