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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

Hipster Duck said:
Greyhound is also shooting itself in the foot with Peterborough services. Again, non-stop Toronto to Peterborough services have largely been replaced by buses that make stops in Ajax and Oshawa, adding 30 minutes to the scheduled time from before. I'm not sure what the marginal benefits are of doing this.
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If Greyhound is screwing up their service to Peterborough, those passengers will be primed for the eventual return of train service from the intriguing, but poorly named, Shining Waters Railway. http://shiningwatersrailway.com/index.php

Adam
http://walkerweb.ca
 
Jonny5 said:
Could you elaborate on that? I can't figure out what is actually happening from your description. Why do people have to get off the bus and buy tickets? Why is there an inflatable bus dome?
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Greyhound removed their ticket agents from Charles Street Terminal and replaced them with agents with mobile machines on the platform. What this means is if you are there too early in the morning or are wanting to pay with cash, you must disembark at Sportsworld, buy a ticket, and then re-board.

Greyhound didn't want to build a permanent structure for passengers, as it is likely that the land that the stop sits on will be taken over by highway ramps in the future, so instead they have an inflatable structure that is shaped like a bus to house their ticket agent. Here is the tacky thing on Streetview.

It also doesn't help that the Cambridge Greyhound stop is located so far from the 401. It is literally a 20 minute detour during rush hour in and out. Unless it is running the commuter service to Toronto, all Greyhound buses make this stop.

I personally think Greyhound is doing whatever it can to skimp on its operations so it can justify pulling out of the Waterloo market and instead only make a stop at Sportsworld on it's Toronto-London route.
 
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Hipster Duck said:
Well, Greyhound is certainly doing GO/Via a favour by bungling its Kitchener bus operations. When I went to UW, buses departed from the Kitchener bus terminal and went non-stop to downtown Toronto. Nowadays they make that silly stop at Sportsworld where passengers are expected to disembark and buy tickets from an inflatable dome that's shaped like a bus.

Greyhound is also shooting itself in the foot with Peterborough services. Again, non-stop Toronto to Peterborough services have largely been replaced by buses that make stops in Ajax and Oshawa, adding 30 minutes to the scheduled time from before. I'm not sure what the marginal benefits are of doing this.
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The only benefit to the Oshawa stop on the Greyhound (as opposed to GO) is that Greyhound buses stop downtown, a much more convenient transfer point to places like UOIT, Durham College and Whitby and actually where people live and work. The GO station is a horrible place to be dumped if you are not headed into Toronto, there is little off-peak DRT service to the station, people going to downtown Oshawa from midday and weekend trains usually take the Newcastle bus from there, which heads to downtown and then east on Highway 2.

But if GO stopped at Highways 35/115 and 2, that would provide a decent connection to the Newcastle Hwy 2 bus, and make Bowmanville-Peterborough travel simple and easy.
 
dunkalunk said:
I personally think Greyhound is doing whatever it can to skimp on its operations so it can justify pulling out of the Waterloo market and instead only make a stop at Sportsworld on it's Toronto-London route.
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I almost hope this is the case. Greyhound can leave KW, and GO can add more service, either more trains, or express bus service downtown. I take Greyhound between Guelph and Toronto frequently, and I'd much rather take GO if they had express service.
 
I posted this earlier this summer regarding Greyhound. I spoke to a Guelph Greyhound driver who stated that Greyhound wants GO to "pick up the slack" in the region so that reductions can be made by GH. This driver also said that Greyhound will no longer have buses stay overnight, first in Guelph then Kitchener, instead having these buses 'deadhead' all the way from Toronto to Guelph and Kitchener to bring people back to Toronto. This means if a bus breaks down on way or is caught in traffic from Toronto you are screwed lol.

GO can not run express buses between Guelph/Kitchener and Toronto. The route is currently 'owned' by Greyhound. All GO can do is 'split' the route into Toronto, such as the express bus from Downtown Guelph to Bramela and then a train into Union. There are other options to get to Toronto on GO bypassing the 2 hour bus on the Kitchener/Georgetown line. I find the buses on the 407 GO route to York (Transfer at Meadowvale) or the Cooksville/UoGuelph route take an average of 1 hour and 30 minutes with a layover of 5 to 15 minutes depending on the trip - quicker then Greyhound in some cases and still get into Union Station.

BTW the GO Train is 1 hour and 30 minutes from Guelph in the morning/afternoon - about the same with Greyhound, but you don't get stuck in traffic :) That afternoon 5pm and 5:30pm bus is a 2 hour ride now. Greyhound even added a bus in the mornings from Guelph, now there are buses every 15 minutes starting at 530am until 7am
 
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royalrivers said:
I posted this earlier this summer regarding Greyhound. I spoke to a Guelph Greyhound driver who stated that Greyhound wants GO to "pick up the slack" in the region so that reductions can be made by GH. This driver also said that Greyhound will no longer have buses stay overnight, first in Guelph then Kitchener, instead having these buses 'deadhead' all the way from Toronto to Guelph and Kitchener to bring people back to Toronto. This means if a bus breaks down on way or is caught in traffic from Toronto you are screwed lol.

GO can not run express buses between Guelph/Kitchener and Toronto. The route is currently 'owned' by Greyhound. All GO can do is 'split' the route into Toronto, such as the express bus from Downtown Guelph to Bramela and then a train into Union. There are other options to get to Toronto on GO bypassing the 2 hour bus on the Kitchener/Georgetown line. I find the buses on the 407 GO route to York (Transfer at Meadowvale) or the Cooksville/UoGuelph route take an average of 1 hour and 30 minutes with a layover of 5 to 15 minutes depending on the trip - quicker then Greyhound in some cases and still get into Union Station.

