Jonny5
Senior Member
Although there's been the track capacity for a few years now, the peak rush-hour GO trains that run to/from Burlington have yet to be extended to Aldershot---presumably an operating dollar issue. Most East Burlington/West Hamilton park and ride types truck on to Burlington station on account of their being more train options, and that's why Aldershot's parking supply is weirdly underutilized.
I have a relative in West Hamilton who does this. An additional factor for him is the parking garage at Burlington. Why stop at the Aldershot lot when you can drive another few minutes, park in the garage at Burlington, and avoid coming back at night to run through a downpour or finding your car buried in a foot snow. He would never consider Hamilton Station as it still a long trip to get to by transit, has no free parking to drive to and has the ridiculously plodding 20 minute trip time just to get to Aldershot. He can pass the train out of Hamilton at the Desjardins canal on the 403 and still arrive at Burlington Station 10 minutes ahead of it. The Hamilton GO Express bus could be the best option, but due to the quirky routing in the west end, it's only useful for going to Hamilton, not to Toronto.
He is a rail fan and has actually been a train commuter from Hamilton since before GO existed, easilly taking more than 10,000 trips in his life. For a while he lived in Port Credit and commuted from there also. I always ask him first for insights on operational issues, not to mention the 40 years of crazy commuting stories.
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