News   Jul 12, 2024
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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

Has the new Government mentioned SmartTrack whatsoever?

Not that I know of, but I can imagine Tory is pushing for something prior to the election. 15 min service on Lakeshore East would be roughly 1/3rd of SmartTrack's frequency promise (sections of the Stouffville and Kitchener lines would be the other 2/3rds).
 
Metrolinx says Bloomington will have 1000 spots.

http://www.metrolinx.com/en/regionalplanning/rer/rer_richmondhill.aspx

RH will definitely need more service as they pack more upstream riders.

More service may not mean more trains, if those additional trains would push the metrics on grade crossings and/or Doncaster diamond to the point of needing serious money to be spent.

The ML RER website (linked by Neutrino) states:

Weekday rush hour
  • 15-minute service from Richmond Hill* to Union Station in the morning
  • 15-minute service from Union Station to Richmond Hill* in the afternoon/evening
I'm curious why the RH is designated as the limit. Is there something north of there preventing more frequent service?

smallspy previously mentioned the Bethesda yard could support 10 trains in the future and I stumbled across talk of triple-tracking a short segment.

The 5 current departures span 6:15 to 8:15, every 30 minutes. Converting this to a 15-minute headway would require 4 more trips, leaving 1 more train-set to expand the span of service.

I know the line is far from needing 10 trips today, but besides the build-out of the yard, what other infrastructure improvements would be required to offer 15-minute peak service?
 
This idea of more mid-day service seems to be a case of spending good money after bad. GO ridership has only gone up in the last 2 years by 5%...…….the rate of population growth for the GTAH despite a huge increase in service especially at non-peak times. IF Ford keeps the GO subsidy rate steady that means fares for everyone will have to rise to make up the revenue for the very poor ridership levels being experienced by these new non-rush hour services.

It hasn`t worked and exclusively because of GO`s high fares and lack of integration. Metrolinx has spent more time on garage development than on it`s priority of getting fare integration but that was too political for the Liberals and their hacks at Metrolinx so it was indefinitely delayed. You would think ML would have learnt this valuable {and obvious to anyone else} lesson with the UPX...……...ridership quadrupled AFTER they dropped their fares to one-third the price. As Einstein once said, `the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results` and this is exactly what ML is doing.

`Build it and they will come` only works well for politicians desperate for new ribbon cutting ceremonies. `Build it at a price they can afford and they will come` is what works for the average person. Someday ML will begin to listen to the travelling public more that their political masters and well paid bureaucrats. As Churchill once said about the Americans, people will say about Metrolinx…………`You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing, after they`ve tried everything else`.
 
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Metrolinx says Bloomington will have 1000 spots.

http://www.metrolinx.com/en/regionalplanning/rer/rer_richmondhill.aspx

RH will definitely need more service as they pack more upstream riders.

The line is the least dense in terms of peak riders per train, they'll do just fine with what they have currently. The line isn't really designed for midday service -- not yet anyway. 1000 cars roughly equates to 1300 passengers, which can easily fit on the existing space on the 5 trains that currently travel to Gormerly.
 
The line is the least dense in terms of peak riders per train, they'll do just fine with what they have currently. The line isn't really designed for midday service -- not yet anyway. 1000 cars roughly equates to 1300 passengers, which can easily fit on the existing space on the 5 trains that currently travel to Gormerly.
If Bloomington GO opens and peak service remains at 2 trains per hour, the trains will be standing room only by Langstaff GO and riders at Old Cummer and Oriole won’t get a seat. An increase in trains to 3 per hour is what I think is necessary for the line, not midday service.
 
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Have a look at this presentation at p19-20 ( https://www.metrolinxengage.com/sit...ommittee_of_the_whole_presentation_final2.pdf ). Note the difference in level crossing scores between Richmond Hill and Stouffville. An increase in service pushes up the RH score. Secondly, the RH line is still prone to flooding and while works are getting going GO isn't going to up its ante there. Thirdly, unlike most other rail routes the RH line has the 404-DVP as an option to push some traffic through.

Section 6 of Appendix A to the GO RER Business Case lays out scenarios and consequent infrastructure needs for increasing rail service on the RH line, noting up Doncaster Diamond, double tracking from Union to Langstaff, changes to stations under various scenarios.
 
Random question: how did the GO ALRT proposal envision its riders would arrive at its stations? Parking like the rest of the system?
 
Random question: how did the GO ALRT proposal envision its riders would arrive at its stations? Parking like the rest of the system?

I don't think it really got to that level of planning, but they envisioned GO ALRT going to specific "hubs", North York Centre, Scarborough Town Centre, etc. Those would not have much parking.
 

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