anb
Active Member
I’ve been on the first off peak 9:34 AM train to Kitchener and i’ve gotta say, things have improved a lot and it’s a lot nicer than the express bus connection. Union-Bramalea is of course the most optimized so the train breezed through without problems, and Bramalea-Georgetown wasn’t too bad either. There were slowdowns at Acton and just before Guelph but it was just a minor signal issue. Guelph-Kitchener definitely needs work but towards the end of the trip is where things picked up, traveling at 50-60km/h until we got to the platforms at Kitchener. We made it in exactly 2 hours (11:34 AM), which isn’t bad for an ‘all stops’ train, and a point in the right direction, but of course still needs some work. I’m glad we got train service every 3 hours and planning a day trip is way easier now. I’m so glad work is being done for an all day Kitchener line especially since most of the crowd on the train were post secondary students most likely heading to the universities in Waterloo. Speaking of which, the bus route 30 extension is a really nice connection if you are continuing to those destinations and beyond and now we just need to hope for weekend service.
I then took the 2:41 PM return trip back to the GTA and we started off very strong at speeds up to 80-110km/h and got almost to the Guelph border before things slowed down drastically again, now seeing the work being done on laying another track down. There were lots of passengers getting on and off at Guelph Central and that’s a very pleasing note to take in that KW-Guelph travel has drastically been improved. The bus connections are now once again reasonable, making the trip a 60-90 mins journey, which isn’t bad but definitely doesn’t beat the 15-25 mins it takes on train, which could even be brought down to 10-15 mins when all the work is finished. Anyways when leaving Guelph, we picked back up at that same 80-110km/h range, and it felt consistent even through a minor stop at Acton. At Georgetown there’s another slowdown approaching its station but it isn’t so bad compared to the Guelph one earlier. From there, as we head into Brampton/Toronto it obviously became easier to maintain the consistent speeds even as the peak trains make its way in the opposite direction. Out of all the service changes we got, this is definitely the best one by far but that could change as i experience the changes on other train lines.
I then took the 2:41 PM return trip back to the GTA and we started off very strong at speeds up to 80-110km/h and got almost to the Guelph border before things slowed down drastically again, now seeing the work being done on laying another track down. There were lots of passengers getting on and off at Guelph Central and that’s a very pleasing note to take in that KW-Guelph travel has drastically been improved. The bus connections are now once again reasonable, making the trip a 60-90 mins journey, which isn’t bad but definitely doesn’t beat the 15-25 mins it takes on train, which could even be brought down to 10-15 mins when all the work is finished. Anyways when leaving Guelph, we picked back up at that same 80-110km/h range, and it felt consistent even through a minor stop at Acton. At Georgetown there’s another slowdown approaching its station but it isn’t so bad compared to the Guelph one earlier. From there, as we head into Brampton/Toronto it obviously became easier to maintain the consistent speeds even as the peak trains make its way in the opposite direction. Out of all the service changes we got, this is definitely the best one by far but that could change as i experience the changes on other train lines.