News   Mar 31, 2026
City Council March, 2026: Plenty of Rental, Mutli-Phase Redevelopments Approved
 1.1K     2 
News   Mar 31, 2026
Building Toronto’s Skyline Podcast Event to Feature Brad Bradford in Concord
 201     3 
News   Mar 31, 2026
Glittering Forma Rises Higher in the Entertainment District
 1.1K     0 

GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

Northern Light said:
Silly question, but why wouldn't go run a train to Niagara out of Lewis Yard (just past the new GO Stn under construction (Confederation).

That's a lot closer to Niagara, and they do use it store the Hamilton morning trains or at least some of them on weekdays.

Looks like GO has significant room for more tracks there as well.
Click to expand...

Ultimately yes, they do - the size of the property that they own at Lewis Road is massive.

But the bigger issue has to do with equipment. During the summer, GO has 6 coaches that they outfit with bike racks for the Niagara Service. These cars are only used during the weekend runs, and during the week they sit in the yard gathering dust. There is simply no room at the Lewis Rd. facility for them to store the cars or do the switching into and out of the consists, and so all of that is done at Willowbrook.

Dan
 
anb said:
So since ML can’t run all trains to niagara obviously, why not have hourly trains that run express service from union to burlington, and then take the 12B express bus which goes straight to niagara from there (which would also come every hour as well to be a train bus meet service, and it would make sense to allow it to service confederation and St Catherines to complete the corridor)

And also have the 12B go to the park and ride as well, so that vaughan, brampton, missisauga and oakville residents have an easier way to get to niagara via the 40 and 47 go buses
Click to expand...
They do plan to run hourly trains to Confederation though. see link
 
When they do eventually run hourly service to Confederation, I think they should reroute the 12 to serve Hamilton Centre and West Harbour rather than Burlington and Burlington Park & Ride. This would provide a regular bus service from Hamilton to Niagara Region, something that has been sorely lacking since Coach Canada canceled its service in 2014. GO's service would be more successful than the old Coach Canada route because it has dual purposes: not only serving the Hamilton-Niagara market, but also the GTA - Niagara market.

Changing the terminus of Route 12 would make no difference in travel time for trips to Toronto. From Stoney Creek it takes the same time to drive to West Harbour as to Burlington station, and an express train from West Harbour to Union takes the same time as a local train from Burlington.
I think that in order to be successful in the Hamilton-Niagara market, the bus needs to be faster than it is today. That's why I think they should skip Stoney Creek and Beamsville Park & Ride. I think most of the ridership from Stoney Creek is heading toward Toronto or Hamilton so they can take the train instead. Beamsville is a total waste of time - what little ridership it has could simply drive to Grimsby. In both cases, I suspect that removing the stops would result in a net increase in ridership thanks to the faster service.

Niagara2021b.jpg


Previous service, for comparison:
Niagara2019b.jpg
 
reaperexpress said:
True! And even if they don't catch the 6:39 express, they could certainly catch the 6:47 local which still gets to Union 5 minutes before the Niagara train.



If you still don't understand why the current plan terminates 15-minute service in Bramalea, then I recommend looking at this rail ownership map (and this more up-to-date but less detailed one) and rereading the post you're quoting as well as Drum118's response to it.
Click to expand...

No i understand, i'm just saying they should've pushed a bigger priority project to both own the rail and service for 15 minutes. I get why its not happening, at least not right now
 
Haydenpoon said:
They do plan to run hourly trains to Confederation though. see link
Click to expand...
Then have the 12B go from Burlington park and ride to here and then full express to niagara, that seems like the biggest win situation for the entire corridor.

reaperexpress said:
When they do eventually run hourly service to Confederation, I think they should reroute the 12 to serve Hamilton Centre and West Harbour rather than Burlington and Burlington Park & Ride. This would provide a regular bus service from Hamilton to Niagara Region, something that has been sorely lacking since Coach Canada canceled its service in 2014. GO's service would be more successful than the old Coach Canada route because it has dual purposes: not only serving the Hamilton-Niagara market, but also the GTA - Niagara market.

