Why should GO rail lines be included when they barely run outside rush hours?
By right, they should be part of the of all regional service including Toronto.
Having ridden the rail system in Glasgow, London and surrounding area, Paris and Surrounding area, Madrid, Barcelona, Marsiella, Nice and Monaco, all of them offer various types of service from the milk run to limited express. I rode a train a few days ago from Nice to Monaco where we stop at only a few stations and bypassing the others. On the way back, we stop at every station as I was not prepared to wait for the mid express as it was running late and we still beat the express train.
Run GO trains outside of rush hours is long over due as well offering an option for people to leave the car at home.
For GO to do this, they need the crews that they don't have today. If GO change its practices to what is done in Europe, you only need one man crew to run the trains/tubs/trams. When the driver is about to close the doors, he looks at the screen showing the full length of the train and then sound the horn. The doors then give a warning they are closing. Once close, the train/tram/tube depart the station.
Going from a 2 or 3 man crew to one person will increase the engineer requirement short fall if the current crew members can pass the test. It also helps to reduce operation cost.
The trains/tube length various, but seen up to 12 rail car coaches been operated this way. The tube length is all over the place, but seen 10 rail double deck coaches been used for various lines operation as a tube line or S-Bahn line.
Times are changing and we need to change with it, as we are decade behind Europe on many fronts.