Bojaxs
Senior Member
Wow! Hope they'll have the staff available to pull this off.
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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)
- Thread starter drum118
- Start date
generalcanada
Senior Member
I remember hearing a few years ago, a bunch of staff got stuck in the typical traffic and couldnt get to the don yard to their trains.
Not sure how true that was or if it happened again
JasonParis
Moderator
This should really be what is offered every Friday and Saturday night, except revenue service.
APTA-2048
Senior Member
I just wanna say: the reduced service across the board (hourly Lakeshore trains for me) during the holidays really sucks and I hope they don’t do this again next year.
WB62
Senior Member
This is service Metrolinx added to the UP schedule. The regular timetable already has service running until 1am and starting at 4:55am.
txlseries4
Active Member
Excellent, thank you!
Metroscapes
Active Member
For me, it's Kitchener line service to Guelph. We just bloody got weekend trains and they scratched them until the 5th.
christine
New Member
It might not just be the holidays. There's no schedule changes published for Lakeshore East and West on January 3rd/4th/5th. So outside of rush hour, it will still be hourly service on weekdays/weekends.
Those Kitchener trains are still running:
Metroscapes
Active Member
Well I don't know what to believe. I got an email from Metrolinx this morning that completely contradicted this.
WB62
Senior Member
This was done because the crew shortage has reached a really bad point, and with higher levels of call-outs over the holiday season, it was anticipated that there wouldn’t be enough operators on call to run normal levels of service.
I love the service increases that have happened over the past few years, but the workforce hasn't been expanding enough to sustain it. Crew shortages are also why weekend 15 minute Lakeshore East-West service was temporarily cancelled last month.
Northern Light
Superstar
I appreciate the info; but we need to be clear here, Crew Shortages are a self-inflicted wound for which there is no excuse. If Metrolinx executives can't budget, train, retain, and schedule crews, they should find alternate employment.
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WB62
Senior Member
Definitely not implying this was an unavoidable problem. Maybe if we didn’t have 3 separate positions per train that all have different training lengths there would be more available crews.
smallspy
Senior Member
Metroscapes
Active Member
Agreed. This is a labour shortage on a human workforce. Human beings are essential to running good service, but are prone to overworking. A resilient organization would have contingency staffing, but able to operate with differing levels of experience. I dunno, public railroads should be resilient organizations. Maybe that's faultering.
crs1026
Superstar
I suspect that ML and its workforce are behind the curve in a couple of ways.... especially in appreciating where its service peaks are and aren't. Holidays, weekends, evenings with multiple downtown events.... , these are the new peaks, Mon-Fri rush hours less so. Scheduling needs to assure that these trains are part of the service plan and not overtime opportunities that workers can accept or decline. Special events may arise on short notice (or not... who can say whether the Leafs will make the playoffs?) , but the New Years schedule ought to be known well in advance and staffed from the regular shift schedule.. Workers can't asume that they will have as many nights and holidays off as previously... Christmas and New Years are becoming just another work day for transit.
And it doesn't help when ML is so ambivalent as to committing to service improvements. No organization can plan to deliver enough newly qualified operators when the projects don't have firm committed opening dates.
And, since operations are handled by a contractor, ML will have to commit to a budget for trainees, and absorb the cost of newly trained workers, when the trains they are supplied for aren't ready to run. The contractor won't eat that cost, I'm quite sure. There will be tension between the beancounters trying to keep that cost down and operations who will want enough money to assure staffing of trains that may not launch as soon as thought.
- Paul
And it doesn't help when ML is so ambivalent as to committing to service improvements. No organization can plan to deliver enough newly qualified operators when the projects don't have firm committed opening dates.
And, since operations are handled by a contractor, ML will have to commit to a budget for trainees, and absorb the cost of newly trained workers, when the trains they are supplied for aren't ready to run. The contractor won't eat that cost, I'm quite sure. There will be tension between the beancounters trying to keep that cost down and operations who will want enough money to assure staffing of trains that may not launch as soon as thought.
- Paul