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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

Budget envelope. Only so many dollars to spend.
That almost sounds like TTC rolling out the traffic congestion to explain everything. :)

On the bright side, with the modern signalling, adding signalized sidings, interlockings and double track is a hell of a lot easier and faster
Very good news. One wonders at what point, we start to see some gains in travel times.

They aren't double-tracking that now though ... or did I miss something big?

Gosh ... VIA restoring the 90-minute morning run to Kitchener, that ran onto London, would be nice.
 
View attachment 198166
For the morning/midday eastbound trips the two Kitchener trains added are extensions of current trips running but time shifted 5 minutes, im not too sure if they are going to go for the 7:57 being in mount pleasant by the current 9:00 time or just add 5 minutes to the existing train. Same thing with the 14:57 train running express after malton. It would be very good however if it did save the 5 minutes and ran express, that would be a total time of 1 hour 42 minutes to Toronto which would be quite attractive for an afternoon option. I'm not sure if they will do anything with the bramalea deadhead but i put it in just for reference

View attachment 198167
I just realized. What happens to the 14:53 union departure, as that consist used to turn into the 15:54 mount pleasant train however now its using the same consist as the 12:53. The only solution i could come up with is have a 17:00 train making all stops to union. With that and making the current Bramalea deadhead into a revenue train technically Bramalea has all day 2 way except for missing a 19:00 and 20:00 departure and Mount Pleasant has a 4 hour gap.
 
Then no, to the best of my knowledge a map like that doesn't exist. Maybe someone out there has the Photoshop skills to mash them together.

Its unfortunate ill have to do that since each line has the other lines "greyed" out behind the prominent one. Its clear a master file of all the maps exists somewhere at Metrolinx.

EXO(AMT) has a beautiful map of their system to scale, we should too.


198394
 
I don't think anybody would want a to-scale GO map, it would make the huge system harder to understand ngl

Im not saying it should replace the not-to-scale map, but I think its VERY important for a regional transit system to outline what region the trains go to.

A to scale map overlayed on the regions gives a better contextual understanding to where the trains service.
 
I've taken the 540 and 605 from Kitchener and there's a reasonable number of people on both. I usually took the 1535 from Union and a significant number of people rode to the end. Maybe 50-100?
That seems typical for the Kitchener trains, though, it depends on the day of the week. Far more people take the train on fridays than other days of the week. Depending on the time of year, I usually count:
10 for the 5:15
40 for 5:40
100 for 6:05
40 for 6:45
100 (150 for Fridays and mondays) for 7:10

(Haven't taken the 15:35)
150-200 (general) to 200-300 (fridays) 16:50
40 for the 17:27
40 for the 18:00
50 (80-100 for Fridays, with a significant portion being long-distance travellers) for the 18:50
 
Kitchener averages 237 trips a day - But unlike the TTC ridership numbers I believe these are only departures (presumably a similar amount of arrivals), which means about 47 people on average per train.
 
Kitchener averages 237 trips a day - But unlike the TTC ridership numbers I believe these are only departures (presumably a similar amount of arrivals), which means about 47 people on average per train.
I'm honestly really sceptical of those numbers. Personally, I think they might only be counting PRESTO trips, which works for almost every station except Kitchener, Acton, and Guelph (since presto isn't adopted in those areas and commuting via GO to those cities is considered somewhat absurd, meaning trains are often used by occasional users).

Nevertheless, assuming those numbers are correct, they make sense. There's going to be huge variability between train users per train, especially at Kitchener station. The people who mainly use the service are either coming home/heading to U of T/UW for school, commuters to Guelph, people travelling to Pearson Airport/VIA @ Union, Commuters to Brampton, and people taking daytrips. I wouldn't be surprised if only 40-50% of trips made by people getting on/off at Kitchener actually commute to Union Station on a day to day basis.
 
That almost sounds like TTC rolling out the traffic congestion to explain everything. :)

You have a better explanation then?

