Fritter
Active Member
It could be the Barrie line had the summertime weekend service for the last few summers, while Kitchener line had no such weekend experimental service.
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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)
- Thread starter drum118
- Start date
It could be the Barrie line had the summertime weekend service for the last few summers, while Kitchener line had no such weekend experimental service.
TOareaFan
Superstar
2 problems with this......
- judging the worth/viability of evening and weekend service by how mid day trains do is a fools game.
- I would bet if you take hard look at our most full experience with off peak service on the Lakeshore line(s) mid day weekday trains would be their least full trains....people working are at work
- as I noted elsewhere yesterday.....if someone was looking at the GO schedule and deciding whether that 3:52 pm EB train from Mount Pleasant was a good way to get downtown they are likely gonna be deterred by having to get what they need to do done in time to catch the last train home...ie be on the 6:50....lack of evening service will hurt your off peak mid day service ridership
- there was no suggestion in that roll out schedule that the evening and weekend service was going to be dependent on the early acceptance of the mid day service went.....it was intended to be a interim roll out to build ridership for eventual ReR....so if they are stalling on ridership issues why not just say "and we are also questioning the whole ReR thing for the corridor"
TOareaFan
Superstar
I honestly don't care about why that happened.....the commitment in the budget was for both. I may be someone who would benefit from more service on KW line but it does not bother me at all that another line "went first".....it would seem that if you do two things one of them is likely to be first and my desire for more trains on KW line should never make me question/resent more service on another line.
denfromoakvillemilton
Senior Member
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Just for context and background purposes, the planned schedule change was announced on page 68 of the 2016 Provincial Budget. Below the "10 new trips...City of Brampton" was the word "dependent" and three examples. Is there any insight if these were the reasons it didn't happen in 2016-17 fiscal (ending March 2017) or the reason(s) the government would claim it didn't happen? (Not saying I would agree or disagree with such a claim)
Also, I think someone posted earlier that the mid-day trips added in September 2015 on the Kitchener Line didn't attract the expected ridership so they (Province/Metrolinx) would roll out the additional off-peak services more slowly. Just going by memory on that last piece so could be wrong.
This is disappointing and and all and I wonder what the excuse is? Have they not purchased all the equipment and hired the extra staff? And about low ridership, I saw lakeshore service going to 15 minutes plastered everywhere 4 years go when it started. Did they even advertise the service increase. This is the core of metrolinx's job, and they can't do it.
2 problems with this......
Honestly, I am less fussed by them not meeting the 2016/2017 target than I am on how they can make this commitment in a reasonably important document of public record...and then not address the matter when they miss the target. Seems a strange behaviour for a company that seems to litigate late deliveries when they are on the receiving end of the lateness
- judging the worth/viability of evening and weekend service by how mid day trains do is a fools game.
- I would bet if you take hard look at our most full experience with off peak service on the Lakeshore line(s) mid day weekday trains would be their least full trains....people working are at work
- as I noted elsewhere yesterday.....if someone was looking at the GO schedule and deciding whether that 3:52 pm EB train from Mount Pleasant was a good way to get downtown they are likely gonna be deterred by having to get what they need to do done in time to catch the last train home...ie be on the 6:50....lack of evening service will hurt your off peak mid day service ridership
- there was no suggestion in that roll out schedule that the evening and weekend service was going to be dependent on the early acceptance of the mid day service went.....it was intended to be a interim roll out to build ridership for eventual ReR....so if they are stalling on ridership issues why not just say "and we are also questioning the whole ReR thing for the corridor"
Agreed. It's nonsense imo.
Fritter, do you have any idea when when the service increases for all day on Barrie, Mt Pleasant and Stouffville are coming?
TOareaFan
Superstar
Also, the launch of the mid-day service was, I believe, the first GO train service that launched at around the same time as a competitive, more comfortable, more frequent service at the same price and run by the same people. Who in their right mind would wait for a GO train at Weston (or Bloor) on those schedules when every 15 minutes a more comfortable UP train comes by at the same price.2 problems with this......
Honestly, I am less fussed by them not meeting the 2016/2017 target than I am on how they can make this commitment in a reasonably important document of public record...and then not address the matter when they miss the target. Seems a strange behaviour for a company that seems to litigate late deliveries when they are on the receiving end of the lateness
- judging the worth/viability of evening and weekend service by how mid day trains do is a fools game.
