Feeder buses in Toronto

[#Metro]

Toronto is the biggest city in Canada, and is an interesting case-study because – for such a large city – it has a relatively small 'rapid transit network'. The Toronto Subway has about 70 kilometres of in-service track (with 69 stations), while the GO Transit commuter rail network doesn't really offer the level of service and frequencies we would associate with 'rapid transit'.  Like many Canadian cities, Toronto does a lot with its relatively limited system – especially when it comes to integrating its bus network and feeding into the rapid transit system. Weekday daily ridership in 2010 averaged 948,100 on the subway, with frequencies up to a train every 2 minutes and generally no worse than a train every 5-6 minutes. Here's a map of the subway and rapid transit network:



http://transportblog.co.nz/2012/03/24/guest-post-feeder-buses-in-toronto/

[taskerish]

I realise this is an old "thread" but since there are no responses I thought I'd reply (as a North American living in Oz). I also realise that, at least on a scholarly level, most Australians will already know this stuff but it's still a useful exercise.

It's usually difficult to compare North American transit with Australian transit for a few reasons with the most important one being one of language that effects the way people look at things and even the way they go about their daily lives. I still think the comparisons are useful, especially with Canadian cities.

The concept of "city" and "suburb" aren't the same in North America as they are in Australia.  North American "cities" are usually much larger than just the CBD and in large cities like Toronto, Boston, Chicago, etc transit enjoys a mode share much higher than the metros as a whole. There isn't the same expectation that all parts of the region should be served by the same mode or that using high frequency regional rail stock (with its higher operating costs) is a good fit for the much higher ridership that comes out of North American urban cores. 

Anyway, TTC runs the interconnected network of trams, subways and buses in the city. GOTransit runs the express services out to the suburbs - the commuter rail and commuter buses. Most of these also connect with the trams and subways in at least one station.  GOTransit moves 260,000 pax per day on it's 7 regional rail lines and 16 coach routes. 

In NYC you get much the same thing - you have the MTA running a bigger network of subways (much bigger city) than in Toronto, a huge bus system that includes express services to the outer boroughs, a contracted ferry system that includes shuttle services across the rivers as well as longer distance, high speed services, a massive regional rail network run by Long Island Railroad, MetroNorth and New Jersey Transit, suburban coach routes run by Long Island Bus, NJTransit and dozens of private operators using places like the Port Authority bus terminal.

Chicago has the CTA running the subways (the El) and buses, Metra running the regional rail and Pace running the suburban coaches.

Boston and Philadelphia rely less heavily on suburban coaches in part because they have relatively large regional rail networks that are well integrated with their subway and light rail systems.

Outside of busy corridors in each of those cities there's no expectation that regional rail should run more than twice an hour off-peak (and usually only once an hour) because the express bus system is often redundant, runs more frequently and is cheaper to operate in off-peak hours. There seems to be a lot more pressure on large system operators in the North America to have high farebox recovery ratios. TTC gets 63% and GOTransit is 83%. In the US (and the rest of Canada) urban transit systems have FRRs closer to 50% while the regional rail systems are closer to 30% (there is significant variation from region to region though).

[ozbob]

Welcome Taskerish!   Thanks for your comments.

[Mr X]

I'm currently in Toronto, Canada. I'm heading back home tomorrow (US time) after a month in the US/Canada, and yes indeed I found their PT system rather simple to use. We took the subway from Union Station (which is currently undergoing repairs) up to Queen's Park along the University Line. Ticketing was simple- just put $3 in a fare box and walk in, trains were easily accessible and frequent and signage was both in English and in French.

I didn't get the chance to use buses unfortunately, we're only here for 24 hours as a stopover from Niagara Falls.

One comment I will make though is that "downtown Toronto" actually seems to be quite spread out compared to Brisbane CBD. For example, our hotel is near Queen's Park to the north yet it's a 45min walk to the CN Tower and the other end of "downtown". It also appears to be denser than Brisbane, which I assume helps support it's metro/simplistic transport structure.