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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

When asked, GO tell me it is because (and I quote) "GO Transit and UP Express are two separate entities, you must pay two separate fares." They have not responded to my follow up about how I often use GO and UP to travel between Weston and Exhibition and never pay two separate fares.

The real answer (which i suggested to them and they ignored) seems to be that they never got around to combining the fares into one set of readers....

I believe if you travel from Pearson to Exhibition you would pay the double fare; they seem to consider the trip from Pearson to Weston to be the premium fare. But ultimately I think the issue is that they've never really considered someone taking this particular trip.

The same applies with the co-fare between MiWay/Brampton Transit and UPX. If you connect from UPX to the TTC, you get a co-fare. But MiWay and Brampton transit only mention GO for co-fares, not UPX, even though both agencies service Pearson. You could make the case that this is because Pearson is a premium fare, but I suspect the reality is that they've never considered that someone might just use Pearson as a transfer point along their route.
 
This isn't related to service per se, but rather to GO ridership experience. A fun read. http://www.gotransit.com/EtiquetteFail/Etiquette_Book.pdf

When they first came out with the airplane safety card-style pamphlet about two years ago (or three now?), I thought it was the greatest thing ever and took ten to hand to friends who also enjoyed it. They match my and my friend's sense of humour perfectly and the design behind them was boss.
 
The other day I experienced first hand the challenges of using intermodal transit via the GO and local bus network.

Going from Downtown Hamilton to Oakville (403/Bronte area) via HSR, GO Train and Oakville Transit took 1 hour 40 minutes

Drive time: 23 minutes.
 
The other day I experienced first hand the challenges of using intermodal transit via the GO and local bus network.

Going from Downtown Hamilton to Oakville (403/Bronte area) via HSR, GO Train and Oakville Transit took 1 hour 40 minutes

Drive time: 23 minutes.
Does it include wait time?
 
I had one of those light bulb experiences today - had an errand north of the city and thought, hey while I am up there I could park at the GO and do a quick mid day return trip downtown before I head home. Nice day for a train ride.

Arrived at King City to find the parking lot stuffed. Overflow lot is behind a church, 10-15 min walk away.... also full. Nice day, so I figured I would try Newmarket. Same story. Carried on to Aurora, with its large garage....also completely full. Now I’m thinking go for a drive instead, so I head towards Unionville. Same story there. Decide just to head home, via 407 TTC. Its lot also full. Only Pioneer Village had space.
It would have been moot, because Thursday is Roadswitcher Day and the Aurora mid day trains are bustituted anyways. Yes, again.
My point being - while I have always been opposed to building large parking garages at GO stations, I have to admit that up that way the car is everything and if a potential rider can’t find a parking spot at the GO station they will probably just carry on by car. This bodes badly for mid day GO train ridership.
GO really needs to do something about first mile/last mile, otherwise riders just won’t appear, even with RER - we can only build so much parking.

- Paul
 
I had one of those light bulb experiences today - had an errand north of the city and thought, hey while I am up there I could park at the GO and do a quick mid day return trip downtown before I head home. Nice day for a train ride.

Arrived at King City to find the parking lot stuffed. Overflow lot is behind a church, 10-15 min walk away.... also full. Nice day, so I figured I would try Newmarket. Same story. Carried on to Aurora, with its large garage....also completely full. Now I’m thinking go for a drive instead, so I head towards Unionville. Same story there. Decide just to head home, via 407 TTC. Its lot also full. Only Pioneer Village had space.
It would have been moot, because Thursday is Roadswitcher Day and the Aurora mid day trains are bustituted anyways. Yes, again.
My point being - while I have always been opposed to building large parking garages at GO stations, I have to admit that up that way the car is everything and if a potential rider can’t find a parking spot at the GO station they will probably just carry on by car. This bodes badly for mid day GO train ridership.
GO really needs to do something about first mile/last mile, otherwise riders just won’t appear, even with RER - we can only build so much parking.

- Paul

I guess this is why Gormley and Bloomington stations make sense, even though they look ridiculous on paper.
 
I guess this is why Gormley and Bloomington stations make sense, even though they look ridiculous on paper.
Too bad RH Line is only peak direction during peak. If it was all-day, it'll need way more parking. (and double tracking).

Is there any benefit to two way hourly service to Oriole and Old Cummer only, due ti freight north of that ?
 
Too bad RH Line is only peak direction during peak. If it was all-day, it'll need way more parking. (and double tracking).

Is there any benefit to two way hourly service to Oriole and Old Cummer only, due ti freight north of that ?

Not enough ridership to warrant running the 10 car trains, and not enough to warrant buying DMU's.

And heres the real reason:

not enough wow wizz bang to warrant a politician to want it in order to buy votes.
 

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