GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

[Admiral Beez]

It concerns me that something as innocuous as announcements in French would attract hatred on your part, that's a rather strong emotional reaction.

As a frequent flyer I'm often annoyed, but not angry with the nod to French on Air Canada flights. It's not the French per se, but the damn poor execution of the announcements. I'm watching my film, and the screen stops, anglophone person announces that we're coming through with duty free crap that no one wants, then the movie starts up again, and 30 seconds later the movie stops again for the francophone to repeat the same thing. And it's a triple aggravation if they happen to have a third language speaker on staff, and we have to have the movie interrupted for the German, Chinese, Urdu or whatever. Here's what Air Canada needs, have the bilingual person make all the announcements at once, and unless it's brace for impact, skip the third language, no one is expecting an Air Canada flight to Brussels to have a Flemish speaking crew onboard.

 

[nfitz]

• Well, that's a shame, so I'll have to continue with Bikeshare and then walk or bus from Port Credit. Honestly, the station seemed empty when was in Union at both times. Maybe they could allow bikes at the end of the platform?

I've known people who have a bike that shuttles back and forth between their office bike rack and the Union bike rack.

Presumably one could do the same and simply leave it at Port Credit GO overnight and weekends.

 

[rbt]

Well, I hit a wall on GO yesterday. Wanted to ride my personal bike from home to work, so rode to Union Stn, put bike on train, and was told off by staff for bringing the bike. I said that GO allows bikes if you're reverse commuting - but I didn't know that regardless of direction, bikes are not allowed in Union Station during weekday rush hours.

https://www.gotransit.com/en/trip-planning/getting-to-go/gettingtogo

• Well, that's a shame, so I'll have to continue with Bikeshare and then walk or bus from Port Credit. Honestly, the station seemed empty when was in Union at both times. Maybe they could allow bikes at the end of the platform?

I suspect it's a firecode thing at Union which means an uncrowded stairwell isn't actually much help as a rapidly moving crowd could suddenly appear. It's still worth asking about as it's possible nobody has considered allowing bikes at just the eastern most end of the station.

As an alternative, would Danforth or Exhibition be within cycling range for your morning commute?

 

[Admiral Beez]

I suspect it's a firecode thing at Union which means an uncrowded stairwell isn't actually much help as a rapidly moving crowd could suddenly appear. It's still worth asking about as it's possible nobody has considered allowing bikes at just the eastern most end of the station.

As an alternative, would Danforth or Exhibition be within cycling range for your morning commute?

It's 35 min instead of 10 min ride. I'll just stay with Bikeshare. No way I'm leaving my $1000 Breezer Downtown 8 locked up anywhere. I could buy a beater bike at Port Credit though, not a bad idea

 

[gweed123]

Anybody who drives the QEW knows that potential ridership is huge. I have had dozens of coworkers who commuted from Grimsby, Beamsville, etc. to downtown Toronto. There are plenty who may work in Hamilton etc.
The key is to offer a service that is more than equal trade for sitting in traffic in your own private vehicle. To my mind, express has to be part of the solution. To achieve that, some track likely has to be added east of Aldershot.

- Paul

My preferred service pattern would be that the Niagara service run express from Burlington into Union during peaks, but terminate at West Harbour outside of peaks, with LSW being extended to Confederation at all times.

 

[innsertnamehere]

My preferred service pattern would be that the Niagara service run express from Burlington into Union during peaks, but terminate at West Harbour outside of peaks, with LSW being extended to Confederation at all times.

right now the service plan is hourly express trains to Hamilton Centre - perhaps hourly express from Burlington to Niagara would be a better approach. Or perhaps hourly express from Aldershot? I feel like stopping that extra spot to grab Burlington Go would be worth it though.. it's one of the busiest stations in the GO network (I think it's the busiest outside of downtown, behind Clarkson, Oakville, and Pickering).

 

[Allandale25]

Public meetings are coming up for GO Niagara service. Received this via email.

PUBLIC MEETINGS THIS FALL

This November we will again meet with the communities in Grimsby, St. Catharines and Niagara Falls to discuss the progress we have made on the design of the three future GO stations.

We will be part of Niagara Region’s second public meeting on the Casablanca Boulevard and Livingston Avenue extension in Grimsby and lead the other two meetings.

Stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks.

You can visit metrolinx.com/Niagarafor more information about the program.

Please do not hesitate to contact us at Niagara@metrolinx.com if you have any questions.
October 2018

 

[mdrejhon]

It's 35 min instead of 10 min ride. I'll just stay with Bikeshare. No way I'm leaving my $1000 Breezer Downtown 8 locked up anywhere. I could buy a beater bike at Port Credit though, not a bad idea

Beater bikes are your friend for a bikeshareless GO station! Their bike racks are still underutilized.

