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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

You're mostly right except for one small detail, that being it doesn't really matter if you go to Bloomington or Gormley. Trains are only every 30 minutes (there are plans to get it down to 15 minutes) so the amount of time you save by driving to Gormley is ultimately, 0 mins. The only time it would save time is if somehow you were going to miss the train from Bloomington so you must drive to Gormley to catch up to it, but if you're in that situation, you have bigger issues to worry about such as fixing your time management skills.
it would save you time in the evenings more so as there is no waiting for the train on the return trip - just jump in your car and go. Technically you would be able to leave your house a minute or two later in the mornings as well, but people leave enough of a buffer for waiting for the train in the mornings that it wouldn't impact the morning commute, agreed.

A lot of people also don't put that much thought into it, and just go to the closer station.
 
Reminder: Lakeshore West – Temporary service changes taking place April 1-4

Lakeshore West passengers: Beginning at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 1 until end of service on Sunday, April 4, GO train service between Union Station and Port Credit GO on the Lakeshore West line will be suspended due to critical work to upgrade our rail infrastructure.

- Buses will operate directly between Union Station Bus Terminal and Port Credit GO.
- Trains will continue to operate between Port Credit and Aldershot GO stations throughout the entire weekend.
- Customers connecting at Union Station between Lakeshore East and Lakeshore West may experience delays due to the schedule changes required to accommodate this work.
- Customers connecting to bus routes 12, 15 and 18 at Port Credit GO will not be impacted due to service changes – buses will wait for you during bus replacements.
- It’s important to double check schedules and use triplinx.ca to plan your trip. Plan your trip here or see the full schedules here. Be sure to consult gotransit.com often for updates.
 
These explanations make a case for either Gormley or Bloomington, but definitely not both.

GO has widely stated that Bloomington is intended to alleviate the crush load that has existed for about a decade (before COVID) with parking at Aurora GO. Bloomington is close enough that some of the people in South/East Aurora, or who may be frustrated trying to find parking there, for whom the RH line's schedules work well enough, might plausibly head there instead despite it being a bit farther and a longer train ride. Gormley is farther away for those people, so it will be a bit more unattractive. For 404 catchment, I agree that there is no meaningful difference, once someone from maybe Newmarket or Keswick is on the 404 SB, whether they hop off at Bloomington or Stouffville isn't a huge difference to them, but Aurora GO relief is one of the objectives of building Bloomington.

Perhaps, given that, Gormley might not have needed to be built, but it would've been quite a distance from Richmond Hill GO to Bloomington without Gormley, and Gormley is positioned to catch some Oak Ridges demand rather than them going up to Bloomington (maybe the 2041+ projections have Bloomington getting busy from Aurora+404 people without the Oak Ridges crowd heading there too). Quick searching shows Bloomington priced at $82M and Gormley at $22M so as the cheaper station, once they were already going to build Bloomington and the layover yard (about $85M there), its share of the overall RH expansion was not that big and they figured 'might as well'.
 
My understanding is that Bloomington is meant to relieve Aurora, and Gormley is to service the new Gormley growth area and try to relieve Richmond Hill GO a bit.

Something like 70% of the ridership of the Richmond Hill Line used to get off at Richmond Hill GO. The station is much like Aurora, severely overloaded.
 
This could go in the TRBOT thread, but the opening mentions the increase in LSE and LSW service from a few years ago so putting it here.

 
Was at Port Credit GO Station today and a train was sitting on track 2 with 8 coaches and 668 by itself. I assume it was the train waiting for it schedule west trip. Short after that, an other train pull in on track 1(3) and riders got off it. In the end, the train on track 2 was a spare/standby if one of the others fail.

There were 2 DD buses parked by the GO Parking lot. 2 DD buses arrived from Toronto and not many got off or got on from the GO Train. Another MCI bus arrived and look lost then it end up being a spare in GO parking lot.

