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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

I don't know about the future of Bombardier.....but the immediate past was better than expected.

  • P&L better than expected (loss in the most recent quarter less than half of the same quarter last year)
  • Improved cash flow (quarterly jump of 76% of free cashflow)
  • Revenue in the quarter jumps to $4.72B ($4.38B in same quarter last year)
  • results ahead of the plan in place with CDPQ and as a result, BBD's ownership stake in Bombardier Transportation increases to 72.5% from 70%.

But, I guess, they could fail at any moment ;)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bombardier-fourth-quarter-1.4536515
 
Allandale25 said:
Happened again today: https://twitter.com/GOtransitBR/status/964167508969312257
Click to expand...

I have spoken to a senior customer service manager at GO. I was informed that these cancellations will likely continue occurring until double tracking is completed sometime in 2019 at the earliest. I raised the notion of possibly scheduling buses formally on monday and thursday rather than having cancellations and unscheduled shuttle buses every time (it's not a cancellation when on February 15th they know it'll be cancelled on July 19th!), they said the earliest that would likely happen, if at all, would be in September.

This is an appalling approach to customer service.

The best part? Apparently the operations team said this was an "unforseen" issue with the new schedules. What kind of imbeciles work there that they're blind to freight trains blocking GO-owned track for 4 hours straight 2 days a week every week?
 
^ I could be wrong but didn't Dan comment here earlier that the situation could improve after April 2018 when the new change card comes into effect? It could offer some improvement in advance of more double tracking.
 
^I think I said something along those lines. I was just speculating, in the spirit of giving ML the benefit of the doubt.

If I were the freight customer, I would be reluctant to have cargo delivered off hours. In theory, the rail employees have a key to the gate and ought to be trusted to remember to lock up afterwards......but if you were the lumber yard owner, would you sleep soundly knowing that no one is there making sure - with an expensive inventory of flammable material in the yard? Would you welcome having to pay one of your own employees to go out in the wee hours to check?

It's troublesome that this was overlooked - or swept under the carpet - when the all day service was planned. This switching assignment has been working on this line for as long as ML has owned the tracks. It's doubly troublesome that ML feigns surprise about the whole thing. A very good example of just how unaccountable ML is.

- Paul
 
Allandale25 said:
^ I could be wrong but didn't Dan comment here earlier that the situation could improve after April 2018 when the new change card comes into effect? It could offer some improvement in advance of more double tracking.
Click to expand...
I just wonder where we can get info on the upcoming changes in April 2018.
 
crs1026 said:
^I think I said something along those lines. I was just speculating, in the spirit of giving ML the benefit of the doubt.

If I were the freight customer, I would be reluctant to have cargo delivered off hours. In theory, the rail employees have a key to the gate and ought to be trusted to remember to lock up afterwards......but if you were the lumber yard owner, would you sleep soundly knowing that no one is there making sure - with an expensive inventory of flammable material in the yard? Would you welcome having to pay one of your own employees to go out in the wee hours to check?

It's troublesome that this was overlooked - or swept under the carpet - when the all day service was planned. This switching assignment has been working on this line for as long as ML has owned the tracks. It's doubly troublesome that ML feigns surprise about the whole thing. A very good example of just how unaccountable ML is.

- Paul
Click to expand...

To the best of my knowledge, night time deliveries have never been a problem for the industries along the Uxbridge Sub and the Geco Spur, considering they switched from daytime about 8 or 9 years ago. I suspect that CN's sales teams will quell any unease amongst the customers should there be any.

To give Metrolinx the benefit of the doubt - although that's really not the best term to use considering the circumstances - the departments are so silo'd that it wouldn't surprise me if service planning simply didn't know that freight trains ran on the Newmarket Sub at all. After all, this is the same organization that told a local short-line operator that "our trains aren't capable of running on jointed rail", much to the incredulity and amusement of the operator.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.
 
