Undead
Senior Member
Any chance hourly weekend bus service could be implemented for the RH line? That service gap is a little odd (and inconvenient for me!)
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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)
- Thread starter drum118
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Towered
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crs1026
Superstar
^Presumably, the triple track east of Danforth remains operable…
- Paul
- Paul
Garuda
Active Member
Looks like service levels have returned to pre pandemic levels and then some on the Kitchener line. The mid day service is great.
the extension of 29 to Kipling is a much needed no brainer. I feel bad for KW residents who still have to transfer on weekends.
The lack of weekend service is disappointing. I know it makes no sense at the moment with the bridge replacements in Guelph but that line deserves it soon.
I wonder if GO will go (pun intended) the slow death route with Etobicoke North and run fewer trains to stop to discourage usage just like York U station?
ShonTron
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It won't be an intentional "slow death" for Etobicoke North. It just will only see whatever train service is feasible until Woodbine Station opens. Whenever that project starts.
innsertnamehere
Superstar
Good to see some express services return on Lakeshore West. Ditto for early morning weekend train service to West Harbour - getting service increases already, less than a month after launching!
It'll be interesting to see if the faster run times stick around as ridership returns - The September schedules still have Lakeshore West express trains running 5 minutes faster from Hamilton Centre to downtown over pre-pandemic.
While I'm waiting for the full Kitchener schedule to get published, the introduction of new express trains is encouraging. A quick look at those travel times and it doesn't appear that the schedules are yet reflecting the higher track speeds west of Guelph.
This is the first schedule change since COVID where GO service seems to be of a generally similar quality compared to pre-pandemic. Which is great to see.
It'll be interesting to see if the faster run times stick around as ridership returns - The September schedules still have Lakeshore West express trains running 5 minutes faster from Hamilton Centre to downtown over pre-pandemic.
While I'm waiting for the full Kitchener schedule to get published, the introduction of new express trains is encouraging. A quick look at those travel times and it doesn't appear that the schedules are yet reflecting the higher track speeds west of Guelph.
This is the first schedule change since COVID where GO service seems to be of a generally similar quality compared to pre-pandemic. Which is great to see.
ShonTron
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Table 31-33 is now online.
What really surprises me are the number of counter-peak trains now going as far as Bramalea. The transfer to bus to get to Brampton, Mount Pleasant and beyond is annoying, especially with a 15 minute wait between bus arrival and train departure going eastbound, but that's only during the peak times at least, when traffic on the 401-427-Gardiner is at its worst.
It would be nice to see the return of Route 39, which was the express bus between Bramalea and Guelph that was cut a few years ago, even just for a few counter-peak train-meets.
What really surprises me are the number of counter-peak trains now going as far as Bramalea. The transfer to bus to get to Brampton, Mount Pleasant and beyond is annoying, especially with a 15 minute wait between bus arrival and train departure going eastbound, but that's only during the peak times at least, when traffic on the 401-427-Gardiner is at its worst.
It would be nice to see the return of Route 39, which was the express bus between Bramalea and Guelph that was cut a few years ago, even just for a few counter-peak train-meets.
Northern Light
Superstar
The Express option 5-6 mintues for K-W passengers inbound to Toronto.
That's a modest, but helpful step.
innsertnamehere
Superstar
looking at the Lakeshore Express services - the morning trips generally make sense, running on 30 minute frequencies arriving at Union between 7am and 8:30am, but the evening service runs surprisingly early, with departures at 3:47, 4:17, 4:47, then 5:47.
Generally I'm surprised they don't have a 5:17 train, which I figured would be one of the more popular departure times.
Generally I'm surprised they don't have a 5:17 train, which I figured would be one of the more popular departure times.
innsertnamehere
Superstar
It's still erroring out for me?
Yea, travel time savings from express services are fairly modest, but better than nothing. Lakeshore west saves I believe 12 minutes with an express service, but I also believe it skips more stations.
ShonTron
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There are also several construction projects on the inner Kitchener Line: new platforms at Malton and Weston, tracks diverting around the Mount Dennis station, and a fourth track going in. Woodbine Station and King Liberty Stations whenever those start, will also be major construction sites along the route.
