If you could design any new expressways for the GTA, where would you put them.

425- QEW to the 401 (from 25 interchange up to dundas then north up to milton in between 1 line and 25, then west between derry and lower base line to the rail road tracks, then northwest for 200 metres then north up to the 401)

410 extension- up to orangeville

Bradford Bypass- 404 to 400

489- alliston to bradford bypass

427- extended up 489

412- 401 to 407

470- 400 to 404 near stouffville rd.

I would like to see the once proposed 407 to 401 East via another highway which I forget now

Guy allen road should be extended highway all the way down to Gardiner Express.... Require better highway development is require in Toronoto for sure.. man infrastracture in Toronto is damn sucks! US is way~ better... shamn...

Guy allen road should be extended highway all the way down to Gardiner Express.... Require better highway development is require in Toronoto for sure.. man infrastracture in Toronto is damn sucks! US is way~ better... shamn...

that I would totally disagree with you on

First all, more money needs to go into transit, not new highways, and one of the reasons downtown is not a wasteland ghetto is because there are no highways going throught the city, it was smart urban planning rather than stupid decisions

Yeah, I'm glad we didn't carve up our downtown neighbourhoods US-style.

Guy allen road should be extended highway all the way down to Gardiner Express.... Require better highway development is require in Toronoto for sure.. man infrastracture in Toronto is damn sucks! US is way~ better... shamn...

That's probably the stupidest thing I've read in the longest time. Not only would viable neighbourhoods be destroyed in the process, but the entire downtown core's residential patterns would've been disrupted irreversably.

Additionally, some of Toronto's most signature areas would've been destroyed or damaged (Chinatown, Kensington, Queen West)

IMHO i think there should be know highways built in the city of toronto, the only one i think that should be built is the scarbourgh Highlands Exp... on the hydro corridor. There should be some like i stated b4 in the suburbs, since there is no where enough ppl to justify mass urban transit. The GTA compared to many cities around the world have no where near as many exp. I like the that the d/t is set up with no exp. going through it, but going around. The DVP is in a good location and the gardiner cant be replaced since it would cost way to much money.

If you could design any new expressways for the GTA, where would you put them.

In short, I probably wouldn't. Expressways don't make for as good an investment as some of the other infrastructure items we could use the money for.

I would go for conversions of several lanes of current expressway into exclusive trucking lanes though. Single occupant vehicles should *not* be in the way of the trucking corridors -- but those would be run by a not-for-profit organization (tolls, etc.)

Guy allen road should be extended highway all the way down to Gardiner Express.... Require better highway development is require in Toronoto for sure.. man infrastracture in Toronto is damn sucks! US is way~ better... shamn...

LMAO... THe only thing America is good for is $$$

With the exception of a fe cities New York, SF.

Definitely, extensions of the 410 and 427 are needed. I think they’ve already started the 410 extension.

Yes, the 410 will turn west to connect with highway 10 at the Brampton-Caledon border. As for an 427 extension... I don't think it is necessary. Why do we need a freeway to Bolton? Or another one to Barrie?

412- 401 to 407

Huh? Excuse me? Are you serious? 401 and 407 INTERSECT ALREADY!!! In North-west Mississauga they cross almost perpendicularly (except they both turn 90 degrees, so it isn't actually perpendicular, it's weird). In the east, the DVP connects them, and the 400 connects them in the center north of Toronto. Where is this useless 412 supposed to actually go? Pickering to Markham?

Highway extensions outside of Toronto are necessary, but at the same time a recipe for disaster. The problem is all highways lead into the 401. Even at 16 freaking lanes, it is impossible to contain 10 highways converged into one uberway. 410, 403, 427 (includes 409), QEW(via 427), 400, 404, DVP, the dink Allen, plus the 401 itself East, and West, before merging with the other highways is an actual count of 10 highways feeding the 401. It's outright retarded, and until some kind of solution to that mess is resolved, no more highway extensions.

There is one idea, but it is ludicrously expensive as it would be underground.