Wasn't there for GO but to take a look at work for the Hurontario Line. I see the tall condo next to GO parking lot id under construction as well.
 
Fairly common unfortunately for these local media articles to omit who whos the track between Bramalea and Georgetown.

NEWS

'Very pleased': Provincial budget spells out two-way all-day service for Georgetown Go train service

Provincial budget includes funding for train line expansion​

Bryan Myers
Independent Free Press
Monday, April 5, 2021

Halton Hills residents are on track for all-day GO Train service.

The release of the 2021 provincial budget included funding for the expansion of the Kitchener GO Line, which would bring all-day, two-way train service through Halton Hills.

“I can recall, back in 2019, when a council delegation from Metrolinx told us that this was going to happen by 2024,” said Mayor Rick Bonnette. “Well I am very pleased to see that this timeline is being kept.”

Bonnette said the council and mayors along the GO line have advocated for the expansion for seven years.

The next step, according to the provincial budget, is investing in infrastructure to enable the expansion of the line between Georgetown and Kitchener, including additional tracks and new platforms.

Construction is expected to begin this fall, with procurement of subsequent phases to take place between 2021 and 2023.

Georgetown's Kendra Marion — a regular commuter before the pandemic hit — feels all-day service could be a blessing and a curse. The latter part refers to her concerns over GO lot parking.

But overall, she welcomes the added convenience to come.

"I prefer to take the train into the city, even on weekends."

Having moved here from Oakville, Marion said she's noticed some major differences between the Lakeshore West line and Kitchener line.

“The Lakeshore West line has so many trains,” she said. “It’s very different here.”

At present, GO Transit offers five train trips into Toronto and five return trips by train. GO Buses are also available, though travel during peak times can extend trips by roughly twice the length of dedicated train service. The Lakeshore West line has more than 30 trips between Oakville and Union Station daily.

“The trains are way more crowded once you get to Brampton,” Marion said.

While the long-term goal, according to Metrolinx, is to have the trains run on electrification, the company said, in August 2020, there were no immediate plans to electrify the segment between Kitchener and Georgetown.

“Metrolinx has been looking at multiple improvements to the Kitchener corridor,” Scott Money, media relations for Metrolinx said, “including the study for future electrification of the 54-kilometer rail corridor between Georgetown and Kitchener.”

In January, a potential site for a traction power substation (required for track electrification), was ruled out and no suitable site has since been identified.

“In the meantime, Metrolinx will continue to advance two-way all-day GO service in the near term while we work to better understand electrification in the long term for the Kitchener corridor,” Money said.

STORY BEHIND THE STORY: With funding for the expansion of the Kitchener GO line included in the provincial budget, we wanted to see how commuters and officials felt about the expanded service to come.

Bryan Myers is a reporter for the Independent and Free Press with a focus on municipal politics in Halton Hills. He also has an interest in writing about all aspects of food from production to waste.
 
Four car trains on Richmond Hill line.

"Service change starts April 19

We’re keeping an eye on customer levels and continue to make adjustments to the length of our trains to match demand while using our resources efficiently. Starting April 19, we’re trying out four-car trains for some trips on the Richmond Hill Lin

Starting Monday, April 19, the northbound 3:45 p.m. train from Union Station will have four cars instead of si
Starting Tuesday, April 20, the southbound 7:26 a.m. train from Gormley GO Station will have four cars instead of six."x.e. six.
 
^ The train lengths will look like some of those smaller commuter rail systems in the US that use similar coaches.
Which looks really dumb and shows how little commuter services are used in the US. cities. Metrolinx shouldn't be running anything shorter than 6 cars and they should go back to full trains even if ridership is down to give pole more room if they want it right now.
 
Which looks really dumb and shows how little commuter services are used in the US. cities. Metrolinx shouldn't be running anything shorter than 6 cars and they should go back to full trains even if ridership is down to give pole more room if they want it right now.
As they should. People need to keep physical distancing now.
 

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