That might explain the conservative time savings on the Kitchener express trains too.
robmausser
Senior Member
Biggest help will come from track improvements from Kitchener to Brampton, but the express service will be a perceptual help more than anything; the passenger will feel good that GO is attempting to get them to Union as fast as possible, after a rather slow ride.
anb
Active Member
Now this is how a September service change should be done! GO really over delivered this year and this really makes up for all the terrible local transit agency changes. 29 going to Kipling and a branch of the 18 going to Brock University really made me excited for the direction they are going in. The new cross regional 407 buses that we got earlier is now getting 30 min service means we’re going to get 15 min service at Bramalea and Erin Mills again which is really exciting for Peel Region.
25 and 30 both now going to the universities in Waterloo is amazing. The former returning with 30 min service again and combined with the 29 we get 15 min service on all stops between Square One and Aberfoyle during rush hours. But that’s just the buses
The train service is of course the highlight of these changes. They even had something for the commuter only Milton and RH lines getting 15-30 min peak service like you just can’t go wrong with that. We all wish the Kitchener line would get 30 min all day/weekend service but after the tunnel at 401/409 is completed i guarantee they might jump immediately on board and enhance the Union-Bramalea corridor as they did with the rush hour service being practically every 15 min despite every other trip being express. With them also teasing a London extension, this line would probably be looked at with a whole new perspective.
Tristen
New Member
Anyone have access to the new route 25 schedule?
reaperexpress
Senior Member
My comments on the new service changes:
Lakeshore West
The weekday AM Niagara train now departs Niagara Falls at 06:39, which is far more reasonable than the old 05:23 departure time. Now it actually runs during a time of day when there is congestion on the QEW. The trip now is scheduled for 2h21, a slight improvement from the 2h27 pre-pandemic. For some reason these trip is completely missing from the Lakeshore West timetables. The weekend trains had already been missing from the tables for a few years now, but now the weekday ones are missing too, despite clearly following the same clockface stopping pattern for express trains:
September 2021 AM Peak schedule, I have filled in the unlisted train trip in green:
It's also great to see the Hamilton Centre trips running express again. As I expected, peak period service is now 4 tph local + 2 tph express, rather than the 2 tph local + 4 tph express we had pre-pandemic.
Unfortunately, evening service continues to only run hourly on weekdays, which is a huge drop after the 6 tph peak and 4 tph counterpeak service. On weekends, service maintains 2 tph until about midnight.
I'm very pleased to see the new Route 18K which runs every 2 hours between Hamilton Centre to St Catharines, including a timed connection to trains at West Harbour. I'd previously suggested that Route 12 be rerouted along this exact routing to downtown, but this new route achieves a similar effect. There is a 6 minute transfer at Grimsby P&R for eastbound passengers from Burlington on Route 12 transfering to Route 18K toward downtown St Catharines or Brock, but this unfortunately means nearly an hour transfer for passengers heading from Hamilton on Route 18K to Niagara Falls on Route 12. Westbound, the transfers from Niagara Falls (route 12) to Hamilton (route 18K) and from St Cathrines/Brock (route 18K) to Burlington (route 12) are both about 30 minutes.
I think that they should have taken this opportunity to drop Beamsville (Ontario St. @ QEW) P&R from route 12. That would cut about 7 minutes off the travel time, allowing Route 12 to provide more competitive travel times between Toronto and Niagara Falls, while route 18K provides local service in between. Beamsville P&R generally annoys me since it's only accessible by car anyway, so "local access" is not a valid justification for wasting everyone's time getting off the highway and driving around in circles, often without dropping anyone off or picking anyone up.
I also would have used St Catherines Bus Terminal as the downtown St Catharines stop rather than St Catharines Station, since it has far better bus connections and far more destinations nearby. I suppose they wanted to provide more options for people who parked at St Catharines Station to take the peak-period GO train.
Kitchener Line
There are now 11 daily round trips between Kitchener and Toronto (10 GO + 1 VIA), which is more than there has ever been before. The AM peak service from Kitchener now extends until 8:39, compared to 7:57 pre-pandemic. This is very helpful since buses leaving Kitchener or Guelph around 8:00-8:30 would still get stuck in rush hour traffic.
My marked-up version of the September 2021 AM Peak timetable, highlighting changes relative to August 2021.
The new trips also make a totally practical commuter schedule for people living in Kitchener and working in Guelph.
The travel time for express trips is now 1:41 eastbound, which is the fastest it has ever been. It is 4 minutes faster than pre-pandemic, and 9 minutes faster than before Metrolinx started the current track upgrade project. This nearly achieves the 10 minutes which were promised as part of that project. However, the travel time between Kitchener and Georgetown is still the same as in the September 2020 schedule, so I don't think the recent work in Guelph has been accounted for yet.
