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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)
- Thread starter drum118
- Start date
Jonny5
Senior Member
An interesting comment on that article:
It's one of those fine grained consequences not thought of at the macro level by planners. I don't have kids but a close friend with a four year old has noted to me many times that daycares almost universally charge obscene 'late pick-up' fees. If it closes at 6:00 and you show up at 6:02 they will ding you for $30. If you get there at 6:32 they will slap you with a $60 fee. That sounds ridiculous but is apparently very common.
These random changes of a few minutes in train times really can disrupt a lot of people's lives when they are forced to take a much later train as a consequence. Even ten minutes can make a huge difference.
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I agree, though I think it should be the trip patterns that are lettered. It would change from "I'm taking a Lakeshore West train, operating express to Clarkson, all stops to Hamilton", to "I'm taking the H Train on the Lakeshore West Corridor". Within that H Train designation the stop pattern would be displayed on system maps.
For Niagara, it would be the N Train, which would have a different express-local pattern. If you wanted to get from say Burlington to Union, you could look at your stop on the system map and see that you could take any of the N, H, W (Lakeshore West express), or L (Lakeshore East+West Local) to get there. However, if you were going from say Long Branch, only the L Train would be available.
This would likely require a standardization of which stations are considered 'express' and which are considered 'local' though. You couldn't have one express run that turned express at station X and the next express run at the next station down the line (like Lakeshore West used to do, with some starting after Oakville and some after Clarkson).
Allandale25
Senior Member
The battle over the loss of the 450PM express train on the Kitchener Line continues.
https://www.facebook.com/catherinef...UY385Le5cgZGNGVeu_o3K8Q_sMLWWWHZpAn&__tn__=-R
https://www.facebook.com/catherinef...UY385Le5cgZGNGVeu_o3K8Q_sMLWWWHZpAn&__tn__=-R
Towered
Senior Member
So if I want to spend a day in Niagara Falls without driving, I have to wait until after 5pm to take a GO train there? How does that make sense?
hw621
Senior Member
Spend the next day there lol
innsertnamehere
Superstar
take the bus which is faster anyway. The 5:15pm union departure arrives at Niagara at 7:42. Or you can take *the exact same train*, get a bus connection in Burlington, and arrive at Niagara at 7:11, 31 minutes earlier than the train.
To be fair, this new service isn't meant for GTHA -> Niagara trips/commutes, it's meant for Niagara -> GTHA commutes (AM peak direction). GO hasn't made any claims that it's trying to service the Niagara Falls tourism industry with this new service.
Allandale25
Senior Member
robmausser
Senior Member
nfitz
Superstar
The first GO Train is at that time, but there's GO Buses to Niagara Falls all day long with 22 departures from Union from 5:30 AM to 10:43 PM - it's a guaranteed connection in Burlington.
Or if you want to take the train, VIA/Amtrak departs Union at 8:20 am and arrives Niagara Falls at 10:16 am. The return trip is at 5:45 pm arriving at 7:41 pm - though probably a bit iffy, given the train comes from New York City. But you can check to see if it's running okay, and take the 6:12 pm bus if it isn't (arriving Union at 9:11 pm).
You have to take the 5 pm train, not the 5:15 train, to catch the 6:01 pm bus from Burlington (the 5:15 doesn't get to Burlington until 6:06 pm). So only 16 minutes longer travel time on the train - and 5 minutes slower on the bus for St. Catharines, because there are only NF express buses, not St. Catharines express buses.
Once they stop padding the train schedule by 20 minutes for the reverse manoeuvre at West Harbour, the train will be faster - and presumably more predictable.
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Allandale25
Senior Member
TOareaFan
Superstar
Can't both be true? They went from 4 trains a day to 5....so that is a 25% increase.....but that statement and "they should have more" are not mutually exclusive statements.
crs1026
Superstar
I forget who said - Lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Yes, the 25% statistic is certainly mathematically valid. My point is that it's a very poor metric of progress to improved service on the Kitchener line, and if that metric were stated in a more truthful manner, the addition of 1 train a day would not be credibly cited as success, or even significant progress..
But then politics is at least 99% self serving data these days. Five days a week, anyways. At peak.
- Paul
Streety McCarface
Senior Member
If this doesn't get people pissed over the freight bypass cancellation, I honestly don't know what will. 20K people on a line per day, while it isn't much compared to a subway station, it's evident that any increase in service needs to be met with adequate capacity. Why can't Metrolinx understand this?
I think the biggest problem is that they have trains coming back to Kitchener when we don't really need trains. We need a train heading to Kitchener in the morning and one heading back to Toronto in the evening. Currently, there are like 1000+ university students that head back to Toronto every Friday. One shuttle train to Toronto on Friday evening and one on Monday morning would do wonders for these people. It's certainly better than the 60+ GO Buses, 10+ Greyhounds, 5+ Megabuses, and 30+ Student Federation buses that make a trip every Friday. Weekend service would also be much more useful than a. 3:35 trip. We don't mind if CN has to run trains there, there is no reason for that train to head to Kitchener.
GRT doesn't run buses at 5 AM and no one gets off work at 3 pm. The only use this might serve are U of T students that have families in Waterloo, and even then, the 4:50 was a much better alternative.