GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

[denfromoakvillemilton]

Not everyone works at Union Station. There are a number of office buildings and quite a few new condos north of Exhibition, the streetcar is useless for people working in those office buildings who come from the western suburbs. What other station in the GO train system has hardly any service for most of AM rush hour?

it depends what time you define "a.m. Rush Hour". But my 7 - 9:30 definition sees 8 trains service this station during that time......give me a few minutes and I'll try and think of a few stations that don't see 8 trains in the a.m rush.

How about the entire Brampton line? Milton? Markham? I can't believe this. When these areas south of front served by the DRL (because that's the plan right now), what will you say then?

 

[nfitz]

The streetcar goes to the same union station

There is no streetcar service between Exhibition and Union. There hasn't been since mid-2012, and it won't be restored until sometime in 2014, assuming the schedule isn't delayed further.. If anything, the current cancellation of streetcar service is even more reason to stop the local services at Exhibition, given they don't skip any other stations.

Even when running, travel time is 24 minutes, compared to 6 minutes on GO.

What about anyone who works in that area, and needs to be at work before 8 AM.

 

[nfitz]

it depends what time you define "a.m. Rush Hour". But my 7 - 9:30 definition sees 8 trains service this station during that time......give me a few minutes and I'll try and think of a few stations that don't see 8 trains in the a.m rush.

Look at eastbound in the AM peak. There are 4 trains between 6 AM and 7:40 AM that stop at every other station from Oakville to Union but skip Exhibition; there are 2 additional expresses during the same time period. There isn't a single eastbound train that stops at Exhibition before about 8 AM. .....give me a few minutes and I'll try and think of a few other stations that see anything like this.

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

Look at eastbound in the AM peak. There are 4 trains between 6 AM and 7:40 AM that stop at every other station from Oakville to Union but skip Exhibition; there are 2 additional expresses during the same time period. There isn't a single eastbound train that stops at Exhibition before about 8 AM. .....give me a few minutes and I'll try and think of a few other stations that see anything like this.

He's talking about Brampton...

 

[nfitz]

He's talking about Brampton...

TOAreafan? I don't think so. As far as I can see, your the first person to mention Brampton, after the post I replied to.

 

[TOareaFan]

He's talking about Brampton...

No......not specifically....there are lots of stations that would not describe 8 trains in the morning rush as "hardly any service "

I should say, I actually think that far more trains should stop at Exhibition.....I just think describing 8 trains as hardly any and suggesting that no other station in the GO system suffers this level of service required a response.

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

He's talking about Brampton...

TOAreafan? I don't think so. As far as I can see, your the first person to mention Brampton, after the post I replied to.

No......not specifically....there are lots of stations that would not describe 8 trains in the morning rush as "hardly any service "

I should say, I actually think that far more trains should stop at Exhibition.....I just think describing 8 trains as hardly any and suggesting that no other station in the GO system suffers this level of service required a response.

I thought he was talking about the other lines/stations that had poor service, and I thought Brampton was the closest station, I didn't not mean it derisively at all. I agree with you TO

 

[reaperexpress]

The Barrie summer (June 29/2013) schedule is up - http://www.gotransit.com/public/en/updates/seasonal2013/Table65.pdf

The Barrie schedule is very different than last summer (which is available at http://web.archive.org/web/20120904...ot/en/PDF/Timetables/CurrentBoard/Table65.pdf)

Instead of 2 trains to/from Barrie and 4 trains to/from East Gwillimbury there is a much simpler schedule of 4 trains from Barrie. And the GO Bus schedule has been completely rearranged to feed the GO Trains rather than compete with them. Looks like a significant improvement! Though ironic (like last year)that you can catch a train from Barrie to Toronto on Saturday/Sunday evening but not Friday evening. I'd have thought a simply running the late Saturday/Sunday train on Friday's as well would have worked well with this.

Still, it's a step forward. Should be year-round. And should be done on all lines!

Indeed, it looks more useful than last year's schedule despite the lower frequency in the GTA. When I heard about bidirectional Barrie Line weekend service last year I thought I'd maybe take a day trip to Barrie, but the schedule made that extremely impractical.

