During the school season it really is a weekly occurrence. The 30/30A on a Sunday evening is absolutely miserable for travelers, with the level of service needed absolutely not nearly matching demand.
It has been discussed on the Construction thread that actual Kitchener Line works have really slowed down as of late, with contracts only starting to go out now, and stuff like the Guelph track tie in and the various sidings slowing or not progressing at all. Essentially, the weekend work that is supposedly being done is not really happening and shouldn't be used as a justification for the lack of at least one or two Kitchener trains on even just Sunday night to get students and residents to KW.
CN and freight operations continue just fine on the Guelph Sub where work is taking place, VIA gets two shots a day on this section, why can't GO?
It really is a matter of safety. I've seen horrible crowding at Bramalea GO, people being pushed, standing room riders falling as the bus grinds to a halt on the 401, line cutting, a lot of angry riders and an almost guaranteed stressful situation.
It is a matter of time before something bad happens with this level of crowding and lake of safety at Bramalea and on the buses. The onus is on the province, GO and MX to provide the levels of service needed to ensure that safety is being maintained.
If this means scheduling a third, fourth or fifth bus on the hour during those Sunday Evening times, GO should do it. I think operationally, there comes a point where running an "expensive" train becomes more economically viable than those buses with the large amount of drivers, those deadheading buses being sent to Meadowvale to pick stranded hours and the whole lot of detouring.
We talk about it a lot and I personally am going to keep on calling for some level of KT train service on the weekends. I've seen people get hurt on this bus. There's a terrible milk run bus to Georgetown which is absolutely miserable for those riders. I simply do not buy any excuses to not have one train, because safety is paramount, and MX has found ways around work and construction to maintain some levels of service.
The 30min-hourly level of KT service is years out, fine, I get that. But CN's note of one crossing at Silver per hour means bi-hourly service if MX and GO so pleased. I'm not even asking for that. The demand is there, the PRESTO fares are there and the tax dollars have been collected to ensure the public can rely on some level of service the government owes it to us. This goes for all services provided to the people, municipally and provincially, where operations should be optimized and passengers should be thought of first.
I'm fuming today honestly, after a horrid experience, but I want to acknowledge that generally passengers are all good sports who just want to get to KW or their destinations. And the bus staff are amazing, I heard my driver giving detailed calls to control asking for backup buses at Meadowvale ASAP to get stranded riders. It's those who are in charge who need to move forward with hiring and training new conductors and drivers, get rid of the red tape in all of our projects and be more transparent, and ensure passengers are kept moving.
I haven't even mentioned the 401. It was bad, buses were detouring in the Campbellville/Guelph area. Trains could solve this, and keep people and goods moving, which the government swears it's doing, but is doing a bad job of.