If your station is in a high theft area, just make sure the wheels have maybe some intentional self marker/grafitti on them, so the wheels don't look even worth stealing either. Marker, spray paint, stickers or sharpie on rim, sidewalls, etc.

 

[reaperexpress]

At least GO Buses only say the English stop name, unlike GO Trains where they say 'Next Stop' and 'Stop Name' in both languages. Takes too much time imo.

Umm, no. The new bilingual announcements are actually shorter than the old English-only announcements.

Stop announcements are deliberately redundant, in case you don't catch the station name the first time. The only difference now is that instead of announcing the stop twice in English, it announces it once each in English and French. This meets bilingual requirements while still providing redundancy for listeners, given that the french announcements include the station name again.

Before:
Now arriving at Port Credit. Port Credit is this stop.

After:
Arriving at Port Credit. Arivé à Port Credit.

There's an example of the old English-only announcements at 4:07 in one of my videos here.

There is literally no downside to these bilingual announcements, unless you genuinely believe that English is at risk of being overtaken by French in Toronto.

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

Public meetings are coming up for GO Niagara service. Received this via email.

Where do I go to subscribe to the emails.

 

[Allandale25]

^ Not sure. I would just email them and asked to be added to the list.

Please do not hesitate to contact us at Niagara@metrolinx.com if you have any questions.

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

^ Not sure. I woiwo just email them and asked to be added to the list.

Thank you!

 

[gweed123]

right now the service plan is hourly express trains to Hamilton Centre - perhaps hourly express from Burlington to Niagara would be a better approach. Or perhaps hourly express from Aldershot? I feel like stopping that extra spot to grab Burlington Go would be worth it though.. it's one of the busiest stations in the GO network (I think it's the busiest outside of downtown, behind Clarkson, Oakville, and Pickering).

Exactly my thinking re: Burlington GO. Even if the Niagara express service isn't full, Burlington will come pretty close to filling it, especially if it's an express train after that. That would free up seats on other trains from Aldershot, so that fewer people getting on at Oakville and Clarkson would have to stand. Also worth noting that quite a few of the cars coming out of Burlington GO in the PM head down Plains Rd and hop on the QEW Niagara-bound, so having GO train service to there may open up parking capacity at Burlington GO as well.

 

[mdrejhon]

The GO RER Business Plan was also suggestive of express between Union-Burlington as one of the many possible stopping plans of a Lakeshore West hourly to Hamilton -- but that may require extra Lakeshore West track. I guess time will tell what level of service will happen.

Provisionally, the hourly train is express to Oakville and allstop afterwards. But that stopping pattern may change later on in the futureif there is large ridership Burlington and beyond.

Now, the $50 million question is.... When will they add West Harbour to the Niagara train service? The complexities of turning West Harbour into a through station must be wrangled with CN and all stakeholders. Ideally this should be happening 2019, but I'm not seeing any further action at the east end of the West Harbour tracks -- I guess that depends on what Ford wants to do.

 

[gweed123]

The GO RER Business Plan was also suggestive of express between Union-Burlington as one of the many possible stopping plans of a Lakeshore West hourly to Hamilton -- but that may require extra Lakeshore West track. I guess time will tell what level of service will happen.

Provisionally, the hourly train is express to Oakville and allstop afterwards. But that stopping pattern may change later on in the futureif there is large ridership Burlington and beyond.

Now, the $50 million question is.... When will they add West Harbour to the Niagara train service? The complexities of turning West Harbour into a through station must be wrangled with CN and all stakeholders. Ideally this should be happening 2019, but I'm not seeing any further action at the east end of the West Harbour tracks -- I guess that depends on what Ford wants to do.

What I envision is this:

AM Peak:

• 30 min service from Niagara Falls to Union (Local: Niagara Falls-Burlington, Express: Burlington-Union)
• 30 min service from Hamilton Centre to Union (Local: Hamilton Centre-Oakville, Express: Oakville-Union)
• 10 min service from Aldershot to Union (Local: Aldershot-Clarkson, Express: Clarkson-Union)
• 10 min service from Oakville to Union (Local: Oakville-Union)

Off-Peak:

• 60 min service from Hamilton Centre to Union (Local: Hamilton Centre-Oakville, Express: Oakville-Union)
• 60 min service from Niagara Falls to West Harbour (Local: Niagara Falls-West Harbour)
• 60 min service from Confederation to Union (Local: Confederation-Oakville, Express: Oakville-Union)
• 30 min service from Aldershot to Union (Local: Aldershot-Union)
• 30 min service from Oakville to Union (Local: Oakville-Union)

During peak periods, there would in essence be an extra 'layer' of express service that went express from Burlington instead of from Oakville. During off-peak periods from Aldershot to Oakville, you would have alternating 30 min express service and 30 min local service (i.e. express at :00 and :30, local at :15 and :45).