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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

I generally don't like to post about this stuff, but the recent service cuts on the Kitchener Line are just simply unacceptable. The service to Kitchener was cut to 4 trains a day in each direction, all piled into 2 hours in the morning. This is a service that once had 12 or more trains a day per direction...

Naturally many people who would be using this train to go to the city for the weekend are forced to use the last train of the day: 7:45 am...

Bus service was not ramped up to replace any lost trains either, leading to overcrowded buses like the one I took last week.

The Kitchener platform today was packed end to end with people, which normally would make me excited to see so many using transit, but instead just reminded me of the fact this route has taken service cut after cut. There is just no excuse here. The Guelph platform was similar as well...

PXL_20220218_123930508.jpg
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emphur said:
I generally don't like to post about this stuff, but the recent service cuts on the Kitchener Line are just simply unacceptable. The service to Kitchener was cut to 4 trains a day in each direction, all piled into 2 hours in the morning. This is a service that once had 12 or more trains a day per direction...

Naturally many people who would be using this train to go to the city for the weekend are forced to use the last train of the day: 7:45 am...

Bus service was not ramped up to replace any lost trains either, leading to overcrowded buses like the one I took last week.

The Kitchener platform today was packed end to end with people, which normally would make me excited to see so many using transit, but instead just reminded me of the fact this route has taken service cut after cut. There is just no excuse here. The Guelph platform was similar as well...
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The previous schedule (Oct 2021) had 10 GO trains per day from Kitchener to Guelph, half of which ran express east of Bramalea, plus 1 Via train per day. That's the most the line has ever had - pre-pandemic it was 8 GO and 2 Via. The current "temporary" schedule (Jan 2022), has 5 trains per day, all of which run local.

I am surprised we haven't heard about the "temporary" service cuts at least partially being rolled back yet, given that the lockdown has ended and ridership is returning. The Kitchener line was among the most severely impacted by those cuts, so I'd hope it would be the first to get service back.

Here in the Netherlands, over the past week I've noticed the trains getting properly crowded - like pre-pandemic crowded. Service is back to the normal pre-pandemic schedule, except for a few peak-period commuter trips which remain cancelled due to a less pronounced peak-period ridership spike.
 
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reaperexpress said:
The previous schedule (Oct 2021) had 10 GO trains per day from Kitchener to Guelph, half of which ran express east of Bramalea, plus 1 Via train per day. That's the most the line has ever had - pre-pandemic it was 8 GO and 2 Via. The current "temporary" schedule (Jan 2022), as you mention, has 4 trains per day, all of which run local.
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Not to mention that these "4 trains a day in each direction, all piled into 2 hours in the morning" is exactly what was offered as recently as just over 3 years ago:
1645199845786.png

Source: GO schedules (from effective 2018-09-01 until 2019-01-03)
 
Urban Sky said:
Not to mention that these "4 trains a day in each direction, all piled into 2 hours in the morning" is exactly what was offered as recently as just over 3 years ago:
View attachment 380858
Source: GO schedules (from effective 2018-09-01 until 2019-01-03)
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Well as time passes and awareness of the service increases, demand also increases requring more and more trains. What worked 3 years ago doesn't necessarily mean it would work today as the province reopens.
 
While one hopes the cuts will be rolled back, I see nothing in Metrolinx behaviour to indicate calling them “temporary” is anything but an outright lie…
 
Bureaucromancer said:
While one hopes the cuts will be rolled back, I see nothing in Metrolinx behaviour to indicate calling them “temporary” is anything but an outright lie…
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I may have been misled by your sentence structure. You are suggesting that ML intends to roll back its plans for the Kitchener line?

I am quite confident that they will restore service as quickly as they can.

There is a great reality to be faced - the past two years have been disastrous for the Province's finances, particularly in terms of revenue for all transit operators. Some sort of cost stabilisation is needed. We won't see much about that until after the provincial election, but whichever party wins the election will have to face that pain. Service may not bounce back to pre-2020 levels as quickly as we wish.

But the expanded service is pretty much unstoppable at this point.

- Paul
 
crs1026 said:
I may have been misled by your sentence structure. You are suggesting that ML intends to roll back its plans for the Kitchener line?

I am quite confident that they will restore service as quickly as they can.

There is a great reality to be faced - the past two years have been disastrous for the Province's finances, particularly in terms of revenue for all transit operators. Some sort of cost stabilisation is needed. We won't see much about that until after the provincial election, but whichever party wins the election will have to face that pain. Service may not bounce back to pre-2020 levels as quickly as we wish.

But the expanded service is pretty much unstoppable at this point.

- Paul
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And thats exactly the thing - all the plans in the world don’t mean **** when the reality of every schedule release is some new excuse for not running the trains we did in the recent past, never mind ACTUALLY implementing the expansion.
 
Bureaucromancer said:
And thats exactly the thing - all the plans in the world don’t mean **** when the reality of every schedule release is some new excuse for not running the trains we did in the recent past, never mind ACTUALLY implementing the expansion.
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Hold on. Let's take into consideration that during omicron ridership was down 60+%.

It takes time for things to open up again. Let's see if they restore services in March when restrictions go away.

So does that mean you won't have to wear a mask on public transit?
 
So due to flooding at Shakespeare, Ontario the London GO train got canceled and there were so many passengers going west of Kitchener that they had to send a second shuttle bus

Screenshot_20220218-205117_Chrome.jpg
 
Bureaucromancer said:
And thats exactly the thing - all the plans in the world don’t mean **** when the reality of every schedule release is some new excuse for not running the trains we did in the recent past, never mind ACTUALLY implementing the expansion.
Click to expand...
This is not the reality.

The only Kitchener Line schedule changes since 2013 which reduced service levels were the March 2020, June 2020, January 2021, and January 2022 timetables, and all of those reductions were in direct response to severe drops in ridership and/or crew availability. Look for yourself. Every other schedule change has increased service, which is how we ended up with 10 trains per day from Kitchener in September 2021, compared to just 2 trains in 2013.
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Prior to 2013, the only service reductions I'm aware of were in 1993 when GO's budget was slashed and 2010(?) when construction began on the Georgetown South railway expansion project.
 
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reaperexpress said:
Prior to 2013, the only service reductions I'm aware of were in 1993 when GO's budget was slashed and 2010(?) when construction began on the Georgetown South railway expansion project.
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Youngin!

April 26, 1994 - All off-peak service on the Lakeshore Line is cut back to Pickering and Oakville.

March 4, 1996 - Roundtrips to Erindale and extra roundtrip to Milton cancelled.

From: https://cptdb.ca/wiki/index.php/GO_Transit_timeline#1990s
 
reaperexpress said:
I'm talking about the Kitchener line.
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Fair enough; didn't see in the list I posted, but pretty sure I remember service being cut from Guelph back to Georgetown at one point.

Yup, found it:

Service was extended beyond Georgetown to Guelph on October 29, 1990, but was again cut back to Georgetown on July 2, 1993.

en.wikipedia.org

Kitchener line - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
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