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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

Urban Sky said:
They don't have to: it's only our North American conception of "Commuter Rail" which tells us that its passengers' trips have to either originate or end at the metropolitan terminus...
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Exactly. It’s like saying that subway riders only travel from Kipling to Kennedy and there’s no in between.
 
How has GO Transit ridership declined during COVID-19 relative to other GTHA transit agencies?

I would expect that it would have dropped the steepest, due to their ridership typically having a higher proportion of commuters than other transit services, and a higher proportion of blue collar employees who can typically work from home.
 
Krypto98 said:
It's better than Niagara's 19 people on its first trip. I wonder how many are getting off at kitchener/guelph. I doubt all of them would do the full route
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I can see London-Guelph commuters happening at most while Stratford-Toronto doesn’t seem that bad in comparison. If anything, this really benefits the latter community as it doesn’t have to sit through the slow ride and its 6:43 departure is reasonable for a morning commute (assuming no delays of course). I also find it funny we’re now getting a direct connection to the town that a certain famous Canadian singer grew up in. I’d wonder if he would take this GO train one day had life turned out different.
 
allengeorge said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1450029306080550918

Already a significant delay (25 mins) rolling into S. Mary’s :/
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According to that live-tweet feed, the train departed Kitchener precisely 30 minutes late and followed the schedule of the subsequent express train (arriving Union 9:43). GO pulled another train out of the yard early to run the Kitchener-Toronto trip which arrives at 9:13, which the London train should have filled.

The GO train then arrived in Union precisely 30 minutes late from the perspective of London-Stratford passengers (on time for Kitchener-Toronto passengers), clocking in a brutal 4h23 travel time from London to Toronto (45 km/h average).

But a 30 minute delay is still better than VIA 84, which seems to be on track to arrive 49 minutes late today:

The train is currently sitting at Wice (Pearson Junction) presumably waiting for an UP Express train to cross. This is what happens when you enter a busy tightly-scheduled rail corridor at unplanned times.
Capture3.JPG

(Times are 6h off because my computer is set to Central European Time)

Yet again, the VIA train arrived in London on time, but accumulated a major delay before St Marys, which then continued to get even worse until Kitchener. This supports our theory that VIA's 1h56 scheduled London-Kitchener travel time is way out of date, and GO's 2h12 estimate is far more representative of the current state of disrepair.

Delays along the line:
0 Strathroy
+2 London
+23 St Marys
+31 Stratford
+39 Kitchener
+38 Guelph
+39 Georgetown
+39 Brampton
+42 Malton
 
christiesplits said:
How has GO Transit ridership declined during COVID-19 relative to other GTHA transit agencies?

I would expect that it would have dropped the steepest, due to their ridership typically having a higher proportion of commuters than other transit services, and a higher proportion of blue collar employees who can typically work from home.
Click to expand...
I imagine the decline is stark.
Take a trip to Oakville GO Station on any weekday, and tour the empty parking lots.
Lakeshore West had a high proportion of downtown office workers, so my bet would be it is more affected than any other line.
 
reaperexpress said:
According to that live-tweet feed, the train departed Kitchener precisely 30 minutes late and followed the schedule of the subsequent express train (arriving Union 9:43). GO pulled another train out of the yard early to run the Kitchener-Toronto trip which arrives at 9:13, which the London train should have filled.

The GO train then arrived in Union precisely 30 minutes late from the perspective of London-Stratford passengers (on time for Kitchener-Toronto passengers), clocking in a brutal 4h23 travel time from London to Toronto (45 km/h average).

But a 30 minute delay is still better than VIA 84, which seems to be on track to arrive 49 minutes late today:

The train is currently sitting at Wice (Pearson Junction) presumably waiting for an UP Express train to cross. This is what happens when you enter a busy tightly-scheduled rail corridor at unplanned times.
(Times are 6h off because my computer is set to Central European Time)

Yet again, the VIA train arrived in London on time, but accumulated a major delay before St Marys, which then continued to get even worse until Kitchener. This supports our theory that VIA's 1h56 scheduled London-Kitchener travel time is way out of date, and GO's 2h12 estimate is far more representative of the current state of disrepair.

Delays along the line:
0 Strathroy
+2 London
+23 St Marys
+31 Stratford
+39 Kitchener
+38 Guelph
+39 Georgetown
+39 Brampton
+42 Malton
Click to expand...
Im honestly ashamed that our passenger rail reliability standards are this low that we can just brush off even a 10 minute delay as acceptable. If any of this happens on a frequent basis overseas, investigations would be launched managers would be out the door almost immediately. This is one of the big reasons why passenger rail in NA is just pure garbage vs any where else, even india.
 
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cplchanb said:
Im honesty ashamed that our passenger rail reliability standards are this low that we can just brush off even a 10 minute delay as acceptable. If any of this happens on a frequent basis overseas, investigations would be launched managers would be out the door almost immediately. This is one of the big reasons why passenger rail in NA is just pure garbage vs any where else, even india.
Click to expand...
Small investment in track infrastructure would go a long way in improving travel times.

Guess we will need to wait for the track to change hands before we see any improvement
 
Bordercollie said:
Small investment in track infrastructure would go a long way in improving travel times.

Guess we will need to wait for the track to change hands before we see any improvement
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Hopefully if this pilot project is successful, Metrolinx will but the subdivision and improve the track. I’m sure CN is fine with selling as it’s not their mainline.
 
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