GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

[anb]

This is a great start, but restoring evening service is sorely needed. The bus terminal is extremely jammed after Jays games, concerts, etc., and now we'll have students taking evening classes again.

The fact that the bus terminal isn't being used as much now because of the trains running is both a good and bad thing. This means that bus resources can be used elsewhere on the network where they are needed. On the other hand this also makes the multi million dollar terminal mostly unusable aside from 3rd party long distance buses and the GO Bus route 16 using it. The old terminal could more than handle the little traffic now. Also the fact that Milton and Richmond Hill corridors don't have all day buses going to and from Union (anymore or not ever) reduces the traffic as well.

Must be nice, I say, as being on the Milton line it doesn’t help me one bit.

It’s really unfortunate that Mississauga gets the short end of the stick when it comes to GO improvement. And yes I realize that Lakeshore and Kitchener lines technically have stops in Mississauga.

Wishing that Metrolinx can come to their senses and allow themselves to go to other terminals. Bramalea, Kipling, and 407 are much better alternatives than the current Lakeshore stations that the buses go to. Maybe have a bus doing the whole run directly to Union at all times and then the branches going to those terminals. At least they made the 27 go to Milton at all times of the week but the compromise was cutting the detour branches that already had poor reception so it doesn't feel all that rewarding.

Examples for these branches could be one branch that does the whole run serving all stations to Union, :Lisgar/Meadowvale/Streetsville branch going to Bramalea or 407, and Erindale/Square One/Cooksville branch going to Kipling.

 

[Garuda]

The easiest win right now would be to make Bus 17 run on the weekends. Why the Hamilton - Waterloo bus only does weekdays is beyond me.

I've rode it before and it's very popular from Aldershot.

 

[Dan416]

I really detest that the last outbound train is at 7:10 pm on the Milton line. Forces me to rush out after drinks with work colleagues as none of us want to deal with the post-train mess that is Milton now.

 

[drum118]

I really detest that the last outbound train is at 7:10 pm on the Milton line. Forces me to rush out after drinks with work colleagues as none of us want to deal with the post-train mess that is Milton now.

What do you expect GO to do about it when Metrolinx/Provinces can't have a real talk with CPKC as how the corridor can be upgraded to 4 tracks along with a fly under at the Humber River as well the cost to do it??

3rd track was to be in place by 2011, but only a few locations has that 3rd track today.

The Liberals ran on an 2014 platform to do the Milton Line at over $2 billion to do it and disappeared after the election.

Where is the PC on this issue??

 

[WB62]

Maybe some people that rode GO way back in the day might know, GO used to use an entire font styled like the G and O in promotional ads and notices, I’m recreating it right now and I’m not quite sure when they stopped using it, maybe someone here knows?

 

[RU479]

Maybe some people that rode GO way back in the day might know, GO used to use an entire font styled like the G and O in promotional ads and notices, I’m recreating it right now and I’m not quite sure when they stopped using it, maybe someone here knows?View attachment 504811

The most I've seen of the font is the entire GO Transit logo. Apparently a full version of the font was made a decade or two ago and was posted on the internet, but that's probably lost by now.

 

[yrt+viva=1system]

Took a dive into the GO Typeface:

Over the years [Gangon/Valkus] had developed a good working relationship with the advertising agency, McConnell Eastman. They were the ad agency for CN and had the contract to produce an brand for the Ontario government and the new transit system for the city of Toronto. With the support of CN, Gagnon/Valkus was given a contract to develop the [GOTransit logo] under the umbrella of McConnell Eastman.”

At the time, Gangon/Valkus was owned by Jim Valkus who opened the office in Montreal and partnered with painter/filmmaker/designer Charles Gagnon, to develop the CN corporate identity as well as to compete for Expo ‘67 contracts.

Fox remembers how the team came to a quick resolution to the project. They wanted to bring the initials of the Government of Ontario, into a unified logo. “I started working on it conceptually right away. We started thumbnail sketches and in one of those surprising things that happens every now and again, the actual concept of the GO symbol came up very quickly. We were thinking of two circles with a letter “T” somewhere in them. We had cut out two circles, then literally put a square into the circle, then “Bingo,” there was the G, in green, and we could lay a white “T”

https://descan.ca/designcurrency/the-forgotten-history/#:~:text=They were the ad agency,the umbrella of McConnell Eastman.”

 

[WB62]

The most I've seen of the font is the entire GO Transit logo. Apparently a full version of the font was made a decade or two ago and was posted on the internet, but that's probably lost by now.
View attachment 504826

The font appeared multiple times in old advertisements, and with multiple variants too:

 

[canarob]

I really detest that the last outbound train is at 7:10 pm on the Milton line. Forces me to rush out after drinks with work colleagues as none of us want to deal with the post-train mess that is Milton now.

Stouffville is the same -- so brutal and who knows when evening trains will return?

 

[Jonny5]

:View attachment 504852

Love that CIBC add.
The "special hours" from 8:00 to 5:30, which I was a kid then but recall in the 80's most bank branches would still only open at 9:00 and close at 4:00 p.m, so that actually was a big deal to be open until 5:30.
Also love the reference to special "on-line computers"; the first early days where your updated daily account balance was accessible for all branches to access without them having to phone around to verify things.

 

[WB62]

I also posted my font to Twitter and someone replied with this photo of a pamphlet with a very interesting project on it:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1699789166165606565

 

[Richard White]

I also posted my font to Twitter and someone replied with this photo of a pamphlet with a very interesting project on it:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1699789166165606565

View attachment 504960View attachment 504961

What the hell was GO Marine?

 

[ShonTron]

What the hell was GO Marine?

Looks like it might have been a branding experiment to expand the GO brand that didn’t get anywhere. The Manitoulin Island ferry is still operated by a provincial agency (Owen Sound Navigation), as is the Peele Island ferry. The Wolfe Island and Glenora ferries are operated by the MTO.

Nothing more than that. GO Transit was never going to operate ships hundreds of kilometres from its Toronto base.

 

[WB62]

Looks like it might have been a branding experiment to expand the GO brand that didn’t get anywhere. The Manitoulin Island ferry is still operated by a provincial agency (Owen Sound Navigation), as is the Peele Island ferry. The Wolfe Island and Glenora ferries are operated by the MTO.
Nothing more than that. GO Transit was never going to operate ships hundreds of kilometres from its Toronto base.

I made a map of the ferry service that was proposed:

 

[KevinT]

What the hell was GO Marine?

Just the Chi-Cheemaun by the looks of it.