GO station future

[Jonny5]

Although there's been the track capacity for a few years now, the peak rush-hour GO trains that run to/from Burlington have yet to be extended to Aldershot---presumably an operating dollar issue. Most East Burlington/West Hamilton park and ride types truck on to Burlington station on account of their being more train options, and that's why Aldershot's parking supply is weirdly underutilized.

I have a relative in West Hamilton who does this. An additional factor for him is the parking garage at Burlington. Why stop at the Aldershot lot when you can drive another few minutes, park in the garage at Burlington, and avoid coming back at night to run through a downpour or finding your car buried in a foot snow. He would never consider Hamilton Station as it still a long trip to get to by transit, has no free parking to drive to and has the ridiculously plodding 20 minute trip time just to get to Aldershot. He can pass the train out of Hamilton at the Desjardins canal on the 403 and still arrive at Burlington Station 10 minutes ahead of it. The Hamilton GO Express bus could be the best option, but due to the quirky routing in the west end, it's only useful for going to Hamilton, not to Toronto.

He is a rail fan and has actually been a train commuter from Hamilton since before GO existed, easilly taking more than 10,000 trips in his life. For a while he lived in Port Credit and commuted from there also. I always ask him first for insights on operational issues, not to mention the 40 years of crazy commuting stories.

 

[MehBong5]

Thanks Reaperexpress for the link. I'm going to follow these projects more now. I hope that in ten years the Go network looks more like Koreas.

I don't understand why Go stations don't have roofs (train sheds? I'm not sure exactly what they are called) over the platforms instead of small shelters.

Any ways,I hope they continue to expand the Go network. I think the GTA and the Province have to start looking at public transit system investment as a job that is never finished. I think long term goals are important, but too often they seem to do nothing for years and then they have to launch a big politicized infrastructure plan that ends up being cancelled or cut short. However, they have waited so long now a big plan is needed. Hopefully, after they finish building moveontario 2020 or whatever they manage to build in the next ten years, they continue every year to expand through smaller expansion with a longer term vision.

I'm also happy to see that Go has built parking structures at some of there stations. Is it just me or do the giant parking lots surrounding Go stations make them seem inaccessible if you don't have the car. I'm not lazy, I will walk it, but psychologically, it doesn't seems like a barrier. I know must Go train users use cars to get to the stations, but I think Go should try to make their stations more accessible for the those without cars and encourage people to leave there cars at home. I know realistically we don't have the densities for that, but it should be a goal.