With an average speed of 61.2 km/h, the Kitchener express is now the fastest peak-period train service in the GO network. It is also slightly faster than the fastest AM peak service pre-pandemic, which was the Lakeshore East express.
There is now regular counter-peak service between Union and Bramalea, operating every 30 minutes in the AM Peak, and every 60 minutes in the PM Peak, though there's a 90-minute gap between the hourly midday and counterpeak services.
Lakeshore West
The weekday AM Niagara train now departs Niagara Falls at 06:39, which is far more reasonable than the old 05:23 departure time. Now it actually runs during a time of day when there is congestion on the QEW. The trip now is scheduled for 2h21, a slight improvement from the 2h27 pre-pandemic. For some reason these trip is completely missing from the Lakeshore West timetables. The weekend trains had already been missing from the tables for a few years now, but now the weekday ones are missing too, despite clearly following the same clockface stopping pattern for express trains:
September 2021 AM Peak schedule, I have filled in the unlisted train trip in green:
There is a 5:17 Lakeshore West train, but it's not shown in the Lakeshore West timetable. It is only shown in the Route 12 timetable:
It's also great to see the Hamilton Centre trips running express again. As I expected, peak period service is now 4 tph local + 2 tph express, rather than the 2 tph local + 4 tph express we had pre-pandemic.
Unfortunately, evening service continues to only run hourly on weekdays, which is a huge drop after the 6 tph peak and 4 tph counterpeak service. On weekends, service maintains 2 tph until about midnight.
I'm very pleased to see the new Route 18K which runs every 2 hours between Hamilton Centre to St Catharines, including a timed connection to trains at West Harbour. I'd previously suggested that Route 12 be rerouted along this exact routing to downtown, but this new route achieves a similar effect. There is a 6 minute transfer at Grimsby P&R for eastbound passengers from Burlington on Route 12 transfering to Route 18K toward downtown St Catharines or Brock, but this unfortunately means nearly an hour transfer for passengers heading from Hamilton on Route 18K to Niagara Falls on Route 12. Westbound, the transfers from Niagara Falls (route 12) to Hamilton (route 18K) and from St Cathrines/Brock (route 18K) to Burlington (route 12) are both about 30 minutes.
I think that they should have taken this opportunity to drop Beamsville (Ontario St. @ QEW) P&R from route 12. That would cut about 7 minutes off the travel time, allowing Route 12 to provide more competitive travel times between Toronto and Niagara Falls, while route 18K provides local service in between. Beamsville P&R generally annoys me since it's only accessible by car anyway, so "local access" is not a valid justification for wasting everyone's time getting off the highway and driving around in circles, often without dropping anyone off or picking anyone up.
I also would have used St Catherines Bus Terminal as the downtown St Catharines stop rather than St Catharines Station, since it has far better bus connections and far more destinations nearby. I suppose they wanted to provide more options for people who parked at St Catharines Station to take the peak-period GO train.
Kitchener Line
There are now 11 daily round trips between Kitchener and Toronto (10 GO + 1 VIA), which is more than there has ever been before. The AM peak service from Kitchener now extends until 8:39, compared to 7:57 pre-pandemic. This is very helpful since buses leaving Kitchener or Guelph around 8:00-8:30 would still get stuck in rush hour traffic.
My marked-up version of the September 2021 AM Peak timetable, highlighting changes relative to August 2021.
The new trips also make a totally practical commuter schedule for people living in Kitchener and working in Guelph.
The travel time for express trips is now 1:41 eastbound, which is the fastest it has ever been. It is 4 minutes faster than pre-pandemic, and 9 minutes faster than before Metrolinx started the current track upgrade project. This nearly achieves the 10 minutes which were promised as part of that project. However, the travel time between Kitchener and Georgetown is still the same as in the September 2020 schedule, so I don't think the recent work in Guelph has been accounted for yet.
With an average speed of 61.2 km/h, the Kitchener express is now the fastest peak-period train service in the GO network. It is also slightly faster than the fastest AM peak service pre-pandemic, which was the Lakeshore East express.
There is now regular counter-peak service between Union and Bramalea, operating every 30 minutes in the AM Peak, and every 60 minutes in the PM Peak, though there's a 90-minute gap between the hourly midday and counterpeak services.
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