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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

There's a guy posting on the GO Transit Reddit who seems to have a good grasp of the working culture at Metrolinx. A disgruntled, former employee? He doesn't believe that the Milton line expansion will happen. Apparently MX doesn't want to play ball with CP over track rights.

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Everyone else manages to make it to the station without a bike. If the trains are full then shouldn’t passengers be prioritized versus things.
To be fair, “everyone else” isn’t travelling to Downtown Toronto to deliver food via bicycle as means of survival.

Clearly local transit agencies at Malton, Bramalea, Brampton, and Mount Pleasant do not have the capacity to accommodate the multitude of bikes dumped on those platforms, leaving many to cycle the last mile home.

Or...if they are that popular, have all cars have space for bikes.
All six bike coaches are currently in use on the Kitchener Line with Metrolinx adding upwards of two bike coaches on several trips in response to overcrowding. This is in addition to the pre-existing capacity of 2-4 bikes per coach elsewhere on any given consist. At some point discussion needs to be had as to how much space we are willing to reallocate from regular customers towards bicycles on board trains. The line has to be drawn somewhere.

Aside from capacity, there are several legitimate concerns beyond the racist undertones online that need to be addressed relating to poor customer etiquette from this particular group of customers. These include, but are not limited to a) the unsafe operation of bikes on station platforms, b) the increased aggression towards regular customers expressing their frustration in their inability to safely board or exit affected trains, c) increased aggression towards Metrolinx and Alstom employees simply performing the jobs they are paid to do, and d) significant delays attributed to poor customer etiquette including the abuse of the yellow emergency strip to allow themselves more time to exit OR the people holding doors for their friends with bikes then wasting further time trying to cram said bikes onto coaches already beyond capacity.

I don’t have an in depth understanding of GO’s operations, but my question is: why are they still running six-car trains?
CN charges Metrolinx per axle for operation on the Halton Subdivision. There is also a significant increase in fuel costs associated with operating longer trains. There most certainly isn’t enough demand from regular passengers to warrant the use of twelve coach trains, particularly on the most affected trains in the evenings or on weekends. I don’t exactly fault Metrolinx for analyzing the data and determining that operating longer trains for the sole purpose of increasing bike capacity may not be a wise use of resources, especially when you consider that adding an additional six coaches would at best allow for the safe transport of an additional 24 bikes.

It may be worth highlighting that Metrolinx has already experimented with operating longer trains for the sole purpose of accommodating bikes. Throughout September 2023, the most affected trips departing Union at 21:34 and 22:34 were both twelve coach trains comprised primarily of the older style coaches without the washroom on the lower level. This freed up a second vestibule for bikes on each coach. Bike coaches were introduced the following month and those departures were reduced to six coach trains due to storage capacity constraints in Kitchener following the cancellation of the London service.
 
All six bike coaches are currently in use on the Kitchener Line with Metrolinx adding upwards of two bike coaches on several trips in response to overcrowding. This is in addition to the pre-existing capacity of 2-4 bikes per coach elsewhere on any given consist. At some point discussion needs to be had as to how much space we are willing to reallocate from regular customers towards bicycles on board trains. The line has to be drawn somewhere.

Aside from capacity, there are several legitimate concerns beyond the racist undertones online that need to be addressed relating to poor customer etiquette from this particular group of customers. These include, but are not limited to a) the unsafe operation of bikes on station platforms, b) the increased aggression towards regular customers expressing their frustration in their inability to safely board or exit affected trains, c) increased aggression towards Metrolinx and Alstom employees simply performing the jobs they are paid to do, and d) significant delays attributed to poor customer etiquette including the abuse of the yellow emergency strip to allow themselves more time to exit OR the people holding doors for their friends with bikes then wasting further time trying to cram said bikes onto coaches already beyond capacity.
Sounds like a good interim solution would be more enforcement of existing laws. Get the word out about safe use of your bike at stations and one the train and the riders will adjust or face fines.
 
To be fair, “everyone else” isn’t travelling to Downtown Toronto to deliver food via bicycle as means of survival.

Clearly local transit agencies at Malton, Bramalea, Brampton, and Mount Pleasant do not have the capacity to accommodate the multitude of bikes dumped on those platforms, leaving many to cycle the last mile home.


All six bike coaches are currently in use on the Kitchener Line with Metrolinx adding upwards of two bike coaches on several trips in response to overcrowding. This is in addition to the pre-existing capacity of 2-4 bikes per coach elsewhere on any given consist. At some point discussion needs to be had as to how much space we are willing to reallocate from regular customers towards bicycles on board trains. The line has to be drawn somewhere.

Aside from capacity, there are several legitimate concerns beyond the racist undertones online that need to be addressed relating to poor customer etiquette from this particular group of customers. These include, but are not limited to a) the unsafe operation of bikes on station platforms, b) the increased aggression towards regular customers expressing their frustration in their inability to safely board or exit affected trains, c) increased aggression towards Metrolinx and Alstom employees simply performing the jobs they are paid to do, and d) significant delays attributed to poor customer etiquette including the abuse of the yellow emergency strip to allow themselves more time to exit OR the people holding doors for their friends with bikes then wasting further time trying to cram said bikes onto coaches already beyond capacity.


