The Trains that Subsidize Suburbia - GO Transit Commuter Rail

These videos have trained me to passively spot the terrible urban development issues in my city. I have been miserable ever since. 10/10

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.

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.

The most frustrating thing about GO is how obviously fixable most of its issues are, and yet here we are

Imagine how different America would be if public transit and walkability was subsidized as heavily as car infrastructure is now.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

Canadian engineer’s: This is revolutionary Not Just Bikes: “Right out of 1960’s planning”

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..

2:43 "We build incredibly stupid car infrastructure", immediately shows the NJ turnpike

Train must be a world transportation standard, they are so efficient and safe with a very low CO2 emissions. Recently in my city(Guadalajara) they built a modern light train(Metro L3) that cross the city and everyone loves it, I hope more cities in my country implements that kind of trains.

Took the bus with my bike today (our buses have those bike hangars at the front). As I got ready to leave, the driver told me "Don't forget your toy" in this weirdly patronizing tone. I was so pissed about it that I turned on your channel the moment I got home to restore some of my sanity. Love this video; I hadn't realized how modes of "public transit"—which are supposedly built to serve pedestrians—so often revolve around cars/drivers. It's very true in the area I live, but it's become so normal to me to have to get a lift to the train station that I hadn't even realized how ridiculous it is.

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.

Quite some time ago, I worked for CP rail, which included working on the GO Trains on the Milton Line. Part of the duties of the Conductor (me) was to put out the ramp at each station for Wheelchair access. It latched into the sill of the door, and extended across to the raised platform, giving a smooth surface to enter the car, with no gaps for a wheel to get stuck in. Since I could only be in one location, that was where the raised platform was located. It also gave a very clear indication to the people at the station as to which car was wheelchair accessible. As a side note, it meant that the engineer has to be very precise when stopping the train, because it is a relatively small area to hit.

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"!

Indonesian cities are rarely mentioned as models for transit planning, but I feel like Jakarta did right by modernizing its commuter rail back in the early 2010s. Routes and ticketing system were greatly simplified, old railways were electrified, rolling stocks were renewed. Train frequency was even increased almost to the standard of a metro system (5 min headways in rush hours). Many stations were refurbished, with some being built hand-in-hand with transit oriented development around them. Walkability around the station and across the city in general have improved accordingly, with better wayfinding measures due to an integrated sign systems for all public transit in the metropolitan area. It's not an exaggeration to say that the modernization of commuter rail in Jakarta has brought up major urban revitalization and actually contributed to the massive growth in revenue of the national railway company (which operates the service). Ridership actually tripled between 2011 and 2019, up to more than a million passengers a day before the pandemic. And this was before major capacity improvement in recent years due to the development of a new central station and track duplication/quadruplication projects. I dare to say that Jakarta commuter system today is one of the best in its category. And all that were achieved by simply improving already existing services and infrastructure!

As a Vancouverite transit foamer, watching this video really made me reflect on the state of transit here. The West Coast Express is basically what you described in part 1 (a half dozen trips a day, one way each peak time). The skytrain, however has been a huge success - at least recently - in terms of encouraging urban development. There are multiple redevelopments around Skytrain stations, and the upcoming Broadway and Fraser Hwy extensions have resulted in new zoning along the corridors. I'd really love a video from you talking more about this and other different elements of Vancouver transit!