I think it would help if they skipped some stops, making the train more attractive as an intercity service. Based on the schedule, the train takes 1h38 from Toronto to Barrie, averaging only 62km/h.

Since they only run a single trainset for most of the day, every minute cut from the trip time is two minutes improvement in frequency. It would probably also reduce operational costs, since it takes a lot of energy (fuel) to accelerate a 10-12 car bilevel train from a stop.

- Rutherford Station could be skipped since it serves largely as an overflow parking lot for Maple GO station, and there is no capacity shortage on weekends.
- East Gwillimbury serves the same function for Newmarket GO Station and could be skipped as well.
- Although it is the station I use, York University GO Station could be skipped, based on the very low ridership i witnessed in last year's trial. I really had to question the value of the stop when I was the only person getting off a massive 12 car bilevel train with 2 locomotives.
- Barrie South station or King City station could possibly be skipped as well, but I don't really know what ridership they generate.

 

[ShonTron]

Service changes as of June 29 are up.
http://gotransit.com/public/en/updates/schedulechanges.aspx#June

Of course the biggest change is the 30 minute service during most of the Lakeshore Corridor's scheduled operating times. And there's the summer Niagara and Barrie weekend train services and associated adjustments.

A few more buses on the Stouffville, Georgetown and Milton Union Station routes, and a new southbound bus from Richmond Hill GO at 8:25 - interesting that GO has ended up replacing many of the bus options that were cancelled with the late morning inbound train.

 

[leopetr]

Service changes as of June 29 are up.
http://gotransit.com/public/en/updates/schedulechanges.aspx#June

Of course the biggest change is the 30 minute service during most of the Lakeshore Corridor's scheduled operating times. And there's the summer Niagara and Barrie weekend train services and associated adjustments.

It's annoying that GO doesn't run Niagara Falls trains between Victoria Day and July. Last year, my partner and I did a bike trip from St. Catherines to Niagara-on-the-Lake on Victoria Day weekend. This year, we were hoping to do a bike trip with another couple in June, but had to reschedule to July when we found out there weren't any trains in June.

The racks on GO buses are great, but they can't handle four bikes.:-/

 

[Swarley]

Service changes as of June 29 are up.
http://gotransit.com/public/en/updates/schedulechanges.aspx#June

Of course the biggest change is the 30 minute service during most of the Lakeshore Corridor's scheduled operating times. And there's the summer Niagara and Barrie weekend train services and associated adjustments.
.

Does anyone know if any of the local transit agencies are adjusting their connecting routes yet to meet with the additional trains?

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

Folks not on lakeshore are gonna be mad!

 

[drum118]

Does anyone know if any of the local transit agencies are adjusting their connecting routes yet to meet with the additional trains?

Why should they??

Since the number of on street riders out number GO riders, local systems are looking after the on street riders first than GO. Oakville Transit is a example where it stop relying on GO schedule and went with the on street one.

Then quality of service needs to improve to meet both riders needs than what being offer by a few these days.

Haven't heard of any systems making changes for the new GO service on the Lakeshore line. If there are changes coming, it may happen in September. If GO is a few minutes late getting into Burlington, I will miss the bus and have to wait 30 minutes for the next one.

 

[royalrivers]

Ran across a tweet saying the new Double Decker buses planned for the Kitchener and Guelph runs can't use 401 all the way because one of the bridges somewhere around Mohawk Racetrack is not high enough.

This is announcement article about the new buses/routes: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitch...oronto-ontario-government-go-transit-bus.html

 

[gweed123]

Ran across a tweet saying the new Double Decker buses planned for the Kitchener and Guelph runs can't use 401 all the way because one of the bridges somewhere around Mohawk Racetrack is not high enough.

This is announcement article about the new buses/routes: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitch...oronto-ontario-government-go-transit-bus.html

Interesting. In that case it would either be Guelph Line or 1st Line. I do believe that stretch is covered under the 401 widening plan to Cambridge, so hopefully that bridge should be replaced.