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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

drum118 said:
The last time I was at West Harbour station in 2023 about 15 minutes before a train was due, you had a dozen riders waiting for that train that ran hourly. The earliest you could see where an express train could start would be Oakville.

If you were using 3-5 car EMU train set to Hamilton, Burlington would be the express point Doing a hop scotched for stations, Oakville/Mississauga would be the last station until Union unless there was a special event at Exhibition.
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If you ran an hourly train that stopped at West Harbour, Burlington, Oakville, Port Credit, Exhibition, Union, I think it would be well used by anyone that uses those stops. Just look at the time savings that the Niagara train gets with a similar pattern. Getting Hamilton to Union trips closer to an hour will definitely swing more people away from driving and onto the train.
 
reaperexpress said:
No indeed Hamilton will not sink into Lake Ontario in the absence of express trains. But connecting three of the largest cities in Ontario (Hamilton, Mississauga and Toronto) within a reasonable amount of time would have a significant effect on the attractiveness of car-free travel in the region. Maybe the reason ridership falls steeply after Oakville is that it takes so long to get to Hamilton that people choose to instead drive or take the GO bus route that exists solely because the train is so slow.
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Completely agree on this. Taking the train to West Harbour from Union is great, except that it takes ~80min because most of the trip is spent accelerating and decelerating due to the relatively close spacing of stations the whole way and use of diesels hauling 12 bi-level cars. The train trip can be 20mins longer than taking the bus at some times of the day/week. An express could shave 15-20mins off the trip. That's a pretty substantial time savings! It would make the train a lot more attractive.

Though I suppose once the track improvements at West Harbour are done the Niagara express trips will stop there.
 
Don't underestimate the need for more track before LSW can handle express trains. If we assume 15 minute stopping service headways, there won't be express trains using those same two tracks. Up to today, express trains have mostly been used at peak and in one direction only, as there are only three tracks for most of the route. I support the idea - but it's a future possibility only, after more construction.

What might be feasible sooner is more skip-stop scheduling, where two trains are following each other on close headways but each train makes only half the stops. Both stop at the same time, but one station apart. Some Metra lines have schedules with this approach. That flies in the face of creating a all-day line that isn't focussed on Union, but it may have some application.

- Paul
 
crs1026 said:
Don't underestimate the need for more track before LSW can handle express trains. If we assume 15 minute stopping service headways, there won't be express trains using those same two tracks. Up to today, express trains have mostly been used at peak and in one direction only, as there are only three tracks for most of the route. I support the idea - but it's a future possibility only, after more construction.

What might be feasible sooner is more skip-stop scheduling, where two trains are following each other on close headways but each train makes only half the stops. Both stop at the same time, but one station apart. Some Metra lines have schedules with this approach. That flies in the face of creating a all-day line that isn't focussed on Union, but it may have some application.

- Paul
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I don't think there's much infra needed, if any.

Since half of the local trains turn back at Oakville, it's possible to run express and local services on the same track west of Mimico where the corridor is 3 tracks wide, with all overtakes occuring between Mimico and Union where there are 4 tracks. That leaves the centre track on the 3-track segment completely vacant for Via trains or late GO express trains that need to overtake a local train in an unusual location.
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Ideally the express trains would stop at Exhibition but since there are no platforms on the express tracks yet, the express trains need to skip Exhibition.
 
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I suppose that works on paper ...for now.....but.... it has very little room left. Any sort of delay to the stopping trains will cascade. VIA will need to have its own meeting points.
I wonder if the signal spacing needs to be adjusted.
The most likely upward change would be to extend 15 minute service to Burlington, or possibly from 15 minute to ten or twelve minutes east of Oakville - again, that is pushing this envelope.
So I would not lose sight of the need to add track to get beyond this service plan, as good as it is for the moment.

