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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

TOareaFan said:
The last part of the last statement "accomodate future all-day service" I think has been in every correspondenc I have ever received from GO and I wrote my first letter to them on expanded GO trains to Brampton in 1988...so that is not really a meaningful statement (to me).
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I thought they'd previously committed to restoring the limited 2-way service that did exist before the construction started. Though I can't recall how extensive that was ...

Ultimately, they have committed to all-day service in 2020 ... but who knows what happens if the don't get the necessary funding increases to do this.
 
nfitz said:
What about reverse trips?

Oh, does that explain their response - that there was never service to Brampton? Seems a no brainer though, given the Zum service on Highway 10.
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Sorry, yes by "between" I meant return trips. In theory, just adding those back would satisfy the "50% increase" in the email response I received (they are, often, a bit tricky in their wording).
 
nfitz said:
What about reverse trips?

Oh, does that explain their response - that there was never service to Brampton? Seems a no brainer though, given the Zum service on Highway 10.
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Also, Downtown Brampton is designated by the province as a "place to grow". Both the city and the province seem to say the right words about it intensifying....but people aren't going to build condos in any great number (and if they did, no one is going to buy them) if the commuter station they are beside has such restricted service.
 
One tell tale (possibly) sign that any all day two way service for the K-W line is way off in the future is parking. Like, I imagine, most (all?) GO lines, the parking lots are filled part way through the current limited rush hour service. Unlike other GO lines, however, I know of no plans announced to increase parking capability by building structures. (I stand to be corrected on that but I have no recollection of any announcements in that regard).....like it or not, additional parking will always be necessary if any line is going to meet the test GO seems to be applying - "ridership grows to a level that warrants this level of service"

(note...this came to mind as I was looking at those pics of the 5 storey parkade being built at Erindale).
 
TOareaFan said:
One tell tale (possibly) sign that any all day two way service for the K-W line is way off in the future is parking. Like, I imagine, most (all?) GO lines, the parking lots are filled part way through the current limited rush hour service. Unlike other GO lines, however, I know of no plans announced to increase parking capability by building structures. (I stand to be corrected on that but I have no recollection of any announcements in that regard).....like it or not, additional parking will always be necessary if any line is going to meet the test GO seems to be applying - "ridership grows to a level that warrants this level of service"

(note...this came to mind as I was looking at those pics of the 5 storey parkade being built at Erindale).
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IMO. 4 or 6 Trains to kitchener but Terminate all day service at Guelph like they used before Harris.
 
For what it's worth, the plans for the new downtown Kitchener multimodal station are making it out to be pretty big -- GO trains, VIA, intercity bus, some local buses, and adjacent to the future on-street LRT. The building itself is planned to be rather large, mixed-use office and commercial. Downtown Kitchener is also designated under Places to Grow, and the city is intending to develop an area near the station as an "innovation district" with another 15,000 jobs and several thousand residential units.

With the growth of downtown Kitchener as an employment destination (as well as with municipal lobbying), GO really ought to be bringing trains to Kitchener.

As for parking, there was supposed to be a park-and-ride station at Breslau (east of Kitchener), but that was shelved with the scaled-down roll-out of train service. Currently the Region of Waterloo is providing surface parking for GO on the site of the future station, and that station is planned to have two levels of underground parking.
 
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Is there a timeframe on the new station? It was always such a pain getting off a train, and walking down to King Street.

Though having a train that arrives in Kitchener before noon would be nice ...
 
nfitz said:
Is there a timeframe on the new station? It was always such a pain getting off a train, and walking down to King Street.
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Jeff Outhit figures 2015: http://www.therecord.com/news/local/article/644889--transit-hub-still-years-away
The Region doesnt really say anything beyond planning beginning this year... http://www.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/gettingAround/transithub.asp
nfitz said:
Though having a train that arrives in Kitchener before noon would be nice ...
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Yea verily!
 
I've taken some time to create an approximate schedule of the service. Based on the departure times given by GO I've concluded that the service will be run by 2 separate trains which will operated at separate times for all but one run. During this one run the two trains will meet in the newly created passing track. The northbound should begin to enter the passing track after leaving Maple and be clear of the mainline at about 6:00pm. At around the same time the southbound should be leaving King City four miles to the north. The southbound will then continue interrupted on the mainline passing the northbound as it moves up the passing track at a slower speed. Once the southbound is clear of the northern switch the northbound will re-enter the main track and proceed on to King City. During this procedure numerous authorities and instructions will be received by both trains as per OCS rules(non signaled track). In additions the northbound train will have to manually line several switches. These procedures will result in a 5-15 minutes delay to the run. Once the northbound reaches Allandale it'll go out of service and be yarded, with the second train continuing the service.

The schedule should look somewhat a kin to this;
7179974286_4a43218f34_b.jpg

Save for one 30 minute break at Union for each train(in a 10 hour shift!), turn around times at Union and East Gwillimbury are as short as possible owing to the require procedures to change ends and do the necessary break tests.

These service times are based on the rush hour service. The weekend service times may be a few minutes shorter if they take into account that there will most likely be far fewer riders per train resulting in lower station dwell times. The schedule is also based on a service which will stop at all stations, which may not be the actual case.

Maple could be a busy stop if a train-bus shuttle service to Canada's Wonderland is provided.
 
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vegeta_skyline said:
I will assume that you meant all the 'morning trips are southbound' by that statement.
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I did.....thanks for catching that.

vegeta_skyline said:
If so that is not correct.
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Once again you are right. Not sure how I looked at those departure times and saw what I thought I saw (and was so sure that I actually quoted them) but it there you have it!

My post is so wrong I would delete it if it did not, then, make yours look contextually "weird"....so I will leave it there as a monument to my own stupidity.

As my earlier post noted, I still the travel times limit the usefulness of this service to day trippers.....but should have stopped there.
 
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