Changing the terminus of Route 12 would make no difference in travel time for trips to Toronto. From Stoney Creek it takes the same time to drive to West Harbour as to Burlington station, and an express train from West Harbour to Union takes the same time as a local train from Burlington.
I think that in order to be successful in the Hamilton-Niagara market, the bus needs to be faster than it is today. That's why I think they should skip Stoney Creek and Beamsville Park & Ride. I think most of the ridership from Stoney Creek is heading toward Toronto or Hamilton so they can take the train instead. Beamsville is a total waste of time - what little ridership it has could simply drive to Grimsby. In both cases, I suspect that removing the stops would result in a net increase in ridership thanks to the faster service.

View attachment 260930

Previous service, for comparison:
View attachment 260929
Click to expand...

Same thing with this. Having the 12 rerouted to hamilton, and the 12B rerouted to the park and ride (doesn't even have to serve Burlington go because there would be no point besides potentially getting to toronto 15-30 mins earlier because of the RER), would be the two things i would propose. Just imagine a complete express service between richmond hill and niagara via the 40 and 12B, this is what we get.


Dundas/407 P&R->Confederation GO->St Catherines GO->Stanley/420 P&R->Niagara Falls Bus Terminal

That just works perfectly in my eyes
 
Last edited:
Looks like 20-30 comfortably from that photo?

EDIT: AMA says it's 18.
 
Last edited:
smallspy said:
Ultimately yes, they do - the size of the property that they own at Lewis Road is massive.

But the bigger issue has to do with equipment. During the summer, GO has 6 coaches that they outfit with bike racks for the Niagara Service. These cars are only used during the weekend runs, and during the week they sit in the yard gathering dust. There is simply no room at the Lewis Rd. facility for them to store the cars or do the switching into and out of the consists, and so all of that is done at Willowbrook.

Dan
Click to expand...

Would it not be feasible to run that Niagara train as the last nightly (or 2nd last maybe) westbound Lakeshore West train? Deadhead that train to Union, have the incoming westbound LSE train go out of service at Union, and have that train pick up the run. After Aldershot, it could then deadhead to Lewis.
 
reaperexpress said:
When they do eventually run hourly service to Confederation, I think they should reroute the 12 to serve Hamilton Centre and West Harbour rather than Burlington and Burlington Park & Ride. This would provide a regular bus service from Hamilton to Niagara Region, something that has been sorely lacking since Coach Canada canceled its service in 2014. GO's service would be more successful than the old Coach Canada route because it has dual purposes: not only serving the Hamilton-Niagara market, but also the GTA - Niagara market.

Changing the terminus of Route 12 would make no difference in travel time for trips to Toronto. From Stoney Creek it takes the same time to drive to West Harbour as to Burlington station, and an express train from West Harbour to Union takes the same time as a local train from Burlington.
I think that in order to be successful in the Hamilton-Niagara market, the bus needs to be faster than it is today. That's why I think they should skip Stoney Creek and Beamsville Park & Ride. I think most of the ridership from Stoney Creek is heading toward Toronto or Hamilton so they can take the train instead. Beamsville is a total waste of time - what little ridership it has could simply drive to Grimsby. In both cases, I suspect that removing the stops would result in a net increase in ridership thanks to the faster service.
Click to expand...

Interesting proposal. I would think that terminating the 12 at either Confederation GO or at Eastgate Square would be more efficient though. I would think that the majority of people from Niagara would be wanting to transfer to the train, so that connection should be made at Confederation. For those wanting to go to Downtown Hamilton, running the route a bit further down Centennial and then terminating at Eastgate would provide a good connection to the B-Line for those wanting to head downtown.
 
^if this were to happen then, then why not add a stop at aldershot for the 40 and 47 to connect with, that would honestly compliment the whole region and anyone from anywhere in the gta can get to niagara at ease, and vice versa if niagara region riders wanted to get to pearson/square one/brampton more efficently
 
gweed123 said:
Would it not be feasible to run that Niagara train as the last nightly (or 2nd last maybe) westbound Lakeshore West train? Deadhead that train to Union, have the incoming westbound LSE train go out of service at Union, and have that train pick up the run. After Aldershot, it could then deadhead to Lewis.
Click to expand...

No. The bike trains are configured differently than normal ones, and don't have the capacity needed for the service.

Dan
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top