No thanx, no more expressways for Hamilton. The City has built two expressways in less then 10 years.

I think Bartolo was talking about connecting 407 to 401 in Durham, not Mississauga.

yeah, the 412 would basically be highway 12 out in durham Region

The 410 and 427 extensions I will use whenever they are finnished. So thats a start. But other than that, I think just working on maintaining/improving the ones we have now and just focus on public transit. The 401 seems to be moving better than I remembered it a few years ago, so Im fairly happy with the money spent on improving it. I never use the ETR. I would rather sit in my little civic on the 401 for an extra 20 min, it only costs me an extra two bucks in fuel. If you ride the express and collectors right you usualy move along pretty good anyway in traffic.

The Gardiner Im not even going to get started on. That beast needs to be taken down, but I doubt that will ever happen.

Has anybody been on the 409 lately? I take that almost every day. That road is getting to be pretty bad. I wonder when they are planning to repave that sucker.

Hey, this is my first post...

Alright, so I think that extending the 404 to Barrie isn't a bad idea.

I also think that the Gardiner expressway tunnell is a good idea too...but then the problem with the exits come into play...

I also think that they should rename the QEW...all other freeways in Southern Ontario are 400 series ie. 401, 402, 403, etc. It makes much more sense if they make the QEW something like 4** am I right? If it was really the Queen Elizabeth's Way, we'd be driving on the left side of the road! LOL.

Yes, the 410 will turn west to connect with highway 10 at the Brampton-Caledon border. As for an 427 extension... I don't think it is necessary. Why do we need a freeway to Bolton? Or another one to Barrie?
I would extend 427 north and west through the eastern section of Brampton to relieve the poor 410.

I agree with orangeman. It will probably lighten the load on the 410.

But, the same thing was expected to happen with the 407. When it was buit, it was suppossed to lighten the load on the 401, but I guess considereing that the 401 is now the #1 busiest highway in the world, it barely made a dent in it.

Cheers, Rick

I thought the 401 only held the crown for North America. Where can you show me where its the busiest in the world? Im very curious now.

No new expressways except to extend the current ones.

Secondly, the 407 should be bought back and made truck only. In addition, certian lanes on only the 427 and 400 should be made truck only.

How about more GO Train lines?

How about expanding the GO Train service all the way down from Toronto to St. Catharines. Then changing the name of the GO Train to the Golden Horseshoe Train.

I thought the 401 only held the crown for North America. Where can you show me where its the busiest in the world? Im very curious now.

What do you mean by "show you"? Just look up on Google, busiest roadway in the world or something along the lines of that, and you'll find the 401. :)

How about expanding the GO Train service all the way down from Toronto to St. Catharines. Then changing the name of the GO Train to the Golden Horseshoe Train.

Why on Earth would they need to change the name of GO if they expand the train service? After all, GO stands for "Goverment of Ontario."

Not anymore GO stands for exactly that GO. The Gov't of ON does not run the GO train system anymore

First of all, I was just making the point that "GO" doesn't stand for Toronto, therefore, the name would not have to be changed if it serviced the entire Golden Horseshoe.

Second, if GO is not run by Ontario, then who is run by? As far as I know, GO is owned by Ontario, and funded by Ontario taxpayer money.

okay i take back my statement about it not being run by the province, but at one point for 4 years it was funded by the regions around toronto and the city hamilton, it is now run by the gov't of ON

Never said to change the GO Train name because of some connection of Toronto I just figured it would be better once the train service is available to St. Catharines it would be very appropriate to call it the Golden Horseshoe Train since well it will now cover all of the Golden Horseshoe region.

Yea Mike Harris downloaded the GO Train responsibly to the municipalities, just one example of the downloading Mike Harris did. But once Dalton got in power he changed all that back to the old way.

