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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

If the milk run is delayed by 5+ min, then you can do the express to milk run transfer at UW.
I attempted this today, and failed miserably. Was planning on taking the 11:55am bus from Square One but finished my errand at Square One early and caught the 10:55am bus. My bus from Square One left late while the milk run I wanted to catch stayed ahead of schedule so I missed it. Ended up walking to St. Jacobs since there weren't any GRT routes available when I got there and the next GO wasn't for an hour. I checked the Transit app during my walk and both the milk run and express got to WLU at the same time for the 11:55am express run, but it was cutting it really close. I don't understand why they can't make things easier for passengers instead of gambling to transfer buses.

Coming back, I took the milk run from St. Jacobs but got off at WLU and grabbed a coffee since it was faster to do that then to stay on the milk run. The Express was ahead of schedule but it basically took 4 hours to get home with the disaster downtown shown above. We sat at Yonge/Harbour for 30 minutes and it was so frustrating...and you wonder why people don't want to take transit unless it's a train.

It was still worth it for Apple Fritters though lol.
 
I attempted this today, and failed miserably. Was planning on taking the 11:55am bus from Square One but finished my errand at Square One early and caught the 10:55am bus. My bus from Square One left late while the milk run I wanted to catch stayed ahead of schedule so I missed it. Ended up walking to St. Jacobs since there weren't any GRT routes available when I got there and the next GO wasn't for an hour. I checked the Transit app during my walk and both the milk run and express got to WLU at the same time for the 11:55am express run, but it was cutting it really close. I don't understand why they can't make things easier for passengers instead of gambling to transfer buses.

Coming back, I took the milk run from St. Jacobs but got off at WLU and grabbed a coffee since it was faster to do that then to stay on the milk run. The Express was ahead of schedule but it basically took 4 hours to get home with the disaster downtown shown above. We sat at Yonge/Harbour for 30 minutes and it was so frustrating...and you wonder why people don't want to take transit unless it's a train.

It was still worth it for Apple Fritters though lol.
Possibly some bus only lanes should be put into place? And a dedicated U-turn signal for buses coming from the west to loop around?
 
I attempted this today, and failed miserably. Was planning on taking the 11:55am bus from Square One but finished my errand at Square One early and caught the 10:55am bus. My bus from Square One left late while the milk run I wanted to catch stayed ahead of schedule so I missed it. Ended up walking to St. Jacobs since there weren't any GRT routes available when I got there and the next GO wasn't for an hour. I checked the Transit app during my walk and both the milk run and express got to WLU at the same time for the 11:55am express run, but it was cutting it really close. I don't understand why they can't make things easier for passengers instead of gambling to transfer buses.

This reminded me of when I attempted last weekend to try to catch a 12B bus at Burlington by taking the local 12 from the carpool, but of course that bus had to come miserably late and miss the connection. The worst part of it all was that the express bus left 5 mins late and still couldn’t catch it because our bus was late by just *1 min*. I just left it and my backup plan was just to head to Toronto instead. Who thought it was a good idea to leave out the 407 riders from getting an express bus to Niagara as well especially coming from an express bus (40), and who was the genius that had the bright idea to have both the express and local bus leave at the same time from Burlington?

I had better luck this weekend doing the exact same route and succeeding this time. The problem however was the massive overcrowding at Burlington and the poor communication all around. When we pulled up to the station, the volume of passengers were about 3 bus platforms long and some of that crowd almost reaching the main doors of the building. There were supposed to be 2 extra buses heading straight to Niagara and surprise surprise, both buses filled to the max and in standing room only (was on one of them and I'm really glad i stayed on the lower level of the bus because it was a lot more quiet and comfortable in comparison to the packed upper level). So instead of thinking logical and have as much buses as they can get on standby, these backup buses didn't come until like 20-25 mins after the scheduled time for the express bus to leave... knowing that its especially a long weekend and almost the entire GO ridership wants to head to Niagara, and I have no words as to what I have experienced, just exhaustion of consistent disappointment on the communication side. Besides all this however, it was actually really great coming back. Got to Brampton in just only 2:30 hrs which was purely because every connection was timed so close between the 12B -> 12 -> 40, and it felt like a miracle. Guess that's what happens when you actually have an express service...
 
This reminded me of when I attempted last weekend to try to catch a 12B bus at Burlington by taking the local 12 from the carpool, but of course that bus had to come miserably late and miss the connection. The worst part of it all was that the express bus left 5 mins late and still couldn’t catch it because our bus was late by just *1 min*. I just left it and my backup plan was just to head to Toronto instead. Who thought it was a good idea to leave out the 407 riders from getting an express bus to Niagara as well especially coming from an express bus (40), and who was the genius that had the bright idea to have both the express and local bus leave at the same time from Burlington?