CN charges Metrolinx per axle for operation on the Halton Subdivision. There is also a significant increase in fuel costs associated with operating longer trains. There most certainly isn’t enough demand from regular passengers to warrant the use of twelve coach trains, particularly on the most affected trains in the evenings or on weekends. I don’t exactly fault Metrolinx for analyzing the data and determining that operating longer trains for the sole purpose of increasing bike capacity may not be a wise use of resources, especially when you consider that adding an additional six coaches would at best allow for the safe transport of an additional 24 bikes.

It may be worth highlighting that Metrolinx has already experimented with operating longer trains for the sole purpose of accommodating bikes. Throughout September 2023, the most affected trips departing Union at 21:34 and 22:34 were both twelve coach trains comprised primarily of the older style coaches without the washroom on the lower level. This freed up a second vestibule for bikes on each coach. Bike coaches were introduced the following month and those departures were reduced to six coach trains due to storage capacity constraints in Kitchener following the cancellation of the London service.
You’re looking for racism or an attack on the poor if you can’t see that some people just don’t think bikes should be on a train.
 
You’re looking for racism or an attack on the poor if you can’t see that some people just don’t think bikes should be on a train.
There is literally nobody calling for all bikes to be excluded from trains. Stop starting to start a fight on a premise that doesn‘t exist. The issue is about loading bikes onto train beyond the capacity which permits safe and convenient entry/egress.
 
There's a guy posting on the GO Transit Reddit who seems to have a good grasp of the working culture at Metrolinx. A disgruntled, former employee? He doesn't believe that the Milton line expansion will happen. Apparently MX doesn't want to play ball with CP over track rights.

]

As I keep saying, I'm pretty sure that the people at ML have read Section 152.1 of the Canada Transportation Act.

I'm pretty confident that CP's price, whatever it is, will be cheaper than what would be awarded in arbitration.

Now that the pols are focussed on Milton, and with shovels in the ground on GO Expansion to other places, I bet ML is all about studying the Milton line.

- Paul
 
Maybe people in downtown Toronto should just get off their butts and actually go get their food themselves. Hopefully then there won't be any decent money to be made being a food courier, and we'll see a huge reduction in e-bikes crowding the train.
I stopped using these apps long ago cause the delivery charges are too high. How hard is it to take the elevator down to the underground and visit one of the many food courts? I haven't worked in downtown Toronto since 2012. Are things that different nowadays?

You’re definitely not the first one to note the irony that the food delivery bike economy is centred in the most walkable neighborhoods of the city.

With that being said, the delivery cyclists are going where the orders (and money) are. I think the primary onus should be on the food delivery companies, followed by MLX, to find a solution, be it storage space or additional bike trains.
 
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I rather suspect in the near term we are going to need to accommodate the bikes… As much as no other jurisdiction really carries them in numbers, the combination of market pressures that got us here is also fairly unique. In most places these couriers would, quite frankly, be driving gas scooters and I don’t think anyone wants to push them that way. Frankly even getting them on e-scooters that are insured and COULD make the round trip is going to create a traffic nightmare so long as Brampton is so important….
 
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I rather suspect in the near term we are going to need to accommodate the bikes… As much as no other jurisdiction really carries them in numbers, the combination of market pressures that got us here is also fairly unique. In most places these couriers would, quite frankly, be driving gas scooters and I don’t think anyone wants to push them that way. Frankly even getting them on e-scooters that are insured and COULD make the round trip is going to create a traffic nightmare so long as Brampton is so important….
Just like how drivers had to accommodate cyclists, transit needs to as well.There is bound to be many growing pains in getting to a point of coexistence. Is is one of them.
 
Just like how drivers had to accommodate cyclists, transit needs to as well.There is bound to be many growing pains in getting to a point of coexistence. Is is one of them.
I mean yes... but it's also quite fair to observe that we probably don't want to be transporting bicycles en masse in a generalized long term way for pure efficiency reasons. These couriers really are something of a niche that is causing a lot of headaches at the moment... and a niche the existence of which is kinda a failure in its own right. In the short term I just suspect that the alternatives are WORSE.

And in the long term we are probably looking at something better fixed through service pricing and housing affordability than rules for transit riders
 
I mean yes... but it's also quite fair to observe that we probably don't want to be transporting bicycles en masse in a generalized long term way for pure efficiency reasons. These couriers really are something of a niche that is causing a lot of headaches at the moment... and a niche the existence of which is kinda a failure in its own right. In the short term I just suspect that the alternatives are WORSE.

And in the long term we are probably looking at something better fixed through service pricing and housing affordability than rules for transit riders
Then we better make better cycling storage infrastructure.
 

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