Dan416
Senior Member
Off-peak service to Erindale would be amazing.
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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)
- Thread starter drum118
- Start date
Off-peak service to Erindale would be amazing.
Platform 27
Active Member
What if it meant trading a bus every 20 minutes for a train every hour?
EnviroTO
Senior Member
The Milton bus is pretty convenient. My biggest problem with it is the long tour of the Square One parking lot.
Dan416
Senior Member
I'm not sure when Erindale gets a bus every 20 minutes. Whenever I've taken it, it's every half-hour.
Ideally, off-peak Erindale service would be every 30 minutes. Although I wouldn't object to more frequent service.
Agreed.
Mapleson
Active Member
The Milton EA got pushed back with the Electrication Study and the Cambridge extension impacting the design. Metrolinx tendered the survey and grading work (for specific property aquisition requirements) this spring. It's still in the top 15 projects, but they are keeping it quieter due to less money around this year and uncertainty for next year.
GO isn't cheap, they have to work with the budget given and fees raised. The Humber River crossing is the choke point for this line (2 tracks) as it leads directly into Lambton Yard area. While all-day service was possible in the pass, the increase in rail traffic means that CP limits GO to 14 daily slots (7 roundtrips), even when Milton Yard can hold 8 trains. They only got the 7th due to the downturn in the economy.
CDL.TO
Moderator
It was only two midday trains a day. There's a big difference between slipping in two extra trains and regular all-day service.
Mapleson
Active Member
In 2015, the GO2020 Plan requires hourly off-peak service between Union Station and Milton while the 2020 horizon increases the off-peak service frequency to twice hourly departures. The GO2020 plan defines the service limit requirements as between Union Station and Meadowvale with service between Meadowvale and Milton to be provided by bus service.
From the 2009 MMM Feasibility Study, 2015 would see twice hourly counter-flow during peak hours (6am-9am, 4pm-7pm) and hourly off-peak; 2020 would see 30 minute off-peak headways to Meadowvale with a bus connection to Milton.
Swarley
Active Member
The 2011-2012 Metrolinx business plan has a section on upcoming service extensions:
http://www.metrolinx.com/en/docs/pdf/board_agenda/20110623/Business_Plan.pdf
Somehow not surprising there's still no mention of all day off-peak service on Lakeshore.
http://www.metrolinx.com/en/docs/pdf/board_agenda/20110623/Business_Plan.pdf
Somehow not surprising there's still no mention of all day off-peak service on Lakeshore.
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rbt
Senior Member
Actually, there is on page 21. It appears to be a work in progress.
Thanks for the link to that document. Lots of good information in it.
There was one note of an expected doubling GO ridership by 2020. If a majority go to Union, that means an additional ~100,000 workers in downtown (car/subway traffic will not be reduced in actual use). I believe there are about 10,000 people working in FCP.
Add in another 20,000 units of downtown condos and you've got a ton of additional downtown employees looking for work. It will be interesting to see if a dozen new medium sized office towers (RBC sized) sprout up over the next 10 years.
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Jonny5
Senior Member
That sounds like they are considering some weekend train test runs this year on the non-Lakeshore lines during special events.
Running a few trains back and forth for the Civic Holiday would be a good idea too.
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nfitz
Superstar
Great link! Thanks. It's from the agenda for tomorrow's meeting. This was up on Monday - but they've added this and some other reports since then!
Not a surprise, given all you just listed was in the 2011-2012 budget that came out earlier this year - though without the dates.
In the 2010-2011 Annual Report from tomorrow's meeting is a throw-away line that Presto comes part of Metrolinx (from Ministry of Transport) on June 30th.
There seems to be a bit of inconsistency in Metrolinx documents with respect to the Crosstown. Most of the documents I've read have it going from Black Creek to STC, however the document quoted above says this: "This project, amalgamating the Eglinton LRT and Scarborough RT projects, will provide a single LRT line from McCowan Avenue in the East to Jane St in the West." (Page 11)
Just thought that was interesting.
Just thought that was interesting.
TOareaFan
Superstar
Doesn't Lakeshore already have all day off-peak service?
nfitz
Superstar
The more recent Metrolinx/TTC Crosstown presentations (on the TTC site), have been altered to show the line extending a bit east of Scarborough Centre ... and also show Jane in the west.
I believe he was referring to the long-promised increase to 30-minute off-peak service that 2-3 years ago they were talking about delivering in 2010/2011.
vegeta_skyline
Senior Member
Some important notes in there;
It would seem that the question of whether or not the 2 trains serving Kitchener will be new trips have been clearly answered - "two trips each peak extended". Meaning 2 of the existing trains will run the additional length to Kitchener. Those are going to be some packed trains…
Initial work is proceeded into signalizing the Stouffville & Barrie lines. This will allow for peak trains at intervals less than 30 minutes, the maximum currently permitted under the non-signaled OCS. Although I don't believe for a second this will be done by 2012 & 2013. An additional year for both is more likely.
The Richmond hill extension is planned for 2014. They should be able to maintain that schedule with the construction of a layover yard and 6.5 miles of additional mainline track.
It seems that within a few years every train will be 12 coaches. I too would prefer that they would make use of smaller & more frequent trains at least off peak. Seems as thought they are really focused on the bottom line as more trains would result in greater crewing and fuel costs. Also a lot more yard work would occur in order to split the trains into smaller consists and them put then back together for the peak period. It would create capacity constraints to employ those smaller trains during the peak periods due to the limitations of the current signal system. Only so many trains can pass at a time, something that becomes a much more pressing concern during peak periods. While keeping those mini trains in the yard during the peak period would of course be poor asset utilization.
What I find most interesting is the mention of "double berthing of trains" in Union station. Its seems this is how they plan on dealing with the future capacity crunch. As there is only space for one additional platform at Union and tunneling new platforms under Union would be prohibitively expensive due to the future retail level. It would seem they’ve acknowledged that this is the only realistic option left. Although due to the location of switches and space constraints within the USRC, only tracks 5-10 have enough space to accommodate 2 GO trains.
It would seem that the question of whether or not the 2 trains serving Kitchener will be new trips have been clearly answered - "two trips each peak extended". Meaning 2 of the existing trains will run the additional length to Kitchener. Those are going to be some packed trains…
Initial work is proceeded into signalizing the Stouffville & Barrie lines. This will allow for peak trains at intervals less than 30 minutes, the maximum currently permitted under the non-signaled OCS. Although I don't believe for a second this will be done by 2012 & 2013. An additional year for both is more likely.
The Richmond hill extension is planned for 2014. They should be able to maintain that schedule with the construction of a layover yard and 6.5 miles of additional mainline track.
It seems that within a few years every train will be 12 coaches. I too would prefer that they would make use of smaller & more frequent trains at least off peak. Seems as thought they are really focused on the bottom line as more trains would result in greater crewing and fuel costs. Also a lot more yard work would occur in order to split the trains into smaller consists and them put then back together for the peak period. It would create capacity constraints to employ those smaller trains during the peak periods due to the limitations of the current signal system. Only so many trains can pass at a time, something that becomes a much more pressing concern during peak periods. While keeping those mini trains in the yard during the peak period would of course be poor asset utilization.
What I find most interesting is the mention of "double berthing of trains" in Union station. Its seems this is how they plan on dealing with the future capacity crunch. As there is only space for one additional platform at Union and tunneling new platforms under Union would be prohibitively expensive due to the future retail level. It would seem they’ve acknowledged that this is the only realistic option left. Although due to the location of switches and space constraints within the USRC, only tracks 5-10 have enough space to accommodate 2 GO trains.