GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

[crs1026]

Hey guys, making my first post here to learn more about Kitchener Line upgrades. It's been somewhat hard to get updates about 2WAD and weekend service on the line all the way to Kitchener, and since Metrolinx doesn't seem to want to share information (which I think is ridiculous), I just don't have much a great understanding of how improvements are going. My understanding is that Metrolinx is adding passing tracks in spots like Breslau (and other areas), the second platform in Guelph (which appears to be almost complete) among other upgrades to bring more service. And from what I gather, the reason we don't get proper weekend service past Mount Pleasant is that a lot of the upgrade work takes place on the Weekends when there is less traffic. Can someone confirm the issues with weekend service, and if CN has any control over it? Another thing I was wondering is what's going on with Silver Junction, and that third track through Brampton. Anyone know how those projects are going/when construction should start and end? And the last thing I was hoping was to get word on when you guys think we'll get at least some Weekend service past Mount Pleasant, and more ambitiously, 2WAD (30 minute freq. each way??) service. It would mean the world for those of us who make the trip on the KI train, and us 30/30A riders (especially UW and WLU students), because those buses are PACKED. Thanks to anyone who has any insight, I know I've got way too many questions.

I have been told the signalling for the second track between Breslau and Shantz Road was supposed to be cut in this weekend, but that fell off the schedule it seems.

The station improvements at Guelph are getting close to completion, but again the track work needed to complete the second track have fallen behind and there is no end in sight. The second platform is useless until the track work is finished.

Service on weekends is not all that constrained by construction, ML is simply not choosing to run trains at that time. Perhaps they do not yet have agreement from CN for more weekend trains west of Mount Pleasant, but we don't know one way or the other.

Lots of promises and victory celebrations but actually work is not going to schedule. Those UW and WLU students will have graduated before we see 2WAD on this route.

- Paul

 

[bpbpbpbp]

Welcome to UT!

Some info here a few posts back:

GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

BlogTO has a new article up about the E-Bikes on the GO trains. https://www.blogto.com/city/2024/02/go-transit-cracking-down-bikes-trains/ This is a multi-layered social phenomenon/problem that I'm not sure is GO's to solve alone. Gig economy, people unwilling to brown bag - if the market...

urbantoronto.ca

Also, from the latest Metrolinx board meeting:

GO Transit: Construction Projects (Metrolinx, various)

It's the control point at the west end of the new siding, where the Fergus and Preston spurs connect to the Guelph Sub - between Alma and Silver Creek Parkway. - Paul Thanks. I had to visualize this so here's a map excerpt. In the 2009 EA referenced and linked above, it looked like this...

urbantoronto.ca

And, mentioned here months ago, the design for a third platform at the Brampton Station was been awarded to HDR. Apparently, CN is designing the track. This is definitely a pinch point.

The City of Brampton did some high-level visuals of what the third track would look like. I'll post them in a separate post.

Looking at this image, I see a lot of phase work that sort of adds track all the way to Silver Junction. Is it fair to say that this track would be in the hands of Metrolinx to run as many trains as they like? I say this as I see green, pink and blue track nearly all the way to Silver. It's probably not that simple, and I'm sure CN will still have a lot of control of this part of the sub.

 

[bpbpbpbp]

I have been told the signalling for the second track between Breslau and Shantz Road was supposed to be cut in this weekend, but that fell off the schedule it seems.

The station improvements at Guelph are getting close to completion, but again the track work needed to complete the second track have fallen behind and there is no end in sight. The second platform is useless until the track work is finished.

Service on weekends is not all that constrained by construction, ML is simply not choosing to run trains at that time. Perhaps they do not yet have agreement from CN for more weekend trains west of Mount Pleasant, but we don't know one way or the other.

Lots of promises and victory celebrations but actually work is not going to schedule. Those UW and WLU students will have graduated before we see 2WAD on this route.