I took my annual winter/spring evening/morning commute in and out of Guelph. As I used to do the commute on the regular a year and a half after service was extended to Kitchener, it's interesting to do it again on an annual basis to see how things continue to evolve (or not). I took the 3rd train (7:11 AM) from Guelph this morning, some commentary below:
  • Boy, lots of slow orders. Overall, lots of bouncing between 5, 15, 45 and 60 mph between Guelph and Mt Pleasant, but ~15 mph slow orders:
    • Just as you pull out of Guelph Central until Victoria.
    • Halfway between Guelph and Rockwood.
    • Through Rockwood.
    • West of Limehouse.
  • Getting through Silver and Georgetown is still such a painful drag. The train starts slowing down just before Trafalgar Road, right down to a crawl (~5mph) just before the junction. This is as slow as the old days when the switch was located on a the banked curve of the Halton sub, before they reconfigured the entire junction. The widening of the enbankment over McNabb Street and the creek may still be a factor, but not until you go through the switch. Then you still grind through to the Georgetown platform; still no sign of upgrading to a mainline platform anytime soon. We had a pretty short dwell (~45 seconds) and didn't conflict with CN freight until west of Mt Pleasant, so I timed the trip between Trafalgar and the Credit River, and I think it's a pretty good sample: 11m 55s over 4.1 km, or an average speed of 20.6 km/h (12.8 mph). For comparison, Mimico to Long Branch is 8 minutes over 4.8 kilometres; an average speed of 36.0 km/h (22.4 mph), or 75% faster. Just a brutal stretch that has not improved since opening day.
  • We conflicted with CN west of Mt Pleasant. That was about a 5 minute wait.
  • Alighting still eats up some time at Brampton and Bramalea, due to shear volume. Not a big factor, but perhaps some seconds saved when we get to RER service levels.
  • The Torbram Road grade separation is still going; was originally scheduled to be complete by May 2017, and is now projected for December 2018. This article points blame at midday GO service, an unidentified Bell utility chamber, design changes by Metrolinx, winter weather, and 'other unforeseen site conditions.'
More trains, a couple that are express, is nice. Metrolinx has also been sinking some money into the corridor, but it seems it is still not bearing fruit in terms of time benefit.

One thing that was a good improvement was coming in. I needed to get from Guelph Central to the university, and Guelph Transit now has a frequent spine route (99) that runs every 10 minutes. It happened to come 2 minutes after I got off the train, so I was at the university less than 15 minutes later. Superb, now all they need to do is get Presto.
 
Fritter said:
You just have to shake your head, how long did the Stouffville trains run on a jointed rail Uxbridge Sub? 20-25 years? Same as Bradford trains on a jointed Newmarket sub.
Click to expand...

Even the Georgetown Corridor had plenty of jointed rail between Bramalea and Parkdale before work started on the GTS/UPX project.
 
Strange, my understanding was that work around Georgetown was meant to be a big help in fixing that slow stretch. Certainly shouldn't be a need to be travelling that slow on brand new, dedicated track for the last km into Georgetown station.

I imagine a lot of the slow orders will be removed in the next few years as metrolinx performs track upgrades and replacements on the line. Their first focus after purchasing it was to get it signaled, which I believe is now complete.. Now to get rid of slow orders.

For example, they have plans to upgrade the slow order zone west of Guelph station to 35mph - from the current (I believe) 10mph. That alone will shave several minutes off of travel times, at least to Kitchener.
 
innsertnamehere said:
Strange, my understanding was that work around Georgetown was meant to be a big help in fixing that slow stretch. Certainly shouldn't be a need to be travelling that slow on brand new, dedicated track for the last km into Georgetown station.

I imagine a lot of the slow orders will be removed in the next few years as metrolinx performs track upgrades and replacements on the line. Their first focus after purchasing it was to get it signaled, which I believe is now complete.. Now to get rid of slow orders.

For example, they have plans to upgrade the slow order zone west of Guelph station to 35mph - from the current (I believe) 10mph. That alone will shave several minutes off of travel times, at least to Kitchener.
Click to expand...

They also need to fix the shantz station road bridge; there's always a slow order there as well. For Downtown guelph to get any better, they have to expropriate a lot of houses, but it would make things a lot safer and a lot of those houses are outdated anyways. Also, why is there no station in Rockwood?
 
Streety McCarface said:
They also need to fix the shantz station road bridge; there's always a slow order there as well. For Downtown guelph to get any better, they have to expropriate a lot of houses, but it would make things a lot safer and a lot of those houses are outdated anyways. Also, why is there no station in Rockwood?
Click to expand...
Rockwood Station was moved here: http://hcry.org/
 
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