Regional Transportation Hub for London

[GreatTallNorth2]

I saw this on CTV's website:

https://london.ctvnews.ca/new-regional-mobility-and-transportation-hub-pitched-for-london-1.5525850

Just wondering what London as a regional transportation centre would look like. Regional rail, buses & to where? What makes sense with our current infrastructure and what has to be built?

I would like to see the Via station made into a hub that can accommodate both rail, intercity buses, Robert Q and London Transit.

[MolsonExport]

another empty promise or useless platitudes?

London is the city of flopportunity!

[GreatTallNorth2]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

another empty promise or useless platitudes?

London is the city of flopportunity!

Lol, as long as there is potential for a gondola station there, I am all in on this.

[Djeffery]

There really is only one sort of viable location, the VIA station, because I doubt VIA is moving anywhere. Not sure if the parking lot is big enough to line a bunch of busses in. As for local transit, good idea they thought of this before they approved BRT a block north. The parking lot across the convention centre would make a good spot if the city could convince the Feds to pony up for that high asking price for the lot as well as building a new VIA station, which I doubt.

[Ryeguy01]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

There really is only one sort of viable location, the VIA station, because I doubt VIA is moving anywhere. Not sure if the parking lot is big enough to line a bunch of busses in. As for local transit, good idea they thought of this before they approved BRT a block north. The parking lot across the convention centre would make a good spot if the city could convince the Feds to pony up for that high asking price for the lot as well as building a new VIA station, which I doubt.

In my opinion I don’t think they would build a new VIA Rail station because I have noticed they are doing work on the facade of the current station.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by Ryeguy01

In my opinion I don’t think they would build a new VIA Rail station because I have noticed they are doing work on the facade of the current station.

I don't think VIA would build a new station elsewhere in any event, whether they were doing these renovations or not. But if the feds want to pay, then I'm sure VIA would go to another location. I just don't see that happening.

[inimrepus]

Looks like GO Transit service might be coming to London so that would help expand this as well https://london.ctvnews.ca/go-transit-train-spotted-in-downtown-london-ont-saturday-1.5530701

[jammer139]

Testing run for GO train is interesting. Sadly it will be a trade off on price vs speed as the fastest VIA is around 2:10 London to Union. The Stratford-KW-Brampton-Union run is over 3 hours on VIA and the GO will likely be even longer on that route. It's also mainly a single line vs the mainline twin track.



VIA and the feds will not be happy with the province if the GO is extended.

[GoTrans]

Originally Posted by jammer139

Testing run for GO train is interesting. Sadly it will be a trade off on price vs speed as the fastest VIA is around 2:10 London to Union. The Stratford-KW-Brampton-Union run is over 3 hours on VIA and the GO will likely be even longer on that route. It's also mainly a single line vs the mainline twin track.



VIA and the feds will not be happy with the province if the GO is extended.

Well maybe the feds can do something about that like buying the track between Kitchener to London for Via's use with trackage rights for GO and freight. The feds have to put some money to protect their interests or else Via will become totally irrelevant in SW Ontario. If irrelevance is the federal government's plan then their current talk a lot and do nothing plan supports their current position.

[GreatTallNorth2]

I guess we now know why the mayor and council were pushing for London to have a transportation hub. If VIA increases rail services to the city & we get GO trains, there will need to be a shared station. Not sure how many (other than Union Station) are shared VIA/GO stations and how that works.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by GreatTallNorth2

I guess we now know why the mayor and council were pushing for London to have a transportation hub. If VIA increases rail services to the city & we get GO trains, there will need to be a shared station. Not sure how many (other than Union Station) are shared VIA/GO stations and how that works.

I don't know what kind of cost-sharing agreement they have, but there are quite a few train stations that are served by both. Aldershot, Brampton, Georgetown, Guelph, Guildwood, Kitchener, Niagara Falls, Oakville, Oshawa, St. Catharines.

Oakville has separate station buildings, but I think the others are all shared (?)

[jammer139]

New lease on life for the former Greyhound Bus Station on York St.


"Intercity Bus Terminal, at 101 York St., is still in its soft launch phase and brings six routes to London passengers: Toronto, Kitchener, Mississauga, Brampton, Woodstock and Breslau."


https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/new-...-greyhound-station-with-six-destinations

[Djeffery]

Wonder if they will make deals with the other bus companies that use hotels or the side of the road in front of VIA to have them in this one location.

[Blitz]

^ The main stop for the other bus companies is on the north side of York Street just west of Wellington Rd (it's in front of a parking garage). Would be nice if they all consolidated into the new terminal.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by Blitz

^ The main stop for the other bus companies is on the north side of York Street just west of Wellington Rd (it's in front of a parking garage). Would be nice if they all consolidated into the new terminal.

I see the little buses doing the southwest regional routes from Sarnia and Woodstock stopping by that entrance to Citi Plaza, but I see the full size Onex and Flix buses on the south side of York in front of Via all the time. I can see Intercity thinking the terminal being exclusive to them gives them the advantage of appearing like the only bus service since many people think of the bus terminal like the airport, a public facility. So maybe they don't want the others running from there as it would in effect be aiding the competition. But it would also be income for them as well.

I do remember a time when there were several bus companies running out of the old Greyhound station. I took Chatham Coach Lines (later known as Cha-Co Trails) quite often back to St Thomas as a teen, and also took many sports and concert charter buses from there to Toronto and Detroit as well. Gray Coach used to run either out of that one or the former bus terminal at York and Richmond as well.

[jammer139]

St Thomas transit link to London to launch in April.


https://www.stthomastoday.ca/2024/03/12/72187/

[jammer139]

Local Intercity bus service update.

https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/ride...us-service-but-what-if-the-funding-stops

[Djeffery]

Saw another bus company downtown at VIA today, Rider Express. Not sure how long they have been coming here, but that makes 3 that I know of at VIA, with them as well as Onex and Flix, as well as Intercity at their home at the former Greyhound station. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure where the regional buses have been stopping since York St started under construction last year. I followed one of the regional buses down York today but I turned off before downtown so I didn't see where they went.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

Saw another bus company downtown at VIA today, Rider Express. Not sure how long they have been coming here, but that makes 3 that I know of at VIA, with them as well as Onex and Flix, as well as Intercity at their home at the former Greyhound station. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure where the regional buses have been stopping since York St started under construction last year. I followed one of the regional buses down York today but I turned off before downtown so I didn't see where they went.

The influx of new bus companies since the demise of Greyhound Canada has been beneficial for consumers. I use FlixBus whenever I come back to London, they have service to Pearson Airport and they’re a fraction of the cost of Robert Q. I used to use Robert Q but not anymore.

Robert Q is going to need to revisit their pricing strategy if they want to survive. They don’t do anything that FlixBus doesn’t; their home pickup can be replicated by Uber to the FlixBus pickup point.

[GreatTallNorth2]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

The influx of new bus companies since the demise of Greyhound Canada has been beneficial for consumers. I use FlixBus whenever I come back to London, they have service to Pearson Airport and they’re a fraction of the cost of Robert Q. I used to use Robert Q but not anymore.

Robert Q is going to need to revisit their pricing strategy if they want to survive. They don’t do anything that FlixBus doesn’t; their home pickup can be replicated by Uber to the FlixBus pickup point.

Greyhound going out of business was great. They operated a terrible business from my experience, drivers stopping and taking breaks on route to the destination and bad customer experience in general. MegaBus and FlixBus are much better. And agree about Robert Q, why pay 2-3x the price of the others. Especially when I feels like you are squished in a mini-bus with your grandfather driving telling you stories.