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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

I took the 25 to St. Jacobs Market a few weeks ago and it was a terrible experience. First, the 21 bus from downtown was 10 minutes late because of traffic, and the connecting 25 doesn't wait for the 21. I brought my bike so I got off the bus before it did the Square One loop, quickly rode to the bus terminal, and made the 25 with literally seconds to spare.

Once I got on the 25, it was excruciatingly slow. There was tons of traffic on the 401 and the 1.75 hour trip to Laurier took 2.25 hours. By the time I biked to the market, I had way less time to spend there than I wanted. I was planning on going back on Labour Day weekend assuming express service would be in place like pre-pandemic, but I probably won't bother now since I'm not doing that bus ride again.
 
jamincan said:
Do they not plug in the second train, then? Or do they just have a really long extension cord?
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They plug the second train into the first, which is plugged into the wayside. The power draw on the wayside of the two 6-car trains together is only a little higher than a single 12-car train, and within the limits of what the wayside system is capable of supplying.

Dan
 
Curious to see that the travel time between Kitchener and Guelph has remained at 21 minutes, despite the recent higher speed testing and signal upgrades west of Guelph Central GO. Not that the two projects are related, but I'm wondering whether we'll see a reduction in scheduled travel once the Speed River bridge rehab is complete later in November. Wondering whether we'll also see VIA trim their scheduled travel times due to the recent improvements along the corridor.
 
Somehow I missed seeing this news until today. Niagara Falls one trip daily rush hour train service from Niagara Falls to Union stopping at St.Catharines, West Harbour, all stops Aldershot to Clarkson, then express to Union. Did they recently connect the two West Harbour tracks to new switches east of the station or build a platform on the mainline?
 
EnviroTO said:
Somehow I missed seeing this news until today. Niagara Falls one trip daily rush hour train service from Niagara Falls to Union stopping at St.Catharines, West Harbour, all stops Aldershot to Clarkson, then express to Union. Did they recently connect the two West Harbour tracks to new switches east of the station or build a platform on the mainline?
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No. They currently back the train out. For now, until they extend the track soon.

They did this before the pandemic too.
 
EnviroTO said:
Somehow I missed seeing this news until today. Niagara Falls one trip daily rush hour train service from Niagara Falls to Union stopping at St.Catharines, West Harbour, all stops Aldershot to Clarkson, then express to Union. Did they recently connect the two West Harbour tracks to new switches east of the station or build a platform on the mainline?
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I was at West Harbour last Friday, the rails are still very much disconnected. No sign of work being done on it either sadly
 
According to the September 2019 route 25 timetable, the 25C express service was 40 minutes faster than the 25 local between Waterloo and Square One.
According to the September 2021 route 29 timetable, it takes 30 minutes to get from Square One to Kipling via the Mississauga Transitway.

So if instead of running 2 buses per hour on the 25 local, they ran 1 bus per hour local and 1 bus per hour express, they could extend the 25C to Kipling without adding any buses to the route.
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TDE said:
Mildly disappointed with what I saw here. not so much a missed, but an ignored opportunity.
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To be fair Metrolinx has not ignored it, they've just faced lots of roadblocks such as difficult utility relocations and a lack of consensus with the track owner, CN. But yeah we really need to find some way forward with that missing link at the east end of the platforms.
 
Ideally they have the two platform tracks become one east of the station and run an extra track all the way to Confederation GO when it opens. Other than completing the bus loop the Confederation GO station isn't much to look at yet.
 
EnviroTO said:
Ideally they have the two platform tracks become one east of the station and run an extra track all the way to Confederation GO when it opens. Other than completing the bus loop the Confederation GO station isn't much to look at yet.
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I believe that is the plan for Confederation GO and a big reason construction costs for the station are so high. CN wants a dedicated track to it like Metrolinx built to West Harbour. Confederation will be similar to West Harbour in that it's a double platform station I believe but will share a unidirectional track in and out, just like West Harbour as it weaves its way through Bayview Junction.

The Red Hill Valley Parkway crossing is interestingly only built for 2 tracks right now I believe so that bridge will have to be widened, but other crossings are already wide enough for an additional track which should make it a fairly straightforward project. A frig ton of level crossings through Hamilton though.
 
TDE said:
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Mildly disappointed with what I saw here. not so much a missed, but an ignored opportunity.
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Beyond a mild disappointment to be honest. Tons of money was spend on a station in order to solve a logistical problem with Hamilton GO (which is by far in a better location but simply stymied by the fact that it is owned by CP and a tunnel that would cost way too much money to expand) and they didnt even solve the f$%%ing logistical problem.
 
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