GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

[Northern Light]

I'm not sure they need to show end to end completion on anything. There is actually a lot of stuff they can use for their publicity, things that are close enough to demonstrate that they have been getting work done:

- Crosstown will be closer to testing, and Eglinton will have much of its disruption removed
- Finch LRT will be well into construction
- Hurontario LRT will be well into construction
- Hamilton GO is running, and there can be groundbreaking(s) for the Hamilton LRT
- Woodbine Station will be under way
- Procurement will have concluded for the West-of-Silver Kitchener upgrades
- Possibly procurement announced for Brampton-Silver upgrades
- Bramalea Station will be completed
- Weston Station will be completed
- Mount Dennis Station will be completed
- Cedarvale GO station will be under way
- Agincourt and Milliken GO stations will be close to complete
- Davenport overpass will be well along
- Bowmanville groundbreaking?

I don't expect GO on the London route to amount to much before the election....it will take 2022 at best to improve the track, and GO isn't said to be planning much more than getting service up to where it was pre-COVID. Just showing the flag with a GO train or two per day will be enough to allege "progress".

- Paul

Outside of forums like UT and railways forums, I don't think most people give credit for construction. That's just noise, dust, too expensive and taking too long.
People give credit for results they can feel.

Your parents were on a waitlist for homecare, they got into the newly opened home. They were in care, but in a 4-bed ward room, they got into a new home that's much nicer and 2 to a room.

Likewise with transit, if people can't take it, its not tangible. I therefore think, 2-way-all day on Stouffville, weekend service to K-W (hourly), and additional periods of 15-minute service on Lakeshore will be priorities as those can be felt.

Its not that your wrong to give credit for construction, but parents are more excited when there kid is IN the daycare spot, than watching the daycare get built.

 

[Bureaucromancer]

Outside of forums like UT and railways forums, I don't think most people give credit for construction. That's just noise, dust, too expensive and taking too long.
People give credit for results they can feel.

Seriously, go look at literally any comments section on any article about a project.

The top will be someone bitching it will never be finished, even if the article is that it's ahead of schedule. Hordes will be agreeing.

There will be a pile of shitty jokes about delays and cost, derailing any serious discussion.

Someone claiming to be a business or property owner nearby will cry that the construction has ruined their life, and folks will pile on anyone pointing out how much better a position they will be in when it is finished.

Near the bottom, the closest thing to a meaningful discussion will be a bunch of ****ing small government types screaming about how it should all be privatized. Or if it is a private project that it was somehow subsidized.

 

[SaugeenJunction]

The second weekend of West Harbour GO service seems to be attracting some solid ridership! Who would have guessed that if you improve service, people will use it

 

[ShonTron]

It didn’t hurt that there was a TFC match and an Arkells concert at Ontario Place this evening

 

[SaugeenJunction]

It didn’t hurt that there was a TFC match and an Arkells concert at Ontario Place this evening

Once sporting events and concerts can hit full capacity it should help even more

 

[reaperexpress]

Granted, but seeing as how UPX trains already pass through some of these areas, shouldn't an hourly train schedule be able to pass without too much trouble? And with CN as well? In the case of Guelph, there would possibly be only a couple of trains passing to/from Kitchener. I was thinking more Mount Pleasant-Union, again with a couple of twins extended to/from Kitch.

Yes. It has been physically possible to run weekend service to Bramalea ever since the Georgetown South project was nominally completed in 2015, with local GO service sharing the UP tracks. The UPX timetable has always been designed such that the eastbound and westound service meet at Wice (Pearson Junction), which leaves a ~10 minute gap for a different eastbound service to pass through the junction onto the eastbound UP track without conflicting with UP trains in either direction.

The main caveats are that Etobicoke North station doesn't have any platforms on the UP tracks, so an off-peak GO service sharing the UP tracks would need to skip that station. And although it is possible to run 15-minute local service through the single-track segment just east of Bramalea, doing so would use pretty much all of its capacity, leaving no room for VIA, CN or other thru services. In practice the local service would need to be limited to every 30 minutes to leave room for other services:

 

[nfitz]

It didn’t hurt that there was a TFC match and an Arkells concert at Ontario Place this evening

It wouldn't have. Though from the angle of the sun in that video, that was the train that departed Exhibition at 6:22 pm. Those from the TFC game would have left at 10:22 or 11:22 pm.

Wow, and there's now a 12:22 AM train from Exhibition to West Harbour. That's pretty impressive weekend service! My only quibble would be that that on weekends, for the first 3 hours of service, trains only come from Aldershot.

Ironically, the weekend service (other than early morning) is now better than the weekday service on Lakeshore West, which is still only hourly in the evening. I'm not sure why, given that Lakeshore West ridership is typically slightly higher than Lakeshore East, and Lakeshore East is back to half-hourly ... though presumably that will fix itself soon.

