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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

Any updates on Barrie weekend and Stouffville off peak ridership numbers?
 
reaperexpress said:
Here's my end-of-2017 summary of Canadian commuter rail schedules:

Improvements during 2017 highlighted in green, deteriorations highlighted in red
screen-shot-2017-12-29-at-19-59-52.png


The Barrie line is now more frequent on weekends than the Deux-Montagnes line in Montreal. The DM line continues to provide disappointingly poor service for such a densely-populated urban railway operated by EMUs.

When I started making these summaries in January 2015, the Toronto and Montreal lines were fairly interspersed on the chart, as ranked by weekday frequency. But now in 2018, the chart is looking more sorted, with Toronto at the top, Montreal in the middle, and Vancouver on the bottom. In those 3 years, the number of weekday GO Transit train departures has doubled from 123 per direction to 248, and the number of weekend departures has more than doubled from 64 per direction to 158. Meanwhile the number of departures on the other systems has remained the same.

If anyone can find more updated ridership stats it would be greatly appreciated. Metrolinx constantly publishes extremely detailed ridership data for UP Express, but I can't find much for the other lines. And speaking of UP Express, it's now averaging around 11,000 passengers per day, which is five times the 2200 passengers per day it was averaging before the fares were cut in half.

Full text from https://ontariotrafficman.wordpress.com/2017/12/30/canadian-commuter-rail-summary-2017/
Click to expand...


I try not to clutter threads w/"Thanks" But Reaper's efforts are a worthy exception. Your efforts are appreciated!
 
I realized this weekend why Highway 407 East buses do not stop at Highway 407 Station: the bus layover area is not finished/occupied by construction trailers and equipment. Once it's complete, Highway 407 East buses would probably serve York U as they do now, then continue on to Highway 407 and terminate there.
 
Sandpit said:
I realized this weekend why Highway 407 East buses do not stop at Highway 407 Station: the bus layover area is not finished/occupied by construction trailers and equipment. Once it's complete, Highway 407 East buses would probably serve York U as they do now, then continue on to Highway 407 and terminate there.
Click to expand...

Fair point but I think the main reason is not wanting backlash from York students/staff/faculty. Their plan is clearly to use this as a transitional period, get 407 west customers used to the station and wait for layover construction to finish, then sometime shortly before September 2017 kicks off the new academic year they'll properly suspend service into York U, including shutting down the GO train station, and fully switch everybody over to TYSSE-based access via 407 and Downsview Park.

Similarly I would expect Viva Purple to be terminated with passengers shifting to Orange, or rerouted to Pioneer Village depending on how ridership is these next few months. That's actually a no brainer given the contract the TTC has with YRT/Viva which has just been extended to stipulate they are required to stop servicing York U south of Steeles by September, legally.

I don't know if a similar contract is in place for GO, or if the university has at least a memorandum of understanding in place (I understand they really want buses out of the common, that was a major selling point of the subway) for GO to cut back to 407. It makes sense for GO from an operational perspective anyways, and is a huge benefit in customer experience for those travelling across the 407 not interested in detouring to+from York. Though of course York-bound passengers will experience slight time and money-based inconveniences.
 
The TTC transfer for GO passengers is less of a hit than it used to be, but still there. removing VIVA / YRT service and forcing a transfer would double monthly commuting costs, a bit hit. I believe they were originally planning for passengers making the forced transfer but getting off at york U to have a free TTC ride, does anyone know if that may still happen?
 
Those above commuter rail surveys is a very damning report on the "success" of the UPX. RTM's Mascouche line has just 8 trips a days carrying 11,000 passengers while it takes the UPX 83 trips a day to do the same. Small wonder the UPX needs such massive subsidies to stay afloat.

This should be a very cautionary tales to Metrolinx and one that I have been saying for years...........you can run the trains as frequently as you like but if people can't afford to take it then it won't make any difference. The UPX is essentially a RER route as it stands right now with 15 minute all-day, two-way trains as is planned by RER on all routes and yet the ridership is pathetic made worse by the fact that it connects the downtown with the 2nd largest employment centre in the GTA and, by far, Canada's busiest airport.

RER could be a fantastic success with ridership potentially overtaking the current subways or it will go down as a complete white elephant and it will all depend on the fares.
 
innsertnamehere said:
The TTC transfer for GO passengers is less of a hit than it used to be, but still there. removing VIVA / YRT service and forcing a transfer would double monthly commuting costs, a bit hit. I believe they were originally planning for passengers making the forced transfer but getting off at york U to have a free TTC ride, does anyone know if that may still happen?
Click to expand...

That was certainly the original plan. The TYSSE was supposed to have tap-out required on the faregates at all stations even if the rest of the TTC didn't, precisely to allow for that. Anybody who rode YRT/Viva/Zum/GO to VMC/407/PV/DP, tapped on the subway, then tapped off at York U (or vice versa when leaving campus) was supposed to get their TTC ride free, on account of not having had to pay for the ride prior to the TYSSE's opening.

It seems that plan never materialized. Fare integration has been a thorny issue. I think the $1.50 co-fare with the TTC (hopefully it'll be expanded to YRT/Zum/MiWay...) is just about the best we're going to see until the region-wide fare integration scheme comes to fruition, which will be over the TTC's cold dead body.
 
Megaton327 said:
Similarly I would expect Viva Purple to be terminated with passengers shifting to Orange, or rerouted to Pioneer Village depending on how ridership is these next few months. That's actually a no brainer given the contract the TTC has with YRT/Viva which has just been extended to stipulate they are required to stop servicing York U south of Steeles by September, legally.
Click to expand...

That agreement applies to north-south routes only, so there would be two routes that are exempt - the 3 and Viva Purple/Route 100 (which is basically a rebranded version of the western segment of Viva Purple). The advantage to keeping Viva Purple in its current form is no transfer at RHC for those travelling further east and boosting Purple's ridership/cost recovery. The advantage of creating route 100 is that the two routes could be staggered so that there is YRT service from Pioneer Village to York U every 10 minutes or so during peak times, providing a convenient transfer for routes like the 20. Also, when the Centre St. Rapidway is complete, route 100 would still enter the Promenade Terminal, whereas Viva Purple (if it keeps its current routing) would serve a vivastation in the middle of the street.
 
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ssiguy2 said:
The UPX is essentially a RER route as it stands right now with 15 minute all-day, two-way trains as is planned by RER on all routes and yet the ridership is pathetic made worse by the fact that it connects the downtown with the 2nd largest employment centre in the GTA and, by far, Canada's busiest airport.
Click to expand...

"2nd largest employment centre" is hugely misleading since it's a massive low-density industrial area, much larger than the entire pre-amalgamation City of Toronto. The airport is the only thing within walking distance of UPX, and even if you take the LINK train there are only a few dozen businesses within a reasonable walk from the station at Viscount Road. For most people working around the Airport, they'd need to take one or two MiWay buses for up to an hour before they get to work from the UPX station.
 
amnesiajune said:
"2nd largest employment centre" is hugely misleading since it's a massive low-density industrial area, much larger than the entire pre-amalgamation City of Toronto. The airport is the only thing within walking distance of UPX, and even if you take the LINK train there are only a few dozen businesses within a reasonable walk from the station at Viscount Road. For most people working around the Airport, they'd need to take one or two MiWay buses for up to an hour before they get to work from the UPX station.
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Need to find a way to take one of those LRTs, and then take it under the runways to the far side facilities (perhaps in a station that's not secured, but you can't get out of the station without clearance) and down Courtney Park or Brittania (or who knows, a loop that hits both) to somewhere.
 
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