Quote:
Originally Posted by OTSkyline
As much as I'd like to see a "GO" transit system for Ottawa and eastern Ontario, its simply not warranted right now as there are very little communities in the surrounding area that would make it viable.
For example, in Toronto with GO, you have:
Niagara Falls (85,000)
St Catherines (135,000)
Hamilton (600,000)
Burlington (180,000)
Kitchener (225,000)
Barrie (140,000)
Pickering (90,000)
Oshawa (150,000)
Etc... Total of 1,600,000 potential commuters in surrounding area
In Ottawa, you have maybe:
Hawkesbury (12,000)
Clarence/Rockland (25,000)
Casselman (4,000)
Carleton Place (10,000)
Kemptville (4,000)
Arnprior (8,500)
Total of around 65,000 potential commuters - very little.
If Ottawa (approx. 1/5th of Toronto's population) had around 300,000 to 400,000 people in surrounding communities then it would make more sense to develop an eastern Ontario transit plan. But the reality it's mostly OTTAWA then nothing around... so the status quo (in my opinion) works fine for now.
|
It's a bit larger than that, the surrounding population on the Ontario side is about 150k (OMATO - Ontario Municipalities Adjacent to Ottawa, plus those with 25%+ of their population working in Ottawa - Carleton Place and Casselman). Cities and towns on the current or former rail lines like Smiths Falls, Brockville, Cornwall, Perth, Renfrew, Alexandria etc would add another 100k. Plus there are another 50-100k in other Townships along the way like North and South Stormont, Drummond-North Elmsley, etc
http://ottwatch.ca/meetings/file/299965/...nning_Committee_Date_2015_06_23_09_30_00
We aren't at GTA populations anytime soon, but Whitchurch–Stouffville was 13k when the GO Train line started there... Georgetown was around 17k, Bradford 8k....
Threaded Mode