Actually, Dalton did not take GO back on the provinces back. Here's a fantastic piece of dirt on that demon, it's pretty safe to say that he did this just to screw the province over, much like the majority of his other actions, but very shortly before he left politics, Harris himself brought GO back onto the province's back after ditching it years ago, despite the fact that the provincial budget was in no condition to support it. There were some real fears in the beginning, but a deal managed to get struck for getting money flowing into the system. GO is finally talking some serious expansion lately, as new stations have been opening with at least 3 more currently in the works (Pleasant (between Georgetown and Brampton (<- mainly to alleviate Brampton, way over capacity, badly needed)), Kennedy, and Barrie (line extension beyond Bradford) GO TRAIN stations)

Extending GO to St.Catherine's would be impractical. 1, the track space is not there. The appropriate track space can barely handle the Hamilton service as it is, as freight service is heavy in steel town, train service to Hamilton is piss poor (4 round trips a day, no weekend service). It's sad because buses cannot handle the Hamilton route effectively, either cost of capacity wise. Furthermore there are far more worthwhile extensions. The two I'd place the most emphasis on would be extending the Milton line to Cambridge/Kitchener, and the Bradford line to Barrie, the latter of which is already set in stone and going to happen, the former is still on the table with no decision (been like that for a number of years, CP is a bitch). St. Catherines'ers don't commute to downtown T.O., although some commute to Hamilton and Burlington, maybe Mississauga, in anycase, the ridership is not there to support that service.

Also, the name change is stupid. Keep in mind that there are more GO Train lines than the lake shore - Milton, Georgetown, Bradford, Richmond Hill, and Stouffville lines. The name includes the ENTIRE PROVINCE already, changing the name is absurd - besides, it's an established icon people know and love in the GTA.

I think urban 2.0 has good point. Expand GO service, and you won't have to construct new highways. The GO train needs to be an all day service, both directions, and it needs to cover a larger area.

In Hamilton there has been a lot of talks of creating the mid peninsula highway (Hamilton to Fort Erie). But since last week the provinical government pretty much killed the idea of creating a new highway, which would probably be a toll. Instead there looking at creating a new rail line instead.

So it's possible to create a rail link from Toronto to St. Catharines.

In Hamilton there has been a lot of talks of creating the mid peninsula highway (Hamilton to Fort Erie). But since last week the provinical government pretty much killed the idea of creating a new highway, which would probably be a toll. Instead there looking at creating a new rail line instead.

Where did you find this out from? Caplin indicated in private conversation not all that long ago that the Mid-Pen. highway was essentially a go pending the Environmental Studies.

The mid-pen highway is needed to relieve the QEW of some truck traffic

Last week they updated the mid peninsula highway and changed the name to Niagara to GTA Corridor.

Here's the website http://www.niagara-gta.com/

"The needs assessment study was a technical exercise, involving a comprehensive examination of future transportation problems, opportunities, and a range of transportation alternatives including road, transit, rail, ferry and other options. Various travel and growth scenarios were considered for a 30-year planning period. "

So basically no highway just some sort of new mass transit system from the Milton region (Burlington) --> Hamilton and the to the Niagara region.

http://www.niagara-gta.com/images/map_large.jpg

Halton needs a north-south freeway, they've got 3 east-west

Well, once you hit Burlington you've hit all-day GO Train service anyway, so that's not a bad option.

Seriously, if you want to get people directly to Toronto from St. Cat's, build a High-speed Ferry, and travel one side of the triangle instead of two. It's stupid to do a U-shaped travel route if you have the option to make a straight line - the shortest distance between two points (well, curved on a globe, but we'll ignore that for now).

About alleviating the QEW, wasn't that what the 403 was for? (the 427 already connected the QEW to the 401). The problem with highways is that you can't alleviate the pressure when it is already there. The 407 proves this. Alleviating highways don't work, even if they become popular - the 401 will never become alleviated. This is because all highways lead to it, except the QEW (but the QEW is the same highway as the Gardener and DVP, so indirectly it does plow into the 401 too). The QEW merges with 3 highways at St. Cat's already, which means you're screwed as far as alleviating any of that is concerned.