- Paul

Metrolinx being behind schedule, never heard of that before lol. And the amount of speculation that needs to be done is just not right. Me personally, I have another four years at the very least of KI/30 riding to do. Any shot I can count on the train for the weekends by 2028? And yes, Guelph's station looked just about done, I didn't know about the track though.

 

[anb]

Hey guys, making my first post here to learn more about Kitchener Line upgrades. It's been somewhat hard to get updates about 2WAD and weekend service on the line all the way to Kitchener, and since Metrolinx doesn't seem to want to share information (which I think is ridiculous), I just don't have much a great understanding of how improvements are going. My understanding is that Metrolinx is adding passing tracks in spots like Breslau (and other areas), the second platform in Guelph (which appears to be almost complete) among other upgrades to bring more service. And from what I gather, the reason we don't get proper weekend service past Mount Pleasant is that a lot of the upgrade work takes place on the Weekends when there is less traffic. Can someone confirm the issues with weekend service, and if CN has any control over it? Another thing I was wondering is what's going on with Silver Junction, and that third track through Brampton. Anyone know how those projects are going/when construction should start and end? And the last thing I was hoping was to get word on when you guys think we'll get at least some Weekend service past Mount Pleasant, and more ambitiously, 2WAD (30 minute freq. each way??) service. It would mean the world for those of us who make the trip on the KI train, and us 30/30A riders (especially UW and WLU students), because those buses are PACKED. Thanks to anyone who has any insight, I know I've got way too many questions.

Well the fact that weekend service is still a recent implementation as it started just last year, and we finally now have official confirmation that 30 min all day service to Bramalea is happening on weekdays starting at the end of April, its safe to say that Metrolinx can start to do way more now.

For weekend service all the way to Kitchener, it probably could happen late 2024/early 2025 if they want to either complete Guelph's 2nd platform and some passing tracks, or they would have to negotiate with CN to allow trains to run on the weekend past Mt Pleasant.

For full 2WAD to Kitchener I believe its just only going to be hourly while Mt Pleasant will get 30 min service. On top of the current projects, they would need to finish the plans they have for expanding tracks at and near DT Brampton before we see any sort of frequent all day service happening west of Bramalea.

The source for the service frequency was apparently deleted but there is an archive of it.

Edit: Never mind the article is still up

First phase of work to expand Kitchener GO Line service begins

Construction update on GO Expansion work along the Kitchener GO Line

www.metrolinx.com

 

[Allandale25]

Well the fact that weekend service is still a recent implementation as it started just last year, and we finally now have official confirmation that 30 min all day service to Bramalea is happening on weekdays starting at the end of April, its safe to say that Metrolinx can start to do way more now.

For weekend service all the way to Kitchener, it probably could happen late 2024/early 2025 if they want to either complete Guelph's 2nd platform and some passing tracks, or they would have to negotiate with CN to allow trains to run on the weekend past Mt Pleasant.

For full 2WAD to Kitchener I believe its just only going to be hourly while Mt Pleasant will get 30 min service. On top of the current projects, they would need to finish the plans they have for expanding tracks at and near DT Brampton before we see any sort of frequent all day service happening west of Bramalea.

The source for the service frequency was apparently deleted but there is an archive of it.

First phase of work to expand Kitchener GO Line service kicks off

First phase of construction work to expand Kitchener GO Line train service kicks off

web.archive.org

I haven't done an exact comparison but I think the article is still there. They just changed the URL path so that "blog" articles are now under "discover".

So the new URL for this article is here:

First phase of work to expand Kitchener GO Line service begins

Construction update on GO Expansion work along the Kitchener GO Line

www.metrolinx.com

 

[anb]

I haven't done an exact comparison but I think the article is still there. They just changed the URL path so that "blog" articles are now under "discover".

So the new URL for this article is here:

First phase of work to expand Kitchener GO Line service begins

Construction update on GO Expansion work along the Kitchener GO Line

www.metrolinx.com

Thank you I have just updated my post. Its weird with how they just randomly decided to do that as if they were hiding the article, but it is Metrolinx after all...

