GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

[urbancog]

More tangential evidence that GO Rail service will be increased to "15-minute service or better" is contained in Alstom's job advert for a General Manager Maintenance in Toronto includes this statement: "as we continue to move toward 15-minute service on all rail corridors."

 

[anb]

Only a week and a half in and Confederation is already getting cut back service.

 

[tsm1072]

Only a week and a half in and Confederation is already getting cut back service.

View attachment 693396

I expect this has to do with CN construction. CN has been doing refurbishment of pretty much all the grade crossings in Hamilton (including Stoney Creek). I hope the refurbishment includes track speed upgrades, but there is no indication that is happening. I'm still trying to determine if it is just a coincidence that they are doing all this crossing work around the time of the West Harbour tie in and Confederation, or whether it is just where they came up in the maintenance schedule.

 

[innsertnamehere]

There is so much extra heavy truck traffic in the Hamilton area along the CN corridor as it's also right beside the major steel industry players (i.e. heavy trucks hauling steel) that the grade crossings regularly get destroyed and need reconstruction. CN rebuilds a crossing in the Hamilton area like every 5 years or so. Parkdale Avenue is getting rebuilt this weekend - it was last rebuilt in 2018.

Hamilton really just needs to start planning grade separations again through the City.

 

[bpbpbpbp]

https://www.reddit.com/r/gotransit/s/e0300nfGR8

someone on reddit said:
7:49am and 3:49pm towards Toronto

4:48pm and 10:48pm towards Kitchener

massive grain of salt with something like this.

I’m also curious to know what the track ownership situation is going to be like. I would assume in principal it’ll all belong officially to CN, but MX will call the shots on 2, which becomes 1 in Downtown Brampton. Would be awesome if it’s full MX ownership (sounds too good to he true, also since Halwest and Silver exist) and if MX gets free reign of 2 tracks through Downtown Brampton rather than just one, when it gets built.

The source on reddit was right. Service changes up.

Service Changes begin on Nov. 22

Starting Nov. 22, we’re adjusting schedules across our network.

www.gotransit.com

 

[chrisw]

LW and LE will temporarily be 30 mins service on the weekend beginning from Nov 22.

 

[anb]

We finally have true 30 min service with mostly no gaps leaving Union to Bramalea, 30 min weekend service with at least some trains to Kitchener, all to overall compliment the Mount Dennis opening. This is the best service change for the entire line so far.

Although there are still hourly gaps during the PM counter peak from Bramalea to Union as it goes 4:28PM, 5:28PM, 6:28PM then returns to 30 min from 6:58PM to 10:26PM. Then, there is another hourly gap in both directions between the 10:30-11:30PM window that needs to be filled in as well.

 

[nfitz]

LW and LE will temporarily be 30 mins service on the weekend.

Great - more service cuts.

Effing Metrolinx.

 

[APTA-2048]

LW and LE will temporarily be 30 mins service on the weekend beginning from Nov 22.

Is this construction related or staffing related?

 

[Coolibop]

Not sure I saw this here...work on Highland Creek crossing?

From the latest update on the Stouffville line:

On the Stouffville Line, crews will carry out several construction activities between Sheppard Avenue East and Highway 401. The work includes signal upgrades near Highland Creek and the construction of new retaining walls in the area.

 

[ScreamingViking]

There is so much extra heavy truck traffic in the Hamilton area along the CN corridor as it's also right beside the major steel industry players (i.e. heavy trucks hauling steel) that the grade crossings regularly get destroyed and need reconstruction. CN rebuilds a crossing in the Hamilton area like every 5 years or so. Parkdale Avenue is getting rebuilt this weekend - it was last rebuilt in 2018.

Hamilton really just needs to start planning grade separations again through the City.

So many crossings are shortline too. Those companies don't have the funds (like CN and CPKC may) to maintain crossings. Gage and Ottawa north of Barton are generally awful for it (and the CN mainline should be grade separated on both... I'll often take Kenilworth just to avoid the risk of being stopped as a long train crosses, despite it having its own rough patch of rail crossings north of the CN bridge)

 

[LNahid2000]

Kind of dumb that they didn't adjust the 30 bus to meet with every train between Union and Bramalea. Having 2 buses every hour instead of 1 bus every half hour makes no sense, but that's Metrolinx for you.

 

[Sauga89]

Not sure I saw this here...work on Highland Creek crossing?

From the latest update on the Stouffville line:

On the Stouffville Line, crews will carry out several construction activities between Sheppard Avenue East and Highway 401. The work includes signal upgrades near Highland Creek and the construction of new retaining walls in the area.

From that same update on construction activities taking place this weekend:

In addition, crews will prepare the Finch Avenue East underpass project site for the construction of the future detour route. 

It seems like work on the Finch grade separation is progressing. (Note that this is just a grade separation - the GO station on the site has apparently been deferred).

 

[anb]

Kind of dumb that they didn't adjust the 30 bus to meet with every train between Union and Bramalea. Having 2 buses every hour instead of 1 bus every half hour makes no sense, but that's Metrolinx for you.

Especially as they already do this on Fridays, so it clearly is a thing they could do for the weekends also. They do this exact same 2 bus every hour thing for the 12/12B at Burlington GO and it’s infuriating.

 

[reaperexpress]

Kind of dumb that they didn't adjust the 30 bus to meet with every train between Union and Bramalea. Having 2 buses every hour instead of 1 bus every half hour makes no sense, but that's Metrolinx for you.

It's even worse than that. During busy periods there are THREE Route 30 buses connecting to one of the trains per hour, and ZERO buses connecting to the other! And there's a 70-minute gap from Bramalea to Kitchener (17:23 to 18:33) even though there are three buses per hour!

Especially as they already do this on Fridays, so it clearly is a thing they could do for the weekends also. They do this exact same 2 bus every hour thing for the 12/12B at Burlington GO and it’s infuriating.

At least the 12 and 12B are significantly different - the 12B is 32 minutes faster than the 12_ so even if the departures were staggered by 30 minutes everyone heading to Niagara would concentrate on the same hourly train since both buses would arrive at the same time. Meanwhile the 30 and 30A only have a 5-minute difference, so people would definitely spread out across both departures. And during the periods with 3 buses per hour, two of the buses are exactly the same branch!

It's especially annoying that they didn't redo the bus schedules because having three double-decker busloads of people trying to board at a single platform once per hour obviously creates lots of avoidable crowding issues and a generally poor passenger experience, since the majority of people are left behind by the first bus during busy periods.