GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

[hbl33]

Now that is an improvement (for a short while.) What should be the immediate focus though so far, is electrification, frequent services along Milton, Georgetown and Barrie lines. I'm hoping that rail extension to Waterloo/Kitchener is to follow the suit in few years after that.

I find it amazing that GO service improvements are more rapid and steady than TTC counterparts. While GO frequency services are expanding and increasing, those cronies at TTC are sitting there doing nothing but talk about the hype of Transit City.

 

[Swarley]

GO is certainly on the right track... no pun intended... but keep in mind the improvements they're making are a lot cheaper than some of the TTC's options - ATO, new subway trains, DLR, etc. Obviously projects like electrification and the GSSE are in the 100's of millions or billions of $ but we will see if these get funded.
Politics as always plays a role too... notice where the majority of GO's customers are coming from, the 905. They definitely have more pull than the perma-liberal/NDP 416.

 

[Voltz]

I find it amazing that GO service improvements are more rapid and steady than TTC counterparts. While GO frequency services are expanding and increasing, those cronies at TTC are sitting there doing nothing but talk about the hype of Transit City.

Are you kidding me?

 

[Platform 27]

GO is certainly on the right track... no pun intended... but keep in mind the improvements they're making are a lot cheaper than some of the TTC's options - ATO, new subway trains, DLR, etc. Obviously projects like electrification and the GSSE are in the 100's of millions or billions of $ but we will see if these get funded.
Politics as always plays a role too... notice where the majority of GO's customers are coming from, the 905. They definitely have more pull than the perma-liberal/NDP 416.

I mostly agree with this. GO's improvements over the past five years have basically been a lot of smaller projects that have been popping up pretty steadily and have come, at least in the context of provincial budgets, pretty cheaply. In the last year, though, the overall balance of spending seems to shifting to slower-arriving but bigger-ticket items, like the jump out to Kitchener and the Union redo. For instance, after building about a station a year for the last 9 years, GO's now in a fallow period that looks to last from Lincolnville (Fall 2008) until central Barrie (spring 2011).

While we haven't seen spectacular quantities of shiny new TTC capital purchases in the last five years, that's largely because cash has been flowing into a round of big ticket items that will roll out over the next five---a multi-billion dollar subway (which, despite all the attention drawn to its 905 terminus, is mostly in the 416), a replacement of ~50% of the subway fleet, a re-signalling of ~70% of the subway, a replacement of 100% of the streetcar fleet, and 2 or 3 LRT lines.

FWIW, Georgetown South is funded and, if we're going to be playing the Mom-Johnny-got-more-pop-than-me game, probably should be filed more as a goodie for 416 voters than 905ers when you consider the main impetus for it has been the Union-Pearson component. I'd say the only straightforward example of the 905 benefitting from bald-faced politicking lately has been the big swath of money Harper threw GO to build multi-storey parkades in Oakville and Pickering and so on. Thankfully, the pork-barrel express to Peterborough has managed to be corralled into a holding pattern by Metrolinx.

 

[unimaginative2]

I am completely and utterly baffled by the opposition to the Peterborough rail service. While I certainly don't like the politician through whose riding the line will pass, it's a long-overdue project. I'd support new service on any rail line in the GTA.

 

[hbl33]

I am completely and utterly baffled by the opposition to the Peterborough rail service. While I certainly don't like the politician through whose riding the line will pass, it's a long-overdue project. I'd support new service on any rail line in the GTA.

I think that is more likely to be completed before Trans-hype City ever completes in the next 15 years.

 

[andrewpmk]

The Peterborough train line will have few riders, even the existing GO bus is nowhere near full. Not surprising given that hardly anyone is willing to commute 2 hours to Toronto. It's a total waste of money - there are many, many more important transit projects in the Toronto area.