Or maybe you can tell the engineers and project supers how they could have built the track for which they had no budget or authority to do so?

Very good news. One wonders at what point, we start to see some gains in travel times.

There are going to be some time savings with this current round of service changes. Presumably there will be more in the new year, once they've managed to fix up more of the line.

They aren't double-tracking that now though ... or did I miss something big?

No, not double-tracking yet. They are improving the track along the line, improving some of the sidings and signalizing them, upgrading grade crossing equipment and building fencing where they can. The hope is that once all the work has been done that they will be able to run trains at 90mph.

Gosh ... VIA restoring the 90-minute morning run to Kitchener, that ran onto London, would be nice.

The time slots are still there for VIA to use, provided that they get the funding (gasp) for the service to be reinstated.

Dan
 
The number they are quoting is 8% more service vs 1 year ago.

Here's the presser:


Quick Facts


  • Starting August 31, 2019, Metrolinx will add 84 new weekly GO train trips across the Kitchener, Lakeshore East and Lakeshore West GO train lines and extend 65 weekly trips across the Lakeshore West and Kitchener lines, including reinstating evening train service on the Stouffville line.
  • When these new and extended train trips go into service, Metrolinx will have increased GO train service by eight per cent over the past year.
  • The new train service includes 50 weekly train trips on the Kitchener line, bringing late-night weekday service between Kitchener GO and Toronto’s Union Station and hourly weekday evening service between the City of Brampton and Union Station
  • The existing 6:00 p.m. trip on the Kitchener line from Union Station will now run express to Bramalea GO before continuing to Kitchener GO. Customers travelling to Bloor, Weston, Etobicoke North and Malton GO stations can take a new 5:45 p.m. trip from Union Station
  • On the Lakeshore West line, there will be new year-round weekend GO train service between Niagara Falls and Union Station.
  • Customers travelling out of West Harbour GO will have twice as many options during weekday rush-hour periods, with three existing trips extended to serve the station and a new 4:45 p.m. trip from Union Station running express to Clarkson GO before serving all stops to West Harbour GO
  • Fifteen new weekly trips on the Lakeshore East line will be offered midday
  • Evening train service on the Stouffville line from Union Station, which was suspended for important construction work along the corridor, will be reinstated and extended to Mount Joy GO.
 
Lakeshore East is already at 15M service! 15 more midday trips?

I might have thought extending 15M service into the evenings or weekend daytime first........

****

They barely took any questions at the presser.
 
The number they are quoting is 8% more service vs 1 year ago.

Here's the presser:


Quick Facts


  • Starting August 31, 2019, Metrolinx will add 84 new weekly GO train trips across the Kitchener, Lakeshore East and Lakeshore West GO train lines and extend 65 weekly trips across the Lakeshore West and Kitchener lines, including reinstating evening train service on the Stouffville line.
  • When these new and extended train trips go into service, Metrolinx will have increased GO train service by eight per cent over the past year.
  • The new train service includes 50 weekly train trips on the Kitchener line, bringing late-night weekday service between Kitchener GO and Toronto’s Union Station and hourly weekday evening service between the City of Brampton and Union Station
  • The existing 6:00 p.m. trip on the Kitchener line from Union Station will now run express to Bramalea GO before continuing to Kitchener GO. Customers travelling to Bloor, Weston, Etobicoke North and Malton GO stations can take a new 5:45 p.m. trip from Union Station
  • On the Lakeshore West line, there will be new year-round weekend GO train service between Niagara Falls and Union Station.
  • Customers travelling out of West Harbour GO will have twice as many options during weekday rush-hour periods, with three existing trips extended to serve the station and a new 4:45 p.m. trip from Union Station running express to Clarkson GO before serving all stops to West Harbour GO
  • Fifteen new weekly trips on the Lakeshore East line will be offered midday
  • Evening train service on the Stouffville line from Union Station, which was suspended for important construction work along the corridor, will be reinstated and extended to Mount Joy GO.

Has the schedule as of August 31st been posted?
 

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