- I would bet if you take hard look at our most full experience with off peak service on the Lakeshore line(s) mid day weekday trains would be their least full trains....people working are at work
- as I noted elsewhere yesterday.....if someone was looking at the GO schedule and deciding whether that 3:52 pm EB train from Mount Pleasant was a good way to get downtown they are likely gonna be deterred by having to get what they need to do done in time to catch the last train home...ie be on the 6:50....lack of evening service will hurt your off peak mid day service ridership
- there was no suggestion in that roll out schedule that the evening and weekend service was going to be dependent on the early acceptance of the mid day service went.....it was intended to be a interim roll out to build ridership for eventual ReR....so if they are stalling on ridership issues why not just say "and we are also questioning the whole ReR thing for the corridor"
Weston and Bloor are hardly the busiest stations on the line....but (particularly Weston) they do contribute some ridership and those mid day GO trains see none of them.
cbrown2009
Active Member
I'm in the camp that believes the lack of evening trains plays against midday ridership. Not to mention that even now, on evenings and nights of significant events downtown ie. Sports, major concert, it's a circus trying to cram in all the extra bus services (which are usually still not enough), having people packed into standing room only buses that get stuck in traffic on the Lakeshore/Gardiner promptly upon departure from the terminal, where even at 10-10:30pm a 40 minute scheduled trip can take twice as long. On weekends, I currently drive to Kipling or Long Branch from Brampton to catch a train (subway) when heading into downtown and I always get a kick out of whizzing by traffic on the Gardiner, including the odd Go bus, especially around the West Beaches.
I thought the goal was to provide an alternative to driving/being stuck in traffic. Unfortunately for Go/ML the lack of things like even fair train service has contributed to the car culture around the GTA. The only way to begin to turn the tide is to implement said train service asap. The longer it takes for that to happen, the longer it's going to take to shift people's preferences away from the car. At some point we are going to have to accept that ridership isn't going to skyrocket overnight. Besides, I am on those midday trains at least a couple of times per week and the six car trains (Union bound) are generally 30-40% full, except maybe the last two trips (the expresses). Out of nearly 1000 seats. For a truncated service, I don't judge that to be all that bad.
Very disappointing that all that infrastructure we spent half a billion dollars on continues to sit underutilized when we so desperately need these trains activated.
I thought the goal was to provide an alternative to driving/being stuck in traffic. Unfortunately for Go/ML the lack of things like even fair train service has contributed to the car culture around the GTA. The only way to begin to turn the tide is to implement said train service asap. The longer it takes for that to happen, the longer it's going to take to shift people's preferences away from the car. At some point we are going to have to accept that ridership isn't going to skyrocket overnight. Besides, I am on those midday trains at least a couple of times per week and the six car trains (Union bound) are generally 30-40% full, except maybe the last two trips (the expresses). Out of nearly 1000 seats. For a truncated service, I don't judge that to be all that bad.
Very disappointing that all that infrastructure we spent half a billion dollars on continues to sit underutilized when we so desperately need these trains activated.
smallspy
Senior Member
This isn't the major schedule change - this is simply a tweak of the existing schedules, along with some more major bus schedule changes.
The major rail schedule change still seems to be a go for the end of the month.
Dan
Toronto, Ont.
innsertnamehere
Superstar
could someone post a link to the planned service increases over the next few years again? I always forget where to find it.
Allandale25
Senior Member
2 problems with this......
- judging the worth/viability of evening and weekend service by how mid day trains do is a fools game.
- there was no suggestion in that roll out schedule that the evening and weekend service was going to be dependent on the early acceptance of the mid day service went.....it was intended to be a interim roll out to build ridership for eventual ReR....so if they are stalling on ridership issues why not just say "and we are also questioning the whole ReR thing for the corridor"
Just to be clear, I'm not suggesting I agree with the notion of potentially delaying evening/weekend service because of low ridership on the September 2015 initiated mid-day trains. That's just what I think I read someone else speculate much, much earlier in this thread. It would take me a lot of searching (unless there's a faster way) to go back and find the post I think I'm recalling. Or, I could be completely misremembering and no one did in fact write it.
SaugeenJunction
Senior Member
TOareaFan
Superstar
Thanks......strange way (from a PR perspective) to do it....that "tweak" includes adding a couple of train trips (ie. not just adjusting timetable or scheduled arrivals) to the Lakeshores....you would think they would want to balance that off (again from a PR perspective) with any additions to the train schedule they are planning elsewhere.
cbrown2009
Active Member
There is still ridership from points in Brampton to those two stops as well. And, for the record, I'll take the Go train ride over the UPX any day
Edit to add: I think it would be disappointing if ridership were the reason for delaying added train service as well. And it's too bad it won't be in place for the start of hockey & basketball playoffs (if the Leafs can hang on), and the baseball season. But if it's end of April, so be it.
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TOareaFan
Superstar
really? You are in the vast minority.......the UP train is far more comfortable.....the biggest noticeable difference I see on the GO train from Brampton these days is how few (really close to zero) people ever get on at Weston these days in the morning and how few get off at Weston in the evening.
Curious....what is it about the GO train ride that you find superior to the UP ride?
Allandale25
Senior Member