I had better luck this weekend doing the exact same route and succeeding this time. The problem however was the massive overcrowding at Burlington and the poor communication all around. When we pulled up to the station, the volume of passengers were about 3 bus platforms long and some of that crowd almost reaching the main doors of the building. There were supposed to be 2 extra buses heading straight to Niagara and surprise surprise, both buses filled to the max and in standing room only (was on one of them and I'm really glad i stayed on the lower level of the bus because it was a lot more quiet and comfortable in comparison to the packed upper level). So instead of thinking logical and have as much buses as they can get on standby, these backup buses didn't come until like 20-25 mins after the scheduled time for the express bus to leave... knowing that its especially a long weekend and almost the entire GO ridership wants to head to Niagara, and I have no words as to what I have experienced, just exhaustion of consistent disappointment on the communication side. Besides all this however, it was actually really great coming back. Got to Brampton in just only 2:30 hrs which was purely because every connection was timed so close between the 12B -> 12 -> 40, and it felt like a miracle. Guess that's what happens when you actually have an express service...
I really think that connection times are too tight. Need at least another +5 minutes, this goes with the KW route meets at Royal Bank dr as well at Bramelea.
 
Apparently people were sitting on the stairs due to lack of proper seating. Given that it is a fire hazard, I cannot understand how GO transit does not see the need to add more service.
I’m sure they do. My bet is they’re waiting for the Provincial government to get up and running again to it can be an announceable.
 
Apparently people were sitting on the stairs due to lack of proper seating. Given that it is a fire hazard, I cannot understand how GO transit does not see the need to add more service.
My experience on similar trips this year (not this specific one) is there are two or three cars rammed 105% full, and there are two or three cars almost empty, the rest about 50%. The idea to move down the platform somewhere other than the very top of the staircase and/or entrance point to the platform does not go through the brains of these riders who mostly use GO only one or two times per year. They expect the train is maybe three or four coaches long, and don't know it's 10 or 12 until it's literally there, and even then the idea to move to another car once on board doesn't happen either. Some I've even heard say "I didn't know you were allowed to walk between different cars on the train". You can even hear this sometimes from the CSA who spends two minutes straight requesting people move down the platform and board through different doors, but then gives up because they simply won't do it and you sit and wait another two minutes as they slowly file in the already full car.

All this has been a thing on weekend trains forever. Decades it's been like that. I remember in the 90's they had this problem with Lakeshore trains and I marveled at people complaining about the crowds while I walked down the train and, surprise, found an upper deck with four people on it and 80 empty seats. I wouldn't be surprised if this one was not even at 50% seated capacity.
 
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My experience on similar trips this year (not this specific one) is there are two or three cars rammed 105% full, and there are two or three cars almost empty, the rest about 50%. The idea to move down the platform somewhere other than the very top of the staircase and/or entrance point to the platform does not go through the brains of these riders who mostly use GO only one or two times per year. They expect the train is maybe three coaches long and don't know it's 10 or 12 until it's literally there. But then the idea to move to another car once on board doesn't happen either. Some I've even heard say "I didn't know you were allowed to walk between different cars on the train". You can even hear this sometimes when the CSA spends two minutes straight requesting people move down the platform and board through different doors, but then gives up because they simply won't do it and you sit and wait another two minutes as they slowly file in the already full car.

All this has been a thing on weekend trains forever. Decades it's been like that. I remember in the 90's they had this problem with Lakeshore trains and I marveled at people complaining about the crowds while I walked down the train and, surprise, found an upper deck with four people on it and 80 empty seats. I wouldn't be surprised if this one was not even at 50% seated capacity.

The digital platform screens should indicate the number of cars for each train. Many regional rail and metro operators include this information on their info screens, GO should do this too.
 
Also, I'd like to know how many riders were on these heavily discounted $10 day pass fares. I went to Hamilton to visit family a few weeks ago and was shocked I could pay $10 for a day pass for a trip from Toronto that is normally over $11 each way.
There's a lot of people who talk about GO's vaunted cost-recovery ratio and love to rank it among others because it's usually first, but with the decline in rush hour ridership, and a surge in weekend ridership on 50+% off discounted weekend fares, what will we say if it drops to 40%, or even 30%, and is not the best, but the worst?

More importantly, what will Doug Ford's Conservatives say?
 
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The weekend day passes are great for enticing ridership back - but on weekends, the Lakeshore trains are packed, and they’re still running every half hour only. Given the reduced service, and the goodwill the passes provide (as long as you know about them) I think it’s worthwhile, at least until the fall. At that point, could hike it to $15 from $10.

Maybe there’s a case for a temporary weekday pass as well, where there’s likely more spare capacity than weekends these days.
 
I have to run an errand at Square One again today and will probably be on the same dreaded 4:40pm bus back downtown. I just checked the GO website and they're running it to Port Credit today thank god. While sitting in traffic downtown yesterday, I was wondering why they didn't do this yesterday.
 
I have to run an errand at Square One again today and will probably be on the same dreaded 4:40pm bus back downtown. I just checked the GO website and they're running it to Port Credit today thank god. While sitting in traffic downtown yesterday, I was wondering why they didn't do this yesterday.
They should do that on weekdays also.
 

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