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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

mdrejhon said:
Metrolinx must be good at clearing up the tags quickly, as I have never seen grafitti on an in-service car, either as a passenger or seeing one outside. It must be extremely rare.
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The current standing rule on this states that all trains found to have graffiti - inside or out - are to be pulled out of service as soon as possible. In many cases, that means running it in service to Union and exchanging that trainset with one of the spares.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.
 
smallspy said:
The current standing rule on this states that all trains found to have graffiti - inside or out - are to be pulled out of service as soon as possible. In many cases, that means running it in service to Union and exchanging that trainset with one of the spares.
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Damn, that has got to be expensive for Metrolinx.

But at least clearing grafitti discourages them. Stats shows that quickly-cleared grafitti discourage repeat grafitti so it may actually save costs by spending lots up front to exchange a trainset. (I wonder if we shouldn't post too many photos -- the grafitti artists love seeing their work immortalized on the Internet).

I imagine there must have been at least one occasions where Metrolinx is short a few grafitti-free trainsets after an overnight tagging spree, and are forced to run one or two of the tagged trainsets during the morning peak (only to be fixed on time for the evening peak), where there's probably a time window sufficiently big enough for a quickly-working paint crew to put on a coat of paint on a corner of a couple of tagged coaches, or to mix-match untouched cars between two grafitti-tagged trainsets, on time for the evening peak. There must be a sort of routine when there's not enough untagged spares.
 
nfitz said:
GO has posted schedules for the Monday May 4 changes to GO Service on the Georgetown, Milton, Barrie, and Lakeshore East lines. http://www.gotransit.com/public/en/updates/schedulechanges.aspx

Most of the changes are to "to coordinate schedules with the new UP Express service".
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Eastbound Kitchener line trips are 3 minutes faster, decreasing from 2h06 to 2h03 (still slower than the 2h01 schedule pre-construction)
Westbound Kitchener line trips are 2 minutes slower, increasing from 2h05 to 2h07
Southbound Barrie line trips are 7 minutes slower, increasing from 1h41 to 1h48.
Northbound Barrie line trips are 6 minutes slower, increasing from 1h43 to 1h49.
Westbound Milton line trips are 1 minute slower, increasing from 58min to 59 min.
Eastbound Milton line trips are 2 minutes slower, increasing from 59min to 1h01

None of the extra time was added in portions shared with UPX. In fact, the Barrie line is now a minute faster between York U and Union.
 
TOareaFan said:
Isn't it, kinda, the job of the transport minister to know what is going on at MTO....don't they, you know, report to him?
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What does MTO have to do with GO Transit operations? Metrolinx is a crown agency (read: independent company owned by the government), not a part of MTO.
 
DavidH said:
What does MTO have to do with GO Transit operations? Metrolinx is a crown agency (read: independent company owned by the government), not a part of MTO.
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Yes there's no direct specific reporting lines, but the implications of what he's saying are obvious. The Minister of Transportation is the MTO because public transport in Ontario is micro-managed to absurdity and every aspect of GO and Metrolinx operations for the past six years has been run up to the head of the MTO. He's looking at whether to fund Niagara service or some other MTO project from his budget.
 
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DavidH said:
What does MTO have to do with GO Transit operations? Metrolinx is a crown agency (read: independent company owned by the government), not a part of MTO.
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The use of the word "independent" in that description is at the least uninformed and at worst a bit naive.

At minimum, Queens Park funds GO Transit. So the Transport Ministry (and the Ministry of Finance, among others) have oversight of GO's business activities. They also provide their own take on public policy, and advise their Ministers accordingly. So they know a lot about what GO is doing and planning, and they weigh in on what's proposed.

At its worst, Cabinet takes credit for everything GO (and other "independent" Crown agencies) actually accomplish. So you may hear the Minister announce any service improvements before GO says anything. Hopefully, GO has studied and proposed the changes up its own chain of command first, but that may or may not be the case.

At least, that's how it has worked to this point.

- Paul
 
Jonny5 said:
Yes there's no direct specific reporting lines, but the implications of what he's saying are obvious. The Minister of Transportation is the MTO because public transport in Ontario is micro-managed to absurdity and every aspect of GO and Metrolinx operations for the past six years has been run up to the head of the MTO. He's looking at whether to fund Niagara service or some other MTO project from his budget.
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crs1026 said:
The use of the word "independent" in that description is at the least uninformed and at worst a bit naive.

At minimum, Queens Park funds GO Transit. So the Transport Ministry (and the Ministry of Finance, among others) have oversight of GO's business activities. They also provide their own take on public policy, and advise their Ministers accordingly. So they know a lot about what GO is doing and planning, and they weigh in on what's proposed.

At its worst, Cabinet takes credit for everything GO (and other "independent" Crown agencies) actually accomplish. So you may hear the Minister announce any service improvements before GO says anything. Hopefully, GO has studied and proposed the changes up its own chain of command first, but that may or may not be the case.
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Thanks guys, that's pretty much what I was saying, but in a way to suggest that he just didn't have the final 'yes, we're going to be able to do this', and the question was sprung on him by surprise in the legislature.
 
DonValleyRainbow said:
In terms of it conflicting with other Lakeshore trains, you mean?
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Yes. It would be great if Hamilton proper finally had a station. VIA closed their Dundas station in the 1990s and now the unstaffed Aldershot and Grimsby stations - on the outskirts of Hamilton - are the only stations in the region.
 
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The thing that gets me about service to Niagara is that it is so inconsistent that it's hard to establish a core ridership. Even if GO only ran a 6-pack once a day every day year-round, it would probably do more for ridership numbers in a year than seasonal service has for the past 5, simply because of consistency.
 
mjl08 said:
Yes. It would be great if Hamilton proper finally had a station. VIA closed their Dundas station in the 1990s and now the unstaffed Aldershot and Grimsby stations - on the outskirts of Hamilton - are the only stations in the region.
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Back in the 1950s, most CN passenger trains would serve the James Street station, even the Toronto-London-Windsor/Sarnia-Chicago trains. Hamilton was an important enough of a stop that trains would back in or out from Bayview Junction to serve it. Later, only VIA/Amtrak's trains to Niagara Falls/New York (3 until the 1990 Mulroney cuts, 2 until the recent Harper cuts) and the GO Trains would stop there.

VIA consolidated all the trains at Hamilton and Dundas to Aldershot (in a very Amtrak-ish move to a suburban station for convenience; see also Buffalo-Depew), GO at least moved to the old TH&B station, ensuring that it was saved; it's a more convenient location for commuter trains and buses in any case.

As for GO's Niagara services, I can't see there being a big market for commuter trains. As has been pointed out before, it's faster to drive or take a direct bus to Burlington than it would be to take a train from Grimsby or St. Catharines. Too bad the Beach Subdivision is now long-gone (though it makes a great multi-use trail that I use several times a year).
 
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As long as James North is used for terminating service (GOtrains reverse directions), possibly an extension platform can be built at LIUNA Station (the old train station) to allow a VIA train to double-berth with a Lakeshore West GO Train. As long as only one of two GO berths were taken, crossovers can allow the VIA train to go around a waiting GO train in both directions. Some double-berths work this way. LIUNA station would not be used as the station (it's now a reception hall / fine dining place), even if the platform is in front of LIUNA. However, this would only happen if there was sufficient demand to bring VIA (or Amtrak) service to downtown Hamilton.

If GO passes through James, there could be an "X" crossover instead (bidirectional), so either train can exit its berth regardless of the other train on the same track. Not sure if those take up more space, or the same space, affecting distance between berths.
 
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