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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

Allandale25 said:
Our of curiosity, what would stop those deadheads from becoming revenue service? Even if they skipped stations? There's a very early morning train from Union express to Oshawa that I can't imagine has a lot of riders. Or would these deadheads likely be converted to revenue service in the future?
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This will all change when the fourth track and 401/409 tunnel are complete, with new station platforms. The deadheading is partly because Etobicoke North is a one-track station, and partly to stay out of the way of UPE. With one more track, and the added station work, these limitations will be gone.

There may still be deadheading to shift equipment quicker than can be done with in-service stopping trains, but Mr Verster seems intent on capitalising on equipment moves to boost seat-miles. I expect equipment moves won't happen if they can be useful in-service trains.

- Paul
 
treplow said:
Indeed. My guess is that Via's poor quality signal is mainly due to the rural areas their trains pass through, conditions that the (mostly) GTA confined GO trains won't have to deal with.
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Its also the fact that they overly ambitiously made the system into an entertainment portal, with movies and tv shows on demand for free, like a plane. Using a cell tower based wifi system that cant handle that kind of bandwidth.

The movies etc on a plane are loaded into a server on the plane itself, but I did some IP snooping with VIAs system and every request goes over the cell network.

GO wont have this kind of premium offering.
 
treplow said:
Indeed. My guess is that Via's poor quality signal is mainly due to the rural areas their trains pass through, conditions that the (mostly) GTA confined GO trains won't have to deal with.
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Out of curiosity, does the infamous Lorne Park gap still exist? I remember that was the bane of Lakeshore West riders for many years through the 00's. Every service provider had a coverage gap for about a three minute travel segment half way between Port Credit and Clarkson. No problems anywhere else on the line; but that one spot was dark for a solid ten years before I stopped using the train and moved back to Toronto.
 
Jonny5 said:
Out of curiosity, does the infamous Lorne Park gap still exist? I remember that was the bane of Lakeshore West riders for many years through the 00's. Every service provider had a coverage gap for about a three minute travel segment half way between Port Credit and Clarkson. No problems anywhere else on the line; but that one spot was dark for a solid ten years before I stopped using the train and moved back to Toronto.
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I just rode through there with no issues.
 
crs1026 said:
This will all change when the fourth track and 401/409 tunnel are complete, with new station platforms. The deadheading is partly because Etobicoke North is a one-track station, and partly to stay out of the way of UPE. With one more track, and the added station work, these limitations will be gone.

There may still be deadheading to shift equipment quicker than can be done with in-service stopping trains, but Mr Verster seems intent on capitalising on equipment moves to boost seat-miles. I expect equipment moves won't happen if they can be useful in-service trains.

- Paul
Click to expand...
i stalked the trains on Gotracker.ca and i made this chart to visualize the trains that go through the corridor and deadheads
202218

202219

Red denotes deadheads and the time is when it appears in the Go tracker that it appears at the station. Or Disappears off the tracker.

Also likely part of the reason the 18:00 union train was made express was that if it made all stops it would conflict with the new 18:27 EB train. So in order to put more trains some trains going counter rush would have to skip etobicoke north.
 
Jonny5 said:
Out of curiosity, does the infamous Lorne Park gap still exist? I remember that was the bane of Lakeshore West riders for many years through the 00's. Every service provider had a coverage gap for about a three minute travel segment half way between Port Credit and Clarkson. No problems anywhere else on the line; but that one spot was dark for a solid ten years before I stopped using the train and moved back to Toronto.
Click to expand...
It was gone a few years ago if you use a 700Mhz-spectrum compatible phone (i.e. all phones in last 3 years) and you sit on the north edge of the train. I think it has improved since.

I have way more problems with Union Station platform level at peak, the networks still get way overloaded there.
 
Also, From:

In June, the Whitby Parking Replacement Initial Business Case (IBC) that supports the Modular Parking Pilot was completed and received approval from the Investment Panel. This IBC contemplates the addition of 200 parking spaces at Whitby GO Station through the use of modular parking. Work has now begun on procurement and design of the system with a target in-service date set for Summer 2021.
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Relevant to future service expansion, from the Capital Projects report to the Sept 12 Board Mtg of Metrolinx:


•Detailed Design began on August 13, 2019 for the project to allow for increased service levels and line speed between Kitchener and Bramalea..

-For the extension to Niagara, the Canadian National (CN) Railway #11 Bayview Crossover was placed into service on July 7, 2019. Construction work on the corridor between Bayview Junction and West Harbour Station commenced on August 7, 2019.

-Works within the Stouffville corridor to accommodate two tracks are well underway for completion by 2020. The west side noise wall was completed on July 15, 2019.
 
canarob said:
I hope part of this is the rumoured Stouffville weekend service.
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If my math is generally right, there are currently some 2,328 total train trips in a 7 day week. (Yes I went through each schedule and counted!) Even going back to April 2019 as the paper suggests, 16% works out to be well over 300 weekly trips. I don't know where they could add that many trips per week without both the Stouffville and Kitchener lines getting some significant added services, like, say, a full hourly weekend schedule which could possibly add in the neighbourhood of 120 trips combined for Sat & Sun. Add some more service to Barrie Line on weekends, infill some counter-peak service (plausible but highly unlikely by April) and squeeze in a few more rush hour trips across the system... Not to get anyone's hopes up, my own included, but hopefully such an increase would include both Stouffville and Kitchener weekend service.
 
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