King-Victoria Transit Hub

[danbrotherston]

I heard Tom Galloway on 570 news taking about this the other week. He did briefly mention that there was an option floating around with underground parking, obviously that would increase the cost, so not sure how serious an idea that is. I am not a fan of the surface parking lot either, but it doesn't bother me that much as it is more than likely going to be built over with a private development within a decade. It is not a permanent piece of this development. Also a parking lot currently exists at the site. I am all for hating cars, but not everyone is going to take transit to get onto the go train or via, some people will drive and the current via station parking lot gets good use. I also understand that by building parking they are incentivizing drivers in some form, but realistically if there is no place for them to park and take the train they will probably just drive to there destination as oppose to taking public transit for a section of their commute. 

I do think they could have dreamed a little bigger and included some retail component.  A convenient store and a couple small fast food spots are obvious addition to a transit terminal. The pub at the old charles st terminal seemed to do good business, although it always seemed a bit grimy to me. 

I would have liked to see something like a smaller Rotterdam transit station. I also wish that Metrolinxs would have allowed the tracks to be covered to add protection from the elements. 

https://www.google.ca/maps/@51.9238751,4...!1e2?hl=en

On another note. I think the city/ region shouldn't give up on Duke st. Seems to me that Victoria is quite a bit lower than the rail tracks, could they not burry Duke under them? Obviously this would come at a cost and might cause issues with the parking lot north of the track.  Its probably not possibly from an engineering prospective now that I think about it. oh well.

If they were just leaving the existing parking, then sure, I wouldn't be too upset about it. But we are going to spend millions of dollars repaving it, such an enormous waste.

As for Duke, the only component I feel it needs is active transportation. It is in no way an important vehicle corridor, closing it to cars is fine, and Frankly, would even enhance active transportation options. According to Tom an active transportation tunnel is currently planned.