The Trains that Subsidize Suburbia - GO Transit Commuter Rail

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Published 2021-09-27
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Commuter rail is a rail system designed to bring people from the suburbs into a central business district for work. But is it really an efficient transit system, or just another subsidy provided to car-dependent suburbanites? This video explores commuter rail in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), the train system known as "GO Transit."

Part 1:    • Why Passenger Trains Suck in Canada -...  

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Specifically, this playlist about the future of GO Transit:
   • Building Toronto's Regional Rail  

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References & Additional Reading

Thumbnail images:
Municipal Affairs and Housing, CC BY 3.0,
www.flickr.com/photos/ontariomah/24320665437
By Richard Sunichura, CC BY 3.0,
commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38050704

GO Train Commuting statistics
www.researchgate.net/publication/330133451_Commuti…

GO Transit System Map
By Natural RX - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0
commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65767880

Historical GO Train footage:
Dirt Roads to Freeways … And All That (ca. 1970s)
Archives of Ontario [YouTube]
   • Dirt Roads to Freeways … And All That...  

GO Transit Launch: 1967/Lancement de GO Transit en 1967
GO Transit [YouTube]
   • GO Transit Launch: 1967/Lancement de ...  

Toronto Parking Authority Statistics:
www.toronto.ca/city-government/accountability-oper…

Citadel Rock butte, Green River, Wyoming, (1868)
By Andrew J. Russell, Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs divisionunder ID ppmsca.03147., Public Domain
commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4458664

Trestle on Central Pacific Railroad (1877)
By Carleton Watkins (1829-1916) - Getty Center, Public Domain
commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21995753

Railroad Maps, 1828 to 1900 - Land Grants
www.loc.gov/collections/railroad-maps-1828-to-1900…

By Danielle Scott - originally posted to Flickr as GO Cabcar 237, CC BY-SA 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10007821
By Scott Santoro - scottsantoro.blogspot.ca/2010/04/going-to-toronto-…, CC BY-SA 2.5, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31921748


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Chapters

0:00 Intro
0:07 VIA Rail
0:40 Let's GOOOOOOOOO!
1:16 Riding the GO
2:38 The History of GO Transit
3:14 The Success and Failure of GO
4:18 The Insanity of Commuter Rail
6:01 Non-Commuting Trips Aren't Possible
7:02 Parking as a Subsidy
9:20 The Future of GO Transit
10:19 Bloomington GO
13:13 What is the Purpose of Transit?
14:49 Conclusion
15:12 Patreon Shout-out
15:26 Outtro