 

[Second_in_pie]

The Peterborough train line will have few riders, even the existing GO bus is nowhere near full. Not surprising given that hardly anyone is willing to commute 2 hours to Toronto. It's a total waste of money - there are many, many more important transit projects in the Toronto area.

Yeah, this is the big controversy. It's pretty much a 100% political thing, and I think busses can serve the route quite adequately. Unless some more links start popping up between Peterborough and the GTA, I don't really know what would make sense.
The only rail service I could see working would be a holiday rail. I'd put this on the Barrie and Lakeshore West lines too, but those already have service, and will be getting all day service shortly. It'd certainly help with local tourism, the Niagara Peninsula as a destination, and Barrie and Peterborough as gateways to Georgian Bay and Muskoka, and Kwartha Lakes respectively.

 

[dunkalunk]

IMHO, the Kitchener GO expansion, or regular GO train service on the CN line through Hamilton, are much higher on the priority list than a Peterborough connection. With the Georgetown Extension you'd be looking at adding about 400 000-500 000 people to GO's service area while Peterborough is an additional 20km and you'd be picking up maybe 100 000, with almost nothing served between Markam and Peterborough. And additional service to Hamilton avoiding the headaches with the hunter street tunnel and train storage seems like a no-brainer.

[edit] Del Mastro is also gunning for a high speed rail line to be built through his riding, regardless of the population base beside the lake, and additional costs of building through the canadian shield.

 

[SunriseChampion]

They've started construction of the highway overpass, new retail, bus bays, and station building at Pickering.

Finally. I almost cried when I got there Saturday morning and saw them setting up the site.

Due to be complete in 2011.

 

[doady]

The Peterborough train line will have few riders, even the existing GO bus is nowhere near full. Not surprising given that hardly anyone is willing to commute 2 hours to Toronto.

Not all GO service has to be for commutes, does it? As long as it serves Downtown Peterborough, I have no problem with it.

 

[Fresh Start]

How big is the population of Peterborough and how much demand level is there for this service? 600ppd, like the Barrie Line?

 

[andrewpmk]

The city of Peterborough itself: 74,898. The Census Metropolitan Area: 116,570. Significantly smaller than Barrie. I'd expect demand on a train line to Peterborough to be much lower than Barrie because it is further away from Toronto than Barrie, and there are no intermediate destinations between Scarborough and Peterborough along the train line. Furthermore, the bus service would have to remain to serve the Peterborough-Oshawa market. Given that the Peterborough line would require upgrading a long stretch of track, while Barrie only required upgrading a fairly short stretch of track between Barrie and Bradford on an already existing line, I'd find it very hard to believe that a train line to Peterborough would be used to anywhere near capacity.

 

[Northern Magus]

I think it's important to keep an eye on the big picture here with respect to integrating the Golden Horseshoe by rail.

In the medium to longer term, I'd argue that regular GO rail service would help spur development in Peterborough, and help reduce highway gridlock during cottage season. Once the price of oil rebounds to $150+ per barrel, the outcry for serving these areas by public transit will probably be deafening, and because of the 5-10 year lead times involved in setting up the infrastructure, it's not a bad idea to start sooner rather than later.

Barrie has a much easier business case justifying this service. But I'd even argue that GO service to places like Wasaga isn't a bad idea either, over the next decade or two.

 

[elitehollywood]

I think it's important to keep an eye on the big picture here with respect to integrating the Golden Horseshoe by rail.

In the medium to longer term, I'd argue that regular GO rail service would help spur development in Peterborough, and help reduce highway gridlock during cottage season. Once the price of oil rebounds to $150+ per barrel, the outcry for serving these areas by public transit will probably be deafening, and because of the 5-10 year lead times involved in setting up the infrastructure, it's not a bad idea to start sooner rather than later.

Barrie has a much easier business case justifying this service. But I'd even argue that GO service to places like Wasaga isn't a bad idea either, over the next decade or two.

you could get service to wasaga if the government or the short line operator decides to ever upgrade the tracks past barrie to collingwood.