- 22-minute drive (or 1h in rushour)
- 1.25-hour bus ride
- 13-minute LRT ride
LRT (light rail transit) really is an excellent way to get into the downtown core from distances and in time frames that were previously only manageable by car.
But I don’t think it’s a fair comparison based on routes. On the UPX line those are 1 direct stop apart. For comparison taking the subway would also be more indirect and longer, taking about 40 minutes I would guess.
UPX runs every 15 mins.
If you time it right, great, but if you don’t...
If things are allowed to drift randomly, you end up approximating the exponential distribution - which has an average wait time of 15 minutes for 4 trains/hour.
LRT linking to commuter rail lines, subway lines, and bus stops is something the author didn't really mention, but it certainly seems to be the strategy for that line in Toronto.
The author is against cutting funding for bus routes, which is reasonable. I guess I just don't see how that is also an argument against using LRT for arterial transportation into downtown cores. If the retort to that is "budgets", then we need increased funding for public transportation, not fewer trains.