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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)
- Thread starter drum118
- Start date
TOareaFan
Superstar
then you definitely confused people with your wording....
passing through a station is not what most people pictured when you said you would visit every station.
mdrejhon
Senior Member
Wow.
Never seen York get this crowded.
Silver linings:
+ Kudos to air conditioning (refreshing-to-slighly-coldish but fully comfortable) managing to keep up -- despite crowd
+ Kudos to speedtests of _Union_TD WiFi more than fast enough to watch 4K Netflix episodes -- despite crowd
It's a torture test of Union York concourse capacity now. AC and WiFi passes with flying colors. That proximity to 151 front Street (Toronto'a biggest Internet convergence point; terabit Internet connections) probably helps a lot.
That lightning-zapped signal shutdown is inconvenient, though.
Now time to do more work on upgrading, bulletproofing, and electrifying GO RER.
Never seen York get this crowded.
Silver linings:
+ Kudos to air conditioning (refreshing-to-slighly-coldish but fully comfortable) managing to keep up -- despite crowd
+ Kudos to speedtests of _Union_TD WiFi more than fast enough to watch 4K Netflix episodes -- despite crowd
It's a torture test of Union York concourse capacity now. AC and WiFi passes with flying colors. That proximity to 151 front Street (Toronto'a biggest Internet convergence point; terabit Internet connections) probably helps a lot.
That lightning-zapped signal shutdown is inconvenient, though.
Now time to do more work on upgrading, bulletproofing, and electrifying GO RER.
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nfitz
Superstar
Most people?
When they do these tube challenge things, I've never heard of people getting out at each station before. I think it was pretty clear from the context.
denfromoakvillemilton
Senior Member
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I'm in. Let me know when.
stanko
Active Member
I don't think the backhaul fibre and TorIX being just down the street has as much of a bearing on those speed tests as the strength of those routers. Are the routers they use really that powerful, or were most of the passengers just unaware that there's wifi in the concourse?
smallspy
Senior Member
Specifically, a lightning strike hit the plant at Mimico East at about 3.30 and took down the whole plant. On top of that while dealing with the issues there, there was an problem with one of the trains travelling through the plant and a potential rules issue. It took several hours to get everything back up and running, but in the interim a lot of trains were stranded in Willowbrook and Mimico South as they tried to sort it out.
Dan
Toronto, Ont.
LNahid2000
Senior Member
Agreed. I rarely bother to connect to wifi since I have a good data plan. And I'm nowhere near TorIX but have a gigabit connection to my home.
TOareaFan
Superstar
sure but the word visiting suggests something.....if I drive through a town on the 401 have I actually visited it? Anyway, good luck riding all the GO lines end to end in one day...even without stopping at each station it will be tough!
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
Not that they have anything useful to say. Gave up and took the 509 back to Union from the Ex.
AoD
mdrejhon
Senior Member
Visit all GO stations in one day?
That's a toughie.
Let me have a crack at a theoretical journey:
The Grand GO Transit Journey
Kitchener Train 5:24am
This is your starting point, so you should book a hotel or friend there and be well-rested.
Kitchener First Morning Peak: 05:24 - 07:27 .... Catch that first.
59 Minute Self-Repositioning: Quickly go from Union station to Milton GO station:
Get an expert trusted taxi driver pre-waiting for you at Union, ready to take you immediately to Milton GO expeditiously (offpeak is doable, but peak traffic will make this a big challenge to fight your way to Milton from Union station. Use historical traffic statistics to time the best days of the week / best days of the years to do this attempt. Alternatively, a helicoptor ride would be prudent if one can be arranged -- e.g. publicity stunt!)
Milton Train 8:26am
Catch the last morning Milton train towards Union
Milton Last Morning Peak: 08:26 - 09:30
Lakeshore East train
Lakeshore West train
This is what you will do to kill time between morning/evening peaks.
Catch the first "through train" (~9:45am) and bounce to Aldershot (10min layover), then Oshawa (10min layover), and then back to Union. Nearly 5 hours single seat ride! Catch some Z's because you got up early, and you will be staying up very late.
Stoufville train 3:11pm
Catch the first peak Stoufville train going north to Lincolnville. Arrives there at 4:24pm.
2 hour 11 min Self-Repositioning: Quickly go from Lincolnville GO to Union Station
Go back to Union station immediately: Have a driver pre-waiting for you at Lincolnville (or a pre-positioned car of your own), ready to take you immediately back to Union to be on time for your next train ride.
Barrie train 6:35pm
Catch the last train going from Union to Allandale Waterfront station. You'll arrive at 8:21pm.
Then immediately return to Union Station via GO bus #68 from Allandale. A painfully long ride with a transfer taking 2.5 hours to return to Union.
Richmond Hill
Tough luck for the trains, but you can catch the GO Bus #61 to tour all stations thru Gormley. That bus runs rather late (last bus 2:40am) so you didn't have to rush back to Union from Allandale Waterfront. Plan to crash for the night at a motel near Gormley GO, there's no return service.
---
So a pretty tough Grand GO Transit Journey "Around The World In 80 Stations", but barely doable, though that means skipping Hamilton GO stations and the Niagara GO train service. Any GO delays will screw this attempt up, requiring you to re-attempt this another day.
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innsertnamehere
Superstar
the 59 minute to milton GO is pretty much impossible as well. Plus, you aren't technically getting to use the Richmond Hill line.
TOareaFan
Superstar
The funny thing about yesterday (and I am not finding humour in the ordeal people had but, rather, in the GO communications area) was that AMA is on holidays and the job of informing the public fell to Suniya Kukaswadia. A bit awkward when your orgnaization has built up twitter as it's go to "instant" communicator and the person you hand off the job to is a "communications professional" with a protected twitter account.
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AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
The funny thing about yesterday (and I am not finding humour in the ordeal people had but, rather, in the GO communications area) was that AMA is on holidays and the job of informing the public fell to Suniya Kukaswadia. A bit awkward when your orgnaization has built up twitter as it's go to "instant" communicator and the person you hand off the job to is a "communications professional" with a protected twitter account.
View attachment 150379
To be fair, if they have anything important and official to say, I'd look for it at the official org and route accounts - but of course, there is a paucity of info there. Yes, I know there is a signal issue - I am sitting in my train not moving for the past 30 minutes. Tell me something *useful* that will inform my next decision.
Crickets.
Make a damn call and announce it. Shut the line down indefinitely, arrange for alternate transportation. Not making riders stuck in some sort of decisions purgatory. As to the *instant* part - well, they are consistently 20 minutes behind - you are on your train experiencing whatever it is by the time you find out anything about your particular delay coming out of Union.
AoD
TOareaFan
Superstar
Yes but the way they have used AMA they have created a situation where people do look to her personal Twitter account for information....so handing her duties off to a "protected account seems daft.
What shocks me is the total "off the cuff" nature of their responses....which leads (according the to disaster recovery guys we hire in our business) to failed responses.
They really should have a whole bunch of scenarios mapped out......service gets interrupted by "X" at "Y" location at "Z" time....see page 345 for appropriate response......all they could come out with was "people going to Mimico, LB, or Exhibition can use TTC services".....i think people going to those places pretty much know that TTC is an alternative....it is the people going somewhere else that need help......and they seldom (ever?) get the kind of useful information about "what do I do now" that they really need.
It also points to another reason why we need all the lines to be all the time and bi-directional.....getting people on the lakeshore line to a station on the Milton line is not ideal....but in an emergency it is better than leaving them stranded and telling them how to get to Mimico.