GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

[ARG1]

I was wondering why they didn't chose #3960 to originate in London, as it would have given much more attractive timings to leave London (05:50), St. Marys (06:43), Stratford (07:13) and to arrive in Kitchener (08:02) and Guelph (08:23). I figured as much as they wouldn't want to extend a local train (e.g. #3812), given how much people obsess about end-to-end times, but had they indeed chosen #3960, bumping the train on the next departure (Local train 3812, dep. Kitchener at 08:39) would have resulted in a arriving at Union not just 30, but 45 minutes:
View attachment 356547
Which makes you wonder at how much projected delay at Kitchener is the cut-off for sending 3960's equipment as 3760 instead...

When the departure from London is so extremely early, it does detract from the argument that this train is about travel between points west of Toronto. Pushing the departure to align to one Kitchener departure later would improve the timing for anyone coming into Kitchener for the day.

- Paul

Quite simple. A lot of workplaces in Kitchener begin at 8. A train arriving to Kitchener at 8:02 would be far too late for many workers in the region. If your work does start later, well there's a VIA train that arrives in Kitchener at 9:18. Really a question could be asked if 7:30 might be too late. The station is located a few blocks away from iON requiring a fairly long and uncomfortable walk (especially during the winter) and since the headways are only every 10 minutes, it really limits how far you can actually make it away from the station (bus service also isn't that great from the station).

 

[Krypto98]

Apparently ridership for the first Toronto bound train was about 30.

GO is a go: 30 riders from London, St. Marys and Stratford on first train

There were roughly 30 paying customers from Southwestern Ontario on the first GO Train to Toronto early Monday morning.

www.brantfordexpositor.ca

Does anyone know how this compared to the first Niagara Falls weekday train? I found quotes stating that politicians onboard were pleased with the number of cars parked, but no actual number.

The first Niagara Weekday train had 19

 

[DirectionNorth]

The first Niagara Weekday train had 19

Apparently the 30 figure includes 3 in St. Mary's and 8 in Stratford.

 

[Krypto98]

Apparently the 30 figure includes 3 in St. Mary's and 8 in Stratford.

So about the same
London 19
St Mary 3
Stratford 8

Niagara 19
St Catherine's had 8 if I remember correctly.

 

[reaperexpress]

Quite simple. A lot of workplaces in Kitchener begin at 8. A train arriving to Kitchener at 8:02 would be far too late for many workers in the region. If your work does start later, well there's a VIA train that arrives in Kitchener at 9:18. Really a question could be asked if 7:30 might be too late. The station is located a few blocks away from iON requiring a fairly long and uncomfortable walk (especially during the winter) and since the headways are only every 10 minutes, it really limits how far you can actually make it away from the station (bus service also isn't that great from the station).

If we're talking about Stratford-Kitchener, sure. But a 5:20 departure time makes the London stop completely useless since there's no transit that early, there's no free parking, there are no safe cycling routes to the station and very few people live within walking distance.

 

[ARG1]

If we're talking about Stratford-Kitchener, sure. But a 5:20 departure time makes the London stop completely useless since there's no transit that early, there's no free parking, there are no safe cycling routes to the station and very few people live within walking distance.

I understand, I'm mostly referring to the logic of why it needs to reach Kitchener at that time. This setup is FAR from ideal and there are many changes that will need to be made in order to make this service far more useful to the broader public. The 2 main ones are A) Fixing up the track between London and Kitchener to allow for later departure times, and B) building the new Kitchener Central Transit Hub so that Kitchener GO has direct access to iON and other busses.

 

[Krypto98]

I compiled data from Transsee to get the speed of the train for today's London - Toronto Run. There are two versions, a small version where the speed "peaks" look somewhat exaggerated and a Large version that is more smoothed out.

 

[innsertnamehere]

If we're talking about Stratford-Kitchener, sure. But a 5:20 departure time makes the London stop completely useless since there's no transit that early, there's no free parking, there are no safe cycling routes to the station and very few people live within walking distance.

Lol nuts. The via station does have a small lot, couldn’t riders use that?

 

[ARG1]

I compiled data from Transsee to get the speed of the train for today's London - Toronto Run. There are two versions, a small version where the speed "peaks" look somewhat exaggerated and a Large version that is more smoothed out.
View attachment 356687

View attachment 356686

yo what's happening between Stratford and Kitchener?

 

[Krypto98]

yo what's happening between Stratford and Kitchener?

I actually have no idea, possible it's just speed restrictions on certain areas

 

[nfitz]

Quite simple. A lot of workplaces in Kitchener begin at 8. A train arriving to Kitchener at 8:02 would be far too late for many workers in the region. If your work does start later, well there's a VIA train that arrives in Kitchener at 9:18.

Universities don't start until 8:30 AM, so works very well for students who head to their parents for a few days, and then come back Monday morning in time for class.

 

[Krypto98]

Universities don't start until 8:30 AM, so works very well for students who head to their parents for a few days, and then come back Monday morning in time for class.

As well most classes don't go past 6 pm so the train back makes sense for Friday night.

 

[drum118]

I really don't follow service changes closely and was at Bloor Station to see a change I knew would happen one day in place. When did GO start to have some trains stopping at Bloor for the Milton Line as it show 2 Milton trains stopping with Bramalea and Brampton as next stop as well an express train bypassing it???

The trains were to use Platform 3. There is a switch north of Wallace walkway that allows this move.

I expect Platform 4 will be built once the construction of the tower on the west side is completed in 2022 as there is room for it.

 

[crs1026]

yo what's happening between Stratford and Kitchener?

Longstanding slow orders at particular spots that started out temporary due to track conditions and have gradually become long term. Easily corrected. #bringmoney

- Paul

 

[anb]

I really don't follow service changes closely and was at Bloor Station to see a change I knew would happen one day in place. When did GO start to have some trains stopping at Bloor for the Milton Line as it show 2 Milton trains stopping with Bramalea and Brampton as next stop as well an express train bypassing it???

I believe that is another mistake that got implemented into GO’s schedule just like the 30 min off peak trains to Bramalea, which either means that is also coming soon in like January, or it really was mistakenly added for some questionable reason, which i doubt. I‘m surprised to see these future changes getting leaked like this as GO and transit in general isn’t really known for that.