 

[Sandpit]

Thank you I have just updated my post. Its weird with how they just randomly decided to do that as if they were hiding the article, but it is Metrolinx after all...

IIRC "Metrolinx News" was a separate website that used Wordpress. I guess they decided to change the wording now that it's integrated into the main Metrolinx site.

 

[rdaner]

This may be posted elsewhere:

Metrolinx set to announce large GO Transit service expansion, will add 308 new weekly rail trips in late April

An announcement regarding the expansion was published early by Metrolinx by mistake, but a source with knowledge of the situation confirmed to the Star that the update is correct.

www.thestar.com

 

[allengeorge]

Right above, a couple of pages back actually:

GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

Why would an express train need to stop at Exhibition? That defeats the purpose of it being express, which is to rush people to and from Union Station. Exhibition is getting an Ontario Line stop. There's your express service to downtown from Exhibition. The train absolutely crawls to Union...

urbantoronto.ca

 

[reaperexpress]

As I suspected, the upcoming 15% increase in train service is not the largest service increase since 2013. On the 7th of August 2021, GO Transit increased train service by 52%, adding 740 weekly trips - more than double the 308 trips they plan to add in the upcoming April 2024 schedule.

Some of this increase was a restoration of services cut during the pandemic, but not all. August 2021 was the first time ever that Lakeshore East and West received consistent 15-minute weekday service from the start of service until after the PM Peak. Prior to the pandemic, service had only been every 15 minutes during the midday period on Lakeshore East, and only for a couple hours just prior to the PM peak on Lakeshore West.

In the upcoming April schedule change, some of the services are also restorations of pre-existing services that had been temporarily cut, namely the peak period Milton trip and the evening Stouffville service.

 

[Allandale25]

Metrolinx moves to ban some e-bikes from GO trains over battery-fire worries | Globalnews.ca

The provincial transit agency Metrolinx is preparing to ban certain e-bikes with non-certified batteries from the GO train network amidst safety concerns.

globalnews.ca

 

[afransen]

Metrolinx moves to ban some e-bikes from GO trains over battery-fire worries | Globalnews.ca

The provincial transit agency Metrolinx is preparing to ban certain e-bikes with non-certified batteries from the GO train network amidst safety concerns.

globalnews.ca

I'm not sure how readily this can be enforced.

 

[generalcanada]

Metrolinx moves to ban some e-bikes from GO trains over battery-fire worries | Globalnews.ca

The provincial transit agency Metrolinx is preparing to ban certain e-bikes with non-certified batteries from the GO train network amidst safety concerns.

globalnews.ca

the amount of batteries that arent ul certified are less than 5%. its usually the batteries not sold through dealers 2nd hand that are the issue.

 

[christiesplits]

the amount of batteries that arent ul certified are less than 5%. its usually the batteries not sold through dealers 2nd hand that are the issue.

What's your estimate on the percent of e-bikes in Toronto that are using lithium-ion batteries, which MLX will start banning?

 

[generalcanada]

What's your estimate on the percent of e-bikes in Toronto that are using lithium-ion batteries, which MLX will start banning?

quoting from the article:

While batteries that carry ‘UL’ or ‘CE’ markings on them have received GO Transit security seals, others — such as problematic lithium-ion batteries — are expected to be barred from the network entirely.
Jurij Zurba, the owner of e-bike retailer EP Rider, told Global News the issues are twofold: lack of proper maintenance and cheap, after-market batteries.

Those cheap, after-market batteries are the 5% im talking about. Zoomo, Zygg NCM, et cycle movin. All are UL/CE certified and completely safe to use
90% of all ebikes you see in toronto are from theese vendors. The other 10% are giant/trek/spcialized ebikes

For riders on the KW go train its more like 99%.

So yea go transit is right its going to impact a very small amount of riders, but thats not to say 2nd hand battery mods dont happen. ive seen it myself in a bike shop
guy comes in and the battery is swollen so bad I wanted to take 3 steps back