GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

[dowlingm]

Are you allowed to take bikes on a TTC bus.

Not an electric bike

Bikes on TTC vehicles

www.ttc.ca

 

[nfitz]

Not an electric bike

Bikes on TTC vehicles

www.ttc.ca

Not on the bike racks on buses it says. No mention of inside buses, streetcars, or subways. So presumably that's allowed outside of rush-hours.

 

[ShonTron]

Yes - 24/7. But you must mount them to the front of the bus. And only two are allowed.

View attachment 539779

Otherwise, you can bring them onto a bus (if space permits) but have to follow the same rules as streetcars and subways. (only between 7 pm and 6 am, or between 10 am and 3:30 pm - or weekends)

Bikes on TTC vehicles

www.ttc.ca

Except this is a Nova bus - where the TTC decided that only one bike can be carried on each rack.

 

[sixrings]

I just don’t understand why union station doesn’t have room for a bike storage facility like Amsterdam does. People can leave their bikes at union and take the GO home without effecting others.

 

[nfitz]

I just don’t understand why union station doesn’t have room for a bike storage facility like Amsterdam does. People can leave their bikes at union and take the GO home without effecting others.

What's the difference between the bike storage facility in Amsterdam, and the current one at Union Station? What do they need to add at Union?

I thought showers and them (not sure if it's City of Toronto or Metrolinx) providing towels was pretty edgy!

 

[E•MO•TION]

I just don’t understand why union station doesn’t have room for a bike storage facility like Amsterdam does. People can leave their bikes at union and take the GO home without effecting others.

There is a bike storage facility of some kind behind Union Chicken near York Concourse but I don’t know anything about it. I have seen a few bike couriers hanging out in there though.

However, a lot of the bike couriers are reliant on their bikes as transport to and from stations in Brampton, hence the need to bring them on board.

 

[sixrings]

There is a bike storage facility of some kind behind Union Chicken near York Concourse but I don’t know anything about it. I have seen a few bike couriers hanging out in there though.

However, a lot of the bike couriers are reliant on their bikes as transport to and from stations in Brampton, hence the need to bring them on board.

Everyone else manages to make it to the station without a bike. If the trains are full then shouldn’t passengers be prioritized versus things.

 

[generalcanada]

There used to be a bike storage room on york east concourse. They removed it at some point a few years ago not sure what the status of it is now

 

[micheal_can]

Let’s hope they work! They didn’t in the 90’sView attachment 539727(for the record I'm being sarcastic here, I trust the existing emergency exit windows, but they shouldn't have to be the only option, bikes can still obstruct them and in the event of a fire smoke and flames can overcome someone before they can get the window open)

When there was that massive flood of the Don River in Toronto which stranded a GO train, didn't the windows work as designed?

At this point I am inclined to believe that the only solution to this issue is an outright ban of bikes on the Kitchener Line. These people continually demonstrate day after day that they do not care for the safety and comfort of their fellow customers.

All six bike coaches are currently in use on the Kitchener Line, yet some of these people continue to overwhelm regular coaches even when multiple bike coaches are present on a single consist. They have to frequently be reminded not to ride their bikes down station platforms, including busy station platforms, or even the stupid narrow and stupid busy platforms at Union during rush hour or after an event. They frequently have to be reminded to allow those with mobility devices to use the elevators first. They engage in shenanigans such as activating the yellow emergency strip upon arrival at each station in order to buy themselves time to drag their bikes off coaches they chose to overcrowd to begin with, resulting in significant delays. And of course, they throw a hissy fit whenever someone from GO whether it be the Operators, Transit Safety, or Revenue Protection try to enforce GO policies, or even just regular passengers trying to get off the damn train.

In the last week or so, Metrolinx has begun to take a more heavy handed approach to enforce the bike policy on westbound trips departing Union and Bloor each evening, by dumping a boatload of Transit Safety and Revenue Protection officers onto platforms to babysit trains. I fear this further takes away a significant amount of resources that could better be utilized elsewhere in the network where Transit Safety already has the reputation of being “slow” and “useless” amongst Operators.

Just ban the damn bikes.

/rant

Or...if they are that popular, have all cars have space for bikes.

I just don’t understand why union station doesn’t have room for a bike storage facility like Amsterdam does. People can leave their bikes at union and take the GO home without effecting others.

For the same reason we don't have a lot of obvious infrastructure ... we are still a car centric country/province/city.

 

[WB62]

Or...if they are that popular, have all cars have space for bikes.

There’s like 120 bikes on some Kitchener trains, if every lower level was a bike coach that would be removing at least 288 seats on a 6 car consist

 

[APTA-2048]

There’s like 120 bikes on some Kitchener trains, if every lower level was a bike coach that would be removing at least 288 seats on a 6 car consist

I don’t have an in depth understanding of GO’s operations, but my question is: why are they still running six-car trains?

 

[micheal_can]

There’s like 120 bikes on some Kitchener trains, if every lower level was a bike coach that would be removing at least 288 seats on a 6 car consist

Then make it a longer consist.... I have seen 12 cars. Instead of complaining about the problem, we should be wanting a solution that does not include banning bikes.

 

[crs1026]

Having a bike park is not going to satisfy this clientele unless it has charging ports.... these are mostly ebikes.

The invective against the bike owners is not appropriate. This is a situation that ML has inadvertently drifted into. ML needs to extricate itself without attaching "blame".

At the end of the day, no transit jurisdiction hauls bikes in large numbers. In the Netherlands, a bike ticket costs 10 euros... about $18 per ride. The bike coaches that were ok for Niagara tourist trains are not really ok for more mundane commuter trains.

- Paul

 

[Richard White]

Having a bike park is not going to satisfy this clientele unless it has charging ports.... these are mostly ebikes.

The invective against the bike owners is not appropriate. This is a situation that ML has inadvertently drifted into. ML needs to extricate itself without attaching "blame".

At the end of the day, no transit jurisdiction hauls bikes in large numbers. In the Netherlands, a bike ticket costs 10 euros... about $18 per ride. The bike coaches that were ok for Niagara tourist trains are not really ok for more mundane commuter trains.

- Paul

Perhaps they can issue specialized bike tickets i.e. 20 bucks a bicycle each way?

 

[afransen]

There is a bike storage facility of some kind behind Union Chicken near York Concourse but I don’t know anything about it. I have seen a few bike couriers hanging out in there though.

However, a lot of the bike couriers are reliant on their bikes as transport to and from stations in Brampton, hence the need to bring them on board.

The way the Netherlands handles this is by having decent bike parking at the station.

I think the problem is ebike charging. You can leave your ebike downtown but providing infrastructure to charge (potentially dodgy) ebikes sounds a lot more complicated.

Maybe we could resolve this by developing a list of approved/UL validated ebike manufacturers for parking and charging in a public lot.