I have heard that there is a lack of engineers and crew to drive these trains however, and that they are having trouble finding hires for the job and getting them trained in time.
Drum118 can fill me in on that I am sure, I believe he spoke of it here.
You are correct.
My concern at this time, how much shifting of crews from GO to UPX will hurt current and the next 2 years of service for GO?? I expect the spare board will almost empty for GO for the next 2 years.
Every train you put out there 7 days a week, you need 3 engineers and 3 conductors. Spare board should be 10-15% of trains crews on line.
Even if you add a train for peak, you need spares or overtime cost for the crews.
CAS are run of the mill position and not a problem for putting a train on line, but you need 1.5-3 per train depending on the service.
Just because GO has train setting around doesn't mean they can put more service out there when there is no track capacity for them in the first place. Milton is a non started for more service to a point at this time. KW has more capacity than Milton.
Don't for get it cost about $600 per hour to put a train on line and doesn't cover the running rights on various lines not own by Metrolinx.
How many riders do you need to break even on these train as well is there enough ridership in place to do this than use the current bus service??
Bottom line, unless a engineer is fully train when hired, it will take 2 years for someone to work from conductor to engineer and not all of them will make that seat at the end. Until the fed's change the rules for someone to be an engineer, long process to get the crews to run trains that people want to see.
Going to EMU's will help with crews some what, as you can use less of them with faster turn around of equipment for short/peak trips, but not all day service.