All Comments (21)
  • These videos have trained me to passively spot the terrible urban development issues in my city. I have been miserable ever since. 10/10
  • @hithere5553
    Imagine how different America would be if public transit and walkability was subsidized as heavily as car infrastructure is now.
  • @brianholmes1812
    The most frustrating thing about GO is how obviously fixable most of its issues are, and yet here we are
  • @danielamaus
    After having lived in Vienna for 3 years, with its almost perfect public transit system, with subways, trams and buses every few minutes, sufficient night lines, where a ticket for a year costs € 365, seeing so many missed opportunities just leaves me speechless.
  • From the US: planners here have no idea what is a reasonable size for a station. All that's needed is a place to catch a train.
  • @Deliverygirl
    Very sobering to see that a commuter train that doesn't even go that far only has 4 trains each way twice a day. And here I am in Spain getting mad that I missed my train and now need to wait 20 minutes to catch the next one to go somewhere 2 hours away. Get well soon, North American continent.
  • @krystofdayne
    As a European who's never been to North America, watching this series gives me very weird emotions. At times I feel like this longing when I look at these huge parking lots and wide empty roads and think how awesome it would be if driving and parking were this easy. But invariably, immediately after that initial feeling of longing, I always feel so sad and frustrated at how bad this is, how expensive, how inefficient, how environmentally destructive. It's just stunning.
  • @Habib_Osman
    I've never seen trainstations this deserted. Insane to place a station in the middle of nowhere.. it defeats the purpose in so many different ways. Stunning video!
  • @michaeld5458
    Trains only meant to take people to work in the morning and home in the afternoon are just glorified school buses for adults. The new station even has lanes for people’s moms to drop them off lmao
  • I'm very happy that there is such a large audience that take interest with the problem of North American cities, of which includes a lot of Canadian cities. For that I thank you, and may our people eventually break the cycle of "at least it's better than America"!
  • @saramuresan9305
    Canadian engineer’s: This is revolutionary Not Just Bikes: “Right out of 1960’s planning”
  • @DaedalusLegacy
    I lived in ontario for a few years when i was on a training course, the GO train was an absolute pleasure to ride when it was available. The trains are clean, comfortable and generally a relaxing experience. just enjoy the scenery and read a book. however it was such an inconvenient schedule that i ended up buying a vehicle and never rode it again.
  • When you mentioned that the bus requires a ticket, but that parking is free, my mind was blown! I guess they want to subsidise non parking transit, but ONLY to downtown. No need for less cars in suburbia I guess
  • @AronBagel
    'This is insane.' "Surely, it can't be that bad right?" 5 minutes later: "This is insane."
  • Birmingham, UK isn't incredible at public transport, far from it at all and there needs to be massive improvements (screw privatisation) but after watching videos like this, I feel so grateful to have the infrastructure that we do. This is actual madness..
  • @Spider-zx6dm
    This open my eyes to someone who live minutes from a GO Train Station. This video shows that Ontario hae so much land to waste that we can continue to build endless parking lots.
  • @peuteodoro
    On 2017 I went to Canada on a exchange program sponsored by my school here in Brazil. Me and some other colleagues of mine were finishing high school at a college in Oshawa, Ontario while also improving our English language skills. It was my first time being outside Brazil and it was definitely one of the best times of my life. But one thing that bugged me and my friends (not only my friends from Brazil but some people who I had met and were from other provincies or countries) was the trouble that it was to get to Toronto. Because Oshawa is a suburb with a really small downtown area, the only option we had to buy anything other than groceries and clothes was to go to Toronto. As we didn't have any cars ouselves the only route to Toronto was via the Go trains, which by itself wasn't bad at all because trains are great and, at least I thought in the beggining, surely were much better then the trains we have here in São Paulo. Truth is, while the train was indeed great, everything around it was a huge trouble for us, for example, the distance from the school to the station was roughly 8km, which is not a distance we could walk or cicle beause there were no bike lanes at all and we were afraid to go in the middle of the cars. The next best option was to wait for the bus that passed right by the school entrance and would take us all the way to the station; problem is, during week days we had to go to school, and we couldn't go to Toronto because we had to meet the school curfew which during week days was around 6PM. The only option left was to take the bus there on weekends, when we could leave the school in the morning and the curfew was around 8PM, perfect, right? Wrong! Because on weekends the bus that would take us to the station only appeared like 3 or 4 times in a day, and its schedule was all over the place, and trust me, waiting for a bus for hours, in the middle of the street, during Oshawa's winter is not an experience you want to have. In the end, the only real option we had to go to the station was to wait for a school employee who was willing to take a bunch of teenagers to the train station by car to show up. At the time I didn't really know why this was, and I thought it was all fun and games, but watching this and some other videos puts way more sense on the situation. I remember thinking during the time I was in Canada "How can this rich and developed country have a much worse public transportation system than the one we have in my home neighborhood?" and trust me, São Paulo is a VERY sprawled city, yet, I am in walking distance to at least 2 or 3 subway stations, and the buses around here operate 24/7, 365 days a year, no exceptions. Well, that was a long text, but I think I said everything I had to say hahahaha. Great video btw.
  • As someone who has lived a 10 minute walk from a train station for most of my life I can't imagine not having trains easily available to take trips.
  • This whole channel should be required viewing for politicians in both the US and Canada.