I'm all for more transit and innovative ideas but this seems like quite a short distance for a ferry service. Price will dictate everything since if it's $20 a ride people will say fuck it and just take the TTC (despite how long it takes).
Ferry service proposed between Humber Bay Shores and Yonge Street
- Thread starter canada-man
- Start date
What about a floating bridge?? You would only need to raise it at certain places to let the ships through
I think you should propose a subway, makes even more sense than a 50 km bridge across Lake Ontario to St Catherines.
Doug Ford loves subways, he'd jump at the chance to tunnel under the lake to get a quick route to the Niagara Falls SC's.
I was thinking exactly the same thing. A high speed bullet train straight to the Sundowner
Guys, get real. Toronto is full of lefties who will make sure nothing gets built. We can't even get a bridge or tunnel built to Toronto Island(s).
As a member of one of the clubs at Humber bay and am very familiar with the area from all angles I can see no place to put a ferry except at Humber sailing club or the existing ramp across the road where the parking is. The community is very involved with the area and would never allow a hover craft because of the noise and the lack of parking. A ferry wouldnt work because of the shallow water and dredging would probably make it cost prohibitive. The better idea would be Mendoza bay but thats all parkland.
They said on the news the most that ferry can take is 200 people at once. They plan on doing six runs during rush hour. So thats at the most 1,200 people twice a day (both rush hours).
How exactly is that supposed to put a dent into rush hour traffic when we have probably a hundred thousand people moving in and out of downtown??
How exactly is that supposed to put a dent into rush hour traffic when we have probably a hundred thousand people moving in and out of downtown??
That's why I say building a GO Station on the site of the former Mr. Christie factory at Park Lawn is the more practical solution.
Wasn't my comment, but it does not make any sense. There is that "small" problem of the Toronto Islands and the airport in the way, making a bridge / tunnel impractical and horrendously expensive.
Funny how economics comes into play with the so-called "simple" ideas right? For this business to succeed it would need to charge crazy high rates just to break even. Yet a hovercraft and a bridge to St. Catherines are "good" ideas?
I guess that makes Harris and the Ford brothers lefties then. There is no business case for building a bridge or tunnel to the Toronto Islands when they lie empty for most of the year.
It's an engineering problem and it can be solved. In a pinch you can go with a draw bridge over the western gap and a protected walkway along the airport's edge. If you're really desperate, you can bridge the Eastern Channel. More than doable, if there's a will.
Mayor Miller was the bridge killer.
There is a tunnel to Billy Bishop Airport but that tunnel does not service the rest of the Island(s).
You say that the lefties can't get anything built, yet they did get the subway built out to Vaughn, the UP Express and the soon to be Crosstown LRT. Don't forget that the Crosstown LRT was part of Mayor Miller's Transit City plan, which Rob and Doug cancelled. Harris killed the Eglinton subway, Rob killed Transit City and tried unsuccessfully in changing the Crosstown to be 100% underground. Doug wants to change the already agreed on 1-stop to Scarborough back to 3 even though it will cost significantly more. Then of course, he has this magic plan to build a cheaper subway from the Science Center to Ontario Place.
I do agree with you that there are too many political games going on with these projects. For example, the funding of the Vaughan line was contingent on having it cross into that area. The TTC was basically forced to build a subway to nowhere while the DRL was ignored. Naturally, that area of Vaughan was a Liberal riding under Greg Sorbara. As for the UP Express, the fares were initially too high to be viable for public use. The idiotic rationale was that business people would take the train even though taking a taxi or limo was basically the same amount of time.
As you can see there's lots of blame to go around on both the left and right for either not building or building in the wrong place.
There's a tunnel to the island airport because it makes business sense to do so i.e. passengers spending money there. There's no business case for a tunnel to the park area of the islands because you can travel there and literally not spend a dime and the islands sit empty for most of the year during winter.
There was a high-speed ferry between Toronto and Niagara on the Lake that I took only once years ago. The dumb thing with that route was that the ferry docked up the Niagara River (can't recall exactly) with limited road access. So you had few options other than riding a bike into NOL, which is a long ride. As for the reason why that ferry closed down. Economics again.
I don't know the revenue numbers but there is a ferry fare plus amusement park and restaurants.
Question: Do city golf courses, hockey rinks and swimming pools make economic sense?
No shit there's an amusement park on the island, but it doesn't operate during the winter does it? Not everyone going to the islands by ferry go to the amusement park and / or restaurants. I do know of two stand-alone restaurants on Ward's island, but they likely have little to no traffic in the winter. The traffic they do have likely comes from the island residents. Why would we build a tunnel to service two small businesses in the dead of winter?
Contrast that with the tunnel to the airport, which has an obvious economic reason for existing: people spending money to fly.
Question: do you know the difference between building a tunnel and the other amenities you mentioned? Apparently not. You certainly cannot use a golf course during winter, but there's almost no maintenance cost during that time. A tunnel requires continuous maintenance. And you can use a hockey rink and indoor swimming pool in the winter.
