Please tell us where GO going to find at least 150 engineers by 2014 let alone 2015 to offer all day service you want?
There is a plan for 400+ engineers to run this Regional rail system by 2020-30 and where do you expect to find them as well replace the crew that quits or retires, let alone die???
Earlier people said it takes 2.5 years to train...so, by my estimate, we are 3 years away from 2015......so if there was a will to create all day 7 day service on this line there is time to get out there and hire and train (forgetting, of course, that a couple of years have passed since the infrastructure project(s) started so if there had ever been a will there was ample time to get out there, recruit and train).
It is all moot, however, as I have said several times GO is happy to respond to inquiries with a reply that they have never had a plan to introduce all day service on this line.....that is reason there will not be....the fact that there are not enough crews now (and, on this line, no one is talking about "now") is just a convenient little brush off.
Standing at Bloor St and finding your train missing, leaves you with many options getting to the city core. As for the 18:59 train being cancel, you have a few options to get where you want to, depending on the location. Since I don't the location, can't advised you.
I would suggest that someone standing on the Bloor platform waiting for that 18:59 train is not headed for the city core and their options to get anywhere west of Etobicoke North are extremely limited and extremely time consuming and require additional cost.
As in my case, if my Burlington train is cancel going east, the option I have is to go back to Aldershot/McMaster to catch a 407 bus to Sq One, but will take longer than waiting for the next train. It will require an extra fare also. Trying to tell a client you are going to be late or end up missing a few meetings to see how fast you loose work and money to pay your staff/bills. Try going to Burlington from Port Credit if your train is cancel as well picking up the cab fare to do it.
Unlike the person stranded on that Bloor platform....there is that option of waiting for the next train. The "work arounds" are no less/no more time consuming/aggrivating/costly.
Until the Fed's changes its policy how you can become an engineer under 2 years of service, neither GO, VIA, CP, CN and other RR will be able to fill all the seats that are needed today.
Again, for the Kitchener line, the requirement to shorten the time frame is not an issue. We all get that the track improvements are needed first and that they take time. From the start of the work until opening there was lots of time to cover that 2+ years of training/service.....now there is just enough.....but, again, it is moot because they have no plan to introduce the service.
Until the rail corridor is completed by 2014/15, you can bitch all you want about service, but it not going to happen until 2015 or later depending who is power and what their policy is for transit.
But I am not "bitching" about the service.....I am "bitching" about the (not) planned for future service after the rail corridor is completed. I am also, in a minor way, "bitching" about the notion that so many people think that 30 minute off peak frequency on the Lakeshore is a higher priority than ANY off peak service at all on any other line. If they can find the crews to do this....why can't they find the crews (or use the crews they have found) to offer some off peak somewhere else (I know we can't have it on Kitchener line but I would view it positively if someone else got it in the meantime).