BTW the GO Train is 1 hour and 30 minutes from Guelph in the morning/afternoon - about the same with Greyhound, but you don't get stuck in traffic :) That afternoon 5pm and 5:30pm bus is a 2 hour ride now. Greyhound even added a bus in the mornings from Guelph, now there are buses every 15 minutes starting at 530am until 7am
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I find those two statements (bolding added by me) to be at odds with each other.....can you elaborate on why a company that is trying to reduce service/abandon service would, at the same time, add buses to provide every 15 minute service?
 
royalrivers said:
They added a bus because of the issues I stated above regarding them 'deadheading' from Toronto. They actually cut other buses elsewhere.
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Thanks....still not sure I agree with the conclusion you have reached but appreciate the response.

First time I have ever actually looked at GH and, now that I have, you kinda wonder why any morning commuter (I am too lazy to compare other times) would ever abandon GH for a trip to Toronto in the morning.

If you consider that there are likely 3 points of comparison between transit options (that you can evaluate from schedules) here's how they seem to stack up.

Frequency......GH has 6 trips that leave Guelph between 5:30 a.m. and 7 a.m. and that are scheduled to reach Union by 9...GO has 3 (although 1 of them never gets to Union as it ends at York Mills) GO does have two more that leave before 8 in their service (arriving at Union after 9) while GH only has one additional (SO...advantage GH)

.....Speed....the average scheduled trip time on those 6 GH trips is 1:36 the average trip time on those 5 GO trips is 1:59 (two of those are train all the way and still take slightly longer than the GH scheduled trip time on average). (SO...advantage GH).......

.....Price. Same day return fare on GH is posted at $26.20....Same day return fare on GO is $23.40. Both offer discounted fares for bulk purchases but I have just used this commonly available option for comparison. (Advantage GO - slightly0.

Obviously two other factors that you can't evaluate from your desk are reliablity (how well do they keep to their schedules) and comfort.

Since the advantages are 2 (quite clearly) to GH and 1 (ever so slightly) to GO....perhaps this is why the early adoption of the GO service is a bit slow on the uptake?
 
Let me clairfly, this driver told me this in Summer of 2011 so things could have changed since then who knows. All I know for sure is that they have cut service and are planning on changing/cutting schedules down the road as GO expands into the region.

The big cut is that they NO LONGER have buses or drivers parked in Guelph or Kitchener overnight. ALL GREYHOUND BUSES COME FROM TORONTO. So if one bus gets stuck/breaks down on the 401, which has happened this winter, then there is no way to get a backup bus anymore from within Guelph/Kitchener. This is why when there is a full bus at Kitchener, it takes forever to get a 2nd bus these days - even a contracted out one.

The reason there is an extra one in the morning now - I asked the driver - is not because of demand but because of the 'deadheading from Toronto' issue.

The main reason GO hasn't picked up in Guelph - No Parking. That is the issue and was always be the issue for Guelph. Kitchener at least has 100 spots available.

There is a slight advantage to prices/direct service with Greyhound, however, the travel times suck during peak P.M. rush hour, especially between 4 and 6pm when the Greyhound run now takes up to 2 hours, while GO Train is in at about 1hr 30mins. The morning early runs on Greyhound are pretty decent because people spread out when they arrive to work, but coming home - forget about it - everyone leaves at 5 for some reason lol
There is actually less buses from Toronto to Guelph then Guelph to Toronto. If there was a way I could split my trip, AM Greyhound PM GO Train I would but the price/cost is crazy.
 
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One of the reasons people in Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge have switched from Greyhound to GO (bus) is service and reliability. In my own experience Greyhound is almost always late, sometimes considerably. And GO service extends directly to the Universities, and is scheduled to serve student travel patterns. In Cambridge, the Greyhound stop is along Industrial Road, with a connection to a single infrequent GRT bus route, and the GO stop is at a major GRT terminal, with connections to multiple routes, including the iXpress.
 
canarob said:
Some stats from the metrolinx board meeting (http://www.metrolinx.com/en/docs/pdf/presentations/Board%20Feb%2016%202012%20GO%20Transit%20Update_FINAL.pdf)

At the end of November 2011:

-Rail average weekday ridership grew by nearly 6%.
-Bus average weekday ridership increased by over
6%.
-Significant increase of nearly 18% for the bus
average weekend ridership.

Given the huge weekend growth numbers, I hope this augurs well for non-Lakeshore weekend train service.
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I wonder where the 18% increase in bus average weekend ridership came from?
 
The YRT strike probably helped (take GO bus to Union or York U instead of VIVA to subway, etc), but anecdotally, I think it's just more people who live and work in the 905 using GO to go to Toronto for events, etc.
 
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canarob said:
Some stats from the metrolinx board meeting (http://www.metrolinx.com/en/docs/pdf/presentations/Board%20Feb%2016%202012%20GO%20Transit%20Update_FINAL.pdf)

At the end of November 2011:

-Rail average weekday ridership grew by nearly 6%.
-Bus average weekday ridership increased by over
6%.
-Significant increase of nearly 18% for the bus
average weekend ridership.

Given the huge weekend growth numbers, I hope this augurs well for non-Lakeshore weekend train service.
Click to expand...

Does that mean GO will increase parking space by 6%?
 
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