Joy of Travelling to Toronto

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Joy of Travelling to Toronto

Postby MoodyBlue » Sat Jul 14, 2018 12:50 pm

Hey gang this is not a complaint or rant, just an observation or a description of what it is like to travel into Toronto for an event.
This is what we go through to travel in from Guelph, I know there are those who will say that we are lucky to live so close that we can do this, but here it goes.

First of all, on weeknights, including Friday night, forget the four oh anything as a route by car. The Gardiner is always backed up as is Lakeshore Blvd. after getting off the Gardiner.

Next route, and this is the only way for us to get into Toronto now: South on highway 6 to get to the Aldershot GO station. Massive traffic jams can happen just south of Highway 5, so I must watch way ahead to get on escape route in time.

Arrive at GO station, get on a train that is moving towards our destination. Time? About an hour and a half since leaving home and that train starts to move. About an hour and half later, the trains arrives at Union Station. Now catch a subway up to the venue. Another 20 minutes.

This is what we did on July 13, 2018. Oh yes total transportation costs not including gas is $62.00. GO + TTC round trip.

We just arrived in time for the concert, and of course we had to rush to the subway after the concert to start the trek home. Concert ended at 11:00 and we arrived at our home in Guelph at 1:30 in the morning.

As a result, due to all of this effort and expense I no longer buy the cheapest seats I can find, within reason I buy the best available seats.

Also, when we went to see Brian Ferry at Massey hall, we took a day of our holidays and drove into Toronto at noon. That day I bailed off the 401 to take the 407 to 427 south to the Gardiner. Why? the 401 was a parking lot that day from Winston Churchill Blvd. to way past the 427. This was no where near rush hour. I do not want to risk sitting in traffic and missing any part of a concert.

Taking a day or half day off work to drive into Toronto is also our least expensive option and is about half the cost, (including gas and parking) and we get home much earlier as traffic on the way home is a breeze (usually).

If the artist(s) are touring in Ontario and have a venue west of Toronto we will go to that one. London is a good choice.

So there you have it. FWIW. Those of you who live closer to Toronto and have a shorter and cheaper travel, be thankful.

One more observation, these big crowd events in Toronto generate a lot of income for the public transit system.
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