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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

WislaHD said:
I think the Midtown Corridor needs to be thought about more as a way to enable greater coverage of commuter/travel options as opposed to a new hub or mainline.

Dumping people onto Dupont and Summerhill far away from their destination in the CBD, onto trains that are already packed (pre-covid) at Lawrence, doesn't seem like the right solution. This is more for that 1 person in 15 who works at Yonge & St Clair/Eglinton rather than downtown, and begins their commute at say Cooksville.
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Once the Ontario Line is up and running, which would most likely happen before this, Line 1 will have some demand eased up, so it shouldnt be as packed.

I feel however like Dupont would be a station commuters would choose over Summerhill anyways, as most of the ridership is coming from the West, why would they stay on the train to go downtown on the Yonge Line when the University Line serves the same purpose.

And there is less ridership on the University Line side already.
 
At the press conference just now at the Whitby Rail Maintenance Facility Ford and Mulroney were asked if the Bowmanville Extension is still on track. The Minister said that it is and that covid-19 has not changed anything. She added that more details will be provided in the future. Earlier in someone else's remarks I think I heard them say that they continue to collaborate with Durham Region and on a TOD strategy for stations. I assume that means they are looking at partnering with the private sector on some stations.
 
The reports for the September 10th Metrolinx board meeting are out. There's a presentation on the increase (or return) of more service.

This also caught my eye. "June marked an important milestone for our GO train services, namely, we are now dispatching trains on nearly all Metrolinx-owned sections of our network. This transition has been planned for some time and will help us to sustain current levels of performance."

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I find it interesting how each corridor has a secondary hub for go buses within toronto or at least near it for the areas completely out of reach from union. Kitchener has Yorkdale/York Mills as well as Lakeshore East (but most of its buses stop at STC so that’s it’s secondary hub basically). Milton and Richmond Hill/Barrie has Finch, Stouffville has Unionville, and Lakeshore West i guess has either Long Branch or Exhibition, but there is a consistent train anyways so there isn’t really a need for a secondary hub
 
Allandale25 said:
The reports for the September 10th Metrolinx board meeting are out. There's a presentation on the increase (or return) of more service.

This also caught my eye. "June marked an important milestone for our GO train services, namely, we are now dispatching trains on nearly all Metrolinx-owned sections of our network. This transition has been planned for some time and will help us to sustain current levels of performance."

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Whats "Rail Term"? I was under the impression that Metrolinx owned the portion from Acton to Kitchener
 
^Railterm is a contractor that runs a shared dispatching office for small railways who can’t afford the expense of having their own dedicated RTC center. You’d be surprised how many shortline customers they have coast to coast. They were the dispatching office for GEXR prior to ML buying the Guelph Sub. ML has not yet assumed dispatching for this territory...... likely a better/ smoother opportunity.will arise once the CTC gets upgraded, and the new sidings cut in.

- Paul
 
robmausser said:
Whats "Rail Term"? I was under the impression that Metrolinx owned the portion from Acton to Kitchener
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Railterm is a full-service rail contractor - they do maintenance (both ROW and rolling stock), operations, staffing and dispatching. Amongst other things, they dispatch all of the VIA-owned CTC.

As of right now, they dispatch also the whole of the Guelph Subdivision, including the Metrolinx-owned portion. They are likely to continue to dispatch the section west of Kitchener, as GO would like to dispatch their own portion. The problem is, apparently, that the CTC that was installed was such a rat's nest that despite working full-tilt on it for over a year they still aren't ready to cut it over to the CN-based system that GO is using elsewhere. And by the sounds of it, they aren't likely to be ready to cut it over until the new year.

Dan
 
smallspy said:
The problem is, apparently, that the CTC that was installed was such a rat's nest that despite working full-tilt on it for over a year they still aren't ready to cut it over to the CN-based system that GO is using elsewhere. And by the sounds of it, they aren't likely to be ready to cut it over until the new year.
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On Saturday I spotted two new signal masts (one per track) in Kitchener just west of Lancaster St that were turned perpendicular to the rails (i.e. not yet active). Perhaps those are a part of straightening out the rat's nest before ML can take over.
 
Story from CBC discussing not only restored services but general timetable changes coming to GO tomorrow.


What I found interesting was that benchmarks of how much service will be operating on each line as of tomorrow, vs Pre-Covid.

Interesting to note that Lakeshore and Milton took the worst hit.

  • On Lakeshore West, Metrolinx will run 71 trips each weekday. That equals 60 per cent of its pre-COVID-19 service.

  • On Lakeshore East, Metrolinx will be running 66 trips each day. That number is still 51.2 per cent of its pre-COVID-19 service, which was 129 per weekday.

  • On the Milton Line, Metrolinx will offer 50 per cent of its pre-COVID-19 levels, with eight trips each weekday.

  • On the Kitchener Line, Metrolinx will run 35 trips each weekday. That's 81 per cent of its pre-COVID-19 service, which was 43 trips per weekday.

  • On the Barrie line, Metrolinx will be resuming most train service to give customers access to rail service throughout most of the day. It will be running 29 trips each weekday. This number is 81 per cent of its pre-COVID-19 service.

  • On the Stouffville line, 94 per cent of pre-COVID-19 rail service will be restored. There will now be 32 trips each weekday.

  • And on the Richmond Hill line, Metrolinx will be running eight trips each weekday. This number is about 67 per cent of its pre-COVID-19 service.
 
Lakeshore still doesn't have express trains. That alone is probably keeping a lot of customers off the trains. Why take a slower local train when traffic is still generally well below pre-pandemic levels and parking downtown is presumably in great abundance?
 
innsertnamehere said:
Lakeshore still doesn't have express trains. That alone is probably keeping a lot of customers off the trains. Why take a slower local train when traffic is still generally well below pre-pandemic levels and parking downtown is presumably in great abundance?
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That, and the continued suspension of Route 16 makes me unwilling to take GO to Hamilton anytime soon.
 
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