- Paul
 
PS - my impression is that the QEW is basically full all the way from Hamilton to Toronto. Removing one car between Burlington and Toronto is a bigger improvement in car-miles eliminated than one car between Port Credit and Toronto. So it is not wrongheaded to design a service plan that is especially attractive to people west of Oakville, even if there are more empty seats out there it is also potentially equal or more seat-miles gained.
I do wonder if 15 minute stopping service throughout the line is a better service plan than half hourly local and hourly express west of Oakville, but I won't argue for that too hard. A local from Hamilton now versus an express in 45 minutes is an interesting choice.

- PUl
 
LW-WKBLK-240323_3000x1800_v2.png

Starting in the late evening of Friday March 22, and throughout the March 23 - 24 weekend, GO train service will be replaced by bus along the Lakeshore West line while important construction work takes place. Replacement GO Buses will be available at West Harbour, Aldershot, Burlington, Oakville, Clarkson and Union Station Bus Terminal.

There will be no GO Transit service at Appleby, Bronte, Port Credit, Long Branch, Mimico, and Exhibition GO stations. Please consider local transit options

Niagara Falls trains will make all regular stops between Niagara Falls GO and Aldershot GO.
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www.gotransit.com

Bus service between Aldershot GO and Union Station

No rail service on the Lakeshore West line. GO buses will replace rail service at some stations.
www.gotransit.com
 
robmausser said:
Im surprised they are even bothering to run trains between Aldershot and Niagara.
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Especially since that's the slow part of the route. Buses are significantly faster there, it's the Toronto-Burlington segment where the train is faster than a bus
 
Perhaps the comments above are all linked? Maybe they need so many buses to run the Hamilton to Union route that there aren't enough buses (or possibly drivers) available to have them also run to Niagara?
 
Capacity is probably why. Took the 6:55pm bus from Stanley/420 to Burlington 2 weeks ago and it left more than half the people behind. And that was in the dead of winter. It'll be busier at the end of March.
 
Jonny5 said:
Perhaps the comments above are all linked? Maybe they need so many buses to run the Hamilton to Union route that there aren't enough buses (or possibly drivers) available to have them also run to Niagara?
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That makes sense, but then it raises the question of what maintenance they're doing that requires shutting down the entire line from Aldershot to Toronto. For example maybe they could continue the Niagara Falls train to Oakville, and run an extra non-stop bus from there to Union in addition to the ordinary shuttle buses.
 
crs1026 said:
I suppose that works on paper ...for now.....but.... it has very little room left. Any sort of delay to the stopping trains will cascade. VIA will need to have its own meeting points.
I wonder if the signal spacing needs to be adjusted.
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The service pattern is more robust than you're suggesting because it leaves the centre track completely vacant apart from the 6 Via trains per day in each direction. If an express does get stuck behind a late local train, worst case scenario is that it needs to run slowly for a few minutes until the centre track is available and it can overtake.

crs1026 said:
I do wonder if 15 minute stopping service throughout the line is a better service plan than half hourly local and hourly express west of Oakville, but I won't argue for that too hard. A local from Hamilton now versus an express in 45 minutes is an interesting choice.
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15-minute service along the entire line to Hamilton is not an option with the existing track configuration because CN will not allow GO to run more than 2tph per direction through Bayview Junction. There will be 1 or 2 trains per hour from Hamilton, the only question is whether those trains run local or express. So it's not "a local train now or an express in 45 minutes", it's "a local train now or an express train now".

The most likely upward change would be to extend 15 minute service to Burlington, or possibly from 15 minute to ten or twelve minutes east of Oakville - again, that is pushing this envelope.
So I would not lose sight of the need to add track to get beyond this service plan, as good as it is for the moment.
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My intent is not to distract from the need for additional track capacity in the future, I'm merely pointing out that we don't need to wait for additional tracks before implementing an initial rollout of all-day express service.

To further improve frequency and reliability, the next step should be to extend the quad track from Mimico to Port Credit. The biggest challenges for that are Long Branch and Port Credit stations. Both of them are currently under construction, so I would hope that that work is future-proofing them for a fourth track.
 
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