Bordercollie
Senior Member
Has that been built now?
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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)
- Thread starter drum118
- Start date
innsertnamehere
Superstar
not from my understanding.
The friday peak train also lost the "super express" stopping pattern that weekend Niagara trains have - which have the bonus of ~40 minute travel times to Burlington. I have to admit I've used them once or twice just for that, which is a very, very competitive travel time.
Long term I would love to see all service extending beyond Aldershot to have the super express stop pattern to make more competitive travel times. It would probably deliver a pretty safe sub-1 hour travel time to Hamilton, and better times to the Niagara Peninsula. I'm not sure there is the track capacity for it at peak hours though.
The friday peak train also lost the "super express" stopping pattern that weekend Niagara trains have - which have the bonus of ~40 minute travel times to Burlington. I have to admit I've used them once or twice just for that, which is a very, very competitive travel time.
Long term I would love to see all service extending beyond Aldershot to have the super express stop pattern to make more competitive travel times. It would probably deliver a pretty safe sub-1 hour travel time to Hamilton, and better times to the Niagara Peninsula. I'm not sure there is the track capacity for it at peak hours though.
Bordercollie
Senior Member
That's sounds very useful
mdrejhon
Senior Member
I was once on a nonstop express GO train between Union to West Harbour that made it in a mere 47 minutes -- an actual special GO train.
It was one of those PanAm 2015 Games express trains, that had a 30-minute late departure. It nearly completely made up for that time.
I'll never forget that memorable rocket powered GO train!
GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)
EDIT: 6:15 and still at UnionPerhaps it was on 7/8! :) (right now at 18:15 the online departures says "17:50 Lakeshore West 13 18:15, Proceed - Train Express To - West Harbour.") so you are good!
According to my calculations, Union-Hamilton in just 42 minutes is possible within the current rail limits with the infrastructure improvements between Bayview Junction and West Harbour. Realistically, any express won't be that fast, but it certainly tested how fast an express GO train could be between Toronto and Hamilton.
Not yet. They were working towards it by replacing the John Street bridge -- that was a necessary pre-requisite that was under construction to prepare for precisely this!
Then the pandemic slammed Hamilton and GO's budget. So a bit of a 1-or-2-year punt on the next stage, probably.
IMHO, they should have included that in the 2015 contract...
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anb
Active Member
Last year when I was returning from Niagara, there were enough people that were headed back to “Toronto”, so they automatically made an extra express bus from there to Burlington, aka bringing back the 12B for a brief moment. I feel like 2021’s overall summer is going to drive a lot more traffic compared to when we were in the early stages of the pandemic, and it has been proven seeing the 401 and QEW/403 be a absolute disaster once again at mostly all times. That being said, the traffic to Niagara will probably be massive that they would need to simultaneously run a train and an unscheduled 12B in order to keep the traffic flow bearable.
reaperexpress
Senior Member
12-car trains are much slower to accelerate than the 8-car trains they normally run on that service. They would need to add several minutes to the schedule to accommodate that, providing a worse service for passengers.
If we are consistently able to fill 8-car double-decker trains on the weekend, surely that is a justification to increase the service above the present 4 trains per day.
innsertnamehere
Superstar
An earlier Toronto bound train for Niagara passengers would probably be a good addition - right now the earliest train arrives after noon.
reaperexpress
Senior Member
Yeah I have previously pondered about using a trainset based in Lewis Yard for a couple of additional round trips for the weekend Niagara Service, to provide said morning trip as well as to improve headways from every 4 hours to every 2-3 hours:
UrbanJon
New Member
This is worth a mention:
Because the Cambridge-Guelph train proposal drops passengers in the middle of nowhere and requires the Cambridge LRT to take them somewhere useful. And since the LRT is over a decade away, that means it will be long time before the Cambridge-Guelph train will be built as without the LRT, it doesn't have a hope of succeeding, and that is completely negating the superiority of a potential bus service instead of the train.
Onward to Cambridge!: Region gets provincial go-ahead to bring planned LRT route to city by 2032
Phase 2 of the region's LRT plan wouldn't see shovels in the ground in Cambridge until 2028 at the earliest
www.kitchenertoday.com
Because the Cambridge-Guelph train proposal drops passengers in the middle of nowhere and requires the Cambridge LRT to take them somewhere useful. And since the LRT is over a decade away, that means it will be long time before the Cambridge-Guelph train will be built as without the LRT, it doesn't have a hope of succeeding, and that is completely negating the superiority of a potential bus service instead of the train.
ARG1
Senior Member
Except the 302... well... exists, and can easily supplement the LRT (like it already does)This is worth a mention:
Onward to Cambridge!: Region gets provincial go-ahead to bring planned LRT route to city by 2032
Phase 2 of the region's LRT plan wouldn't see shovels in the ground in Cambridge until 2028 at the earliestwww.kitchenertoday.com
Because the Cambridge-Guelph train proposal drops passengers in the middle of nowhere and requires the Cambridge LRT to take them somewhere useful. And since the LRT is over a decade away, that means it will be long time before the Cambridge-Guelph train will be built as without the LRT, it doesn't have a hope of succeeding, and that is completely negating the superiority of a potential bus service instead of the train.
Richard White
Senior Member
Maybe so but with Covid restrictions, they cannot cram people as tightly as they would in previous years. I wonder if they will have trains on stand-by for crowding purposes.
DonValleyRainbow
Senior Member
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From a Metrolinx blog post, about speed tests this Sunday through Guelph:
Holy smokes, are they really going to move that fast through there? The curve east of Gordon / Norfolk will certainly be a limiting factor, but somehow it's unfathomable that they'd be permitted to go that fast where the tracks parallel Kent Street.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for this, I just have little faith in residents / politicians swallowing that pill.
Holy smokes, are they really going to move that fast through there? The curve east of Gordon / Norfolk will certainly be a limiting factor, but somehow it's unfathomable that they'd be permitted to go that fast where the tracks parallel Kent Street.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for this, I just have little faith in residents / politicians swallowing that pill.
innsertnamehere
Superstar
I thought the plan was only to increase it to 35mph (56km/h)? Where is a 50mph limit coming from? If so, that's good news for travel times.
Perhaps it's 50mph further west closer to Highway 6 with 35mph along Kent Street into downtown.
Perhaps it's 50mph further west closer to Highway 6 with 35mph along Kent Street into downtown.
reaperexpress
Senior Member
Maybe the 50 mph is just for testing purposes? The article states that the scheduled train speeds are expected to increase "incrementally" in Fall 2021, so perhaps that's referring to the 35 mph.
Either way, it doesn't really make much difference whether the Kent Street segment has a 35 mph or 50 mph limit, since it's right next to Guelph Station where all passenger trains stop.
Either way, it doesn't really make much difference whether the Kent Street segment has a 35 mph or 50 mph limit, since it's right next to Guelph Station where all passenger trains stop.
crs1026
Superstar
^As I understand it, the purpose of the exercise is to calibrate the new gates and crossing signals which have been installed recently.
It’s unlikely that the official operating speed will be raised as high as 50 in the near term, but it’s sensible to ensure the gates can handle excess speed as well as the normal speed, just in case.
- Paul
It’s unlikely that the official operating speed will be raised as high as 50 in the near term, but it’s sensible to ensure the gates can handle excess speed as well as the normal speed, just in case.
- Paul