Hopefully they add a weekday 11:13 pm train from West Harbour - that would make getting to evening games at Timmies stadium easier.

 

[anb]

Hopefully GO can start running better service from Union-Bramalea at least 30 min on weekdays and hourly on weekends so it could combine with UPX and its 15 or 30 min service as soon as the fourth track is finished or if they strategized their service patterns for now. It would optimize the airport corridor drastically. Brampton will have more options for if they want to connect with GO at Malton or UPX at Pearson via the Brampton 505 Zum extension (which i’m so excited for i would honestly break if it isn’t introduced in September), as well as people that want to travel between those stations can easily as well.

 

[treplow]

The second weekend of West Harbour GO service seems to be attracting some solid ridership! Who would have guessed that if you improve service, people will use it

I took the train to West Harbour today (early afternoon). Wouldn't say it was overly crowded, particularly after Burlington when a majority of the passengers disembarked, but there were a decent number of people waiting to board the return eastbound train at West Harbour, and even more when I boarded my own return train a couple hours later. It was nice to be able to jump off the train and be within a few minutes' walk of the patios on James St.

One thing that stood out was how slow the train is west of Aldershot, it basically crawls from that point until reaching West Harbour. Is this primarily for safety reasons (i.e. the giant curve around the harbour), freight train priority, or a combination?

 

[crs1026]

One thing that stood out was how slow the train is west of Aldershot, it basically crawls from that point until reaching West Harbour. Is this primarily for safety reasons (i.e. the giant curve around the harbour), freight train priority, or a combination?

That stretch has never been an expressway, but some of the key turnouts that GO trains use are only good for 25 mph, and the new signalling system is designed to match. The choice of 25 mph turnouts is due to lack of space, there are things in the way that prevent stretching the crossovers further.

- Paul

 

[Bordercollie]

Last time you made the claim that VIA was outcompeted by private bus companies in the London-Toronto corridor, I disproved it here.

Prior to the pandemic, VIA's market share was double that of Greyhound's. (Greyhound was the only bus company running London to downtown Toronto at the time). VIA ran fewer trips per day, but had 4.5 times more capacity per trip. And a typical VIA trip was 16 minutes faster than a typical Greyhound trip (2:09 vs 2:25). Or to look from another perspective, VIA ran 4 trips per day which took 2:10 or less, while Greyhound ran 3.

Both VIA and Greyhound had similarly poor reliability.

There is certainly lots of latent demand, and certainly lots of room for improvement for VIA, but you can't claim that the private bus offerings are significantly better than what VIA was offering.

I don't know what you expect for "good via service" from London to Toronto but it certainly beats driving.

And it is pretty busy most days. A lot of people go to Aldershot or Oakville and not all the way to union. This is something to the bus service doesn't do.

NJ transit had a train to Atlantic city. This could be like the GO version.

NJ TRANSIT

New Jersey Public Transportation Corporation - The Way To Go

www.njtransit.com

 

[crs1026]

I just hope that GO and the Minister understand just how embarassing the track speed west of Stratford is.

I watched the moving map tonight - 50 km/hr is the highest speed that VIA ran between St Mary's and the outskirts of London.

Note the time used for the 9 miles from Stratford to St Mary's - 29 minutes.

I'm accustomed to seeing VIA being placed in untenable situations - will Ontario do the same with GO to London?

- Paul

 

[Bordercollie]

I just hope that GO and the Minister understand just how embarassing the track speed west of Stratford is.

I watched the moving map tonight - 50 km/hr is the highest speed that VIA ran between St Mary's and the outskirts of London.

Note the time used for the 9 miles from Stratford to St Mary's - 29 minutes.

I'm accustomed to seeing VIA being placed in untenable situations - will Ontario do the same with GO to London?

- Paul

View attachment 341652

Is that 20mph track speed? What would it take to upgrade it to 40mph?

 

[ShonTron]

Is that 20mph track speed? What would it take to upgrade it to 40mph?

50 km/h is roughly 30 MPH.

That’s the result of GEXR maintaining the track for many years at a minimum speed for its freights. Though CN recently took back the Guelph Sub between London and Kitchener, it’s still in poor shape. VIA only runs one train a day through there anyway these days.

 

[Bordercollie]

50 km/h is roughly 30 MPH.

That’s the result of GEXR maintaining the track for many years at a minimum speed for its freights. Though CN recently took back the Guelph Sub between London and Kitchener, it’s still in poor shape. VIA only runs one train a day through there anyway these days.

So in exchange for allowing GO to run to London could they not fix up that track?

I mean if you add up the crew hours over time if you spend 100k on track repairs you would make that back in crew hours.

Or make it part of the agreement with CN. They are getting revenue per axle anyways.

That might be why they are doing test runs to see where they can optimize the speed with the funds available.