GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

[denfromoakvillemilton]

About time.

Next up - Brampton and fill in the gaps on the Stouffville and Barrie.

 

[Northern Light]

About time.

Next up - Brampton and fill in the gaps on the Stouffville and Barrie.

Contra-flow services in rush hour should be plausible on Stouffville now, I think.........but @smallspy would likely know better.

Barrie, and K-W will likely need a round of track projects completed before that happens.

I think K-W weekend service is likely the next big addition.

I also would not be surprised to see 15M service on Lakeshore during peak-weekend times.

 

[ARG1]

I recall RER initially was to include all day service to the Hamilton GO Centre. Is this an indication that is no longer going to happen? West Harbour's location is slightly less convenient with respect to downtown, LRT connection, etc. Has WH been chosen over HGC because of issues with CPR?

I'm not sure about what was promised back in the day, but with the GO Expansion Business case there really isn't anything about all day service to HGC.

West Harbour really is primarily chosen because it has actual trackspace to run more service. This is also primarily the reason why I advocated for either building the A-Line simultaneously to the B-Line, or maybe downscaling the B-Line to BRT to be able to fund the A-Line because that way you are able to properly connect the all day GO services to the Hamilton "RT" network. The only all day stations Hamilton is going to have is West Harbour and Confederation, and both won't be served by the B-Line, and the latter being planned to serve by.... jesus christ that's a long time from now:

 

[Allandale25]

Interesting

https://twitter.com/x/status/1419711141333327878

 

[crs1026]

^I haven't looked to see if the link is still alive somewhere, but in my files I found a slide deck from a ML PIC on Jan 26 2010 for the Niagara service EA. At that time the study limits were from Aldershot to Niagara Falls.

However, construction of the triple track from Burlington West to Bayview was under way by 2006. Things kind of stalled out from that point for a loooong time.

- Paul

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

Contra-flow services in rush hour should be plausible on Stouffville now, I think.........but @smallspy would likely know better.

Barrie, and K-W will likely need a round of track projects completed before that happens.

I think K-W weekend service is likely the next big addition.

I also would not be surprised to see 15M service on Lakeshore during peak-weekend times.

Ok thanks. Glad to hear. I think KW will be the biggest challenge. Although if this is an indication, CN maybe be more flexible than thought at first.

 

[christiesplits]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1418662014755512325

Good news that the Hamilton Express likely isn't impacted.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1419691133685354501

 

[Amare]

If they truly realize the route's importance let's see if they keep the 16's service at every 30mins. Hourly service to West Harbour is nice, but not at the expense of cutting service by half on the 16.

 

[crs1026]

Contra-flow services in rush hour should be plausible on Stouffville now, I think.........but @smallspy would likely know better.

Stouffville (Mount Joy, to be more precise) is nowhere near ready. I would say maybe next spring.

- The second track is still being ballasted north of Kennedy
- Agincourt and Milliken stations are progressing, but nowhere near ready for two track operation
- The two creek bridges are still far from completion
- There are gaps in the second track in various locations
- Passing track at Mount Joy is still in procurement
- Crossovers south of the 401 are in place but signalling not cut in

- Paul

 

[Northern Light]

Stouffville (Mount Joy, to be more precise) is nowhere near ready. I would say maybe next spring.

- The second track is still being ballasted north of Kennedy
- Agincourt and Milliken stations are progressing, but nowhere near ready for two track operation
- The two creek bridges are still far from completion
- There are gaps in the second track in various locations
- Passing track at Mount Joy is still in procurement
- Crossovers south of the 401 are in place but signalling not cut in

- Paul

I was only assuming contra-flow to Unionville; that said; even that clearly seems even that is out-of-reach, for now.

Though, I don't see why the project isn't further along at this point.

 

[Allandale25]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1419763603440377862

 

[Northern Light]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1419763603440377862

Direct link to the article associated with the Tweet above:

Blog: Coleman's Notes on Hamilton GO Service Expansion to West Harbour

There's a deliberate campaign to fix public transit to and within Hamilton - all-day GO service is the latest announcement of this campaign.

www.thepublicrecord.ca

From that article

That is the sort of non-answer nonsense that should get someone tossed from cabinet.
She should know the answer; the sum would not be shocking; if she didn't know, the correct answer was "I don't have that off the top of my head, but someone will get that for you"

Even worse, the reporter of this piece followed up with Mx:

*******

Well now, this IS an interesting tidbit:

*******

Confederation Station was also asked about at the presser, but got a non-answer:

"Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster answered that GO is working to add the tracks out of West Harbour and improvements needed to get all-day train service to the “Confederation” station and beyond."

 

[crs1026]

I was only assuming contra-flow to Unionville; that said; even that clearly seems even that is out-of-reach, for now.

Though, I don't see why the project isn't further along at this point.

My impression is that the contract to double the track was let in a hurry, before anyone had really digested what the station requirements would be. At Milliken, a fair bit of second track with new concrete ties was laid and surfaced southwards from Steeles towards McNicholl - .... and then the segment through the station was torn up, when the tunnelling for the station work started. It never saw a train.

There seem to have been glitches with the creek bridges, which is the part that has languished the most. At one point, the track contractor was working nights and weekends to get things done, and was said to be demanding uninterruped work blocks, ie bustitutions, to meet the original schedule. Whatever premium-cost work was performed is a bit regrettable now. I wonder if ML has even enforced the time lines for the original deliverables.

So what started out as a rush job has become a slow plod. With the time pressure off, due to the late-arriving station work that reset the timelines for opening day, there's not much point in rushing to finish other things.

This one would be good fodder for an A-G inquiry.

- Paul

 

[ssiguy2]

All day service to Hamilton is certainly nice to have but I don't think it will really get much ridership and due to this, it could start bleeding funds from other services.

Until they bring in full fare integration, these off-hour improvements really don't mean much to the average person. For upper income suburbanites who use GO commuter for work, still will use their cars outside of it and lower income people can't afford to take GO no matter when or where it runs.

 

[ARG1]

All day service to Hamilton is certainly nice to have but I don't think it will really get much ridership and due to this, it could start bleeding funds from other services.

Until they bring in full fare integration, these off-hour improvements really don't mean much to the average person. For upper income suburbanites who use GO commuter for work, still will use their cars outside of it and lower income people can't afford to take GO no matter when or where it runs.

What makes you so sure of this? According to Metrolinx, Off peak ridership actually increased during COVID because people now want to travel at times where trains aren't congested, and are likely to reach work during off peak times in case they need to come in for something. Furthermore, suburbanites have a benefit for using regional rail even when Highways aren't congested. Ignoring the fact that we are reaching the point where certain highways like DVP and Gardiner are congested even during off peak times, sometimes being able to park for free at a station like West Harbour and taking the train downtown is far more convenient than driving all the way downtown and paying $5 for parking, not to mention far cheaper. The only situation where the train won't be more viable is if you're travelling in a group, where driving is probably going to be cheaper, or if your destination isn't downtown but on some weird orbital ring around it, and transfering from train to train seriously adds to the travel time.