GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

[crs1026]

In no way does discussing the limitations of current service and fare structures prevent or even discourage new services from being introduced.

Indeed. I think every poster to date has been in favour of more such services and on more routes.

What we have been discussing is that there are some very hard barriers to doing so, and whether the $10 fare is sensible given that we can't overcome these in short order. Pointing out the barriers, and the difficulties to overcoming them, is very different from opposing such improvements.

- Paul

 

[Woodbridge_Heights]

Honestly how is the Niagara service affecting the rest of the system. Most of the trainsets would be in the yard during this time (not being used on other lines). And financially, while there certainly is a cost to providing the service (assuming it is being run as a loss leader). We are talking about 4 to 6 months a year, or 42 days vs 365 days. I doubt there is a significant trade off going in providing Niagara Service.

Granted though I do also support deploying some of those stationary trainsets on other lines besides just LW and LE

 

[anb]

They aren't even hesitating no more. At least one thing about this detour is that it does help Brampton, Georgetown, Milton and Meadowvale riders get to the Niagara bound train more directly, but whether that's a good thing or not considering the climate of that service right now, remains to be seen.

 

[ShonTron]

They aren't even hesitating no more. At least one thing about this detour is that it does help Brampton, Georgetown, Milton and Meadowvale riders get to the Niagara bound train more directly, but whether that's a good thing or not considering the climate of that service right now, remains to be seen.


View attachment 413647

This is because of the Indy with Lake Shore Blvd closed so it makes sense at least for this particular weekend.

 

[Allandale25]

^ It would be nice if they could add that context to explain why it's happening.

 

[JasonParis]

To a lot of people who don't understand the ownership of rail lines and such, this must all feel a bit nonsensical to be re-routed off of their corridor to catch a train on another corridor. "Why not just run a train on my corridor today" must be going through their minds. And it is hard to blame them.

 

[reaperexpress]

To a lot of people who don't understand the ownership of rail lines and such, this must feel a big non-sensical to be re-routed off of their corridor to catch a train on another corridor. "Why not just run a train on my corridor today" must be going through their minds. And it is hard to blame them.

To be fair though, Metrolinx does own the Kitchener line as far as Bramalea. It's not entirely clear to us why there can't be hourly or half-hourly train service at least to Bramalea, which would provide a much more convenient transfer for Route 31 passengers than the trek all the way down to Port Credit.

 

[Krypto98]

To be fair though, Metrolinx does own the Kitchener line as far as Bramalea. It's not entirely clear to us why there can't be hourly or half-hourly train service at least to Bramalea, which would provide a much more convenient transfer for Route 31 passengers than the trek all the way down to Port Credit.

CN also has little reason to use track 4 at Bramalea as it's R105 territory with a dead-end. The amount of trackage GO goes on between metrolinx weston sub and the start of track 4 is about 0.4 miles...

 

[cbrown2009]

To be fair though, Metrolinx does own the Kitchener line as far as Bramalea. It's not entirely clear to us why there can't be hourly or half-hourly train service at least to Bramalea, which would provide a much more convenient transfer for Route 31 passengers than the trek all the way down to Port Credit.

Further to this, GO already runs hourly throughout the weekdays (minus counter-peak), and it's not quite clear why the same (or similar, something as far as Mount Pleasant, say) couldn't happen on the weekends and especially holidays as well...

 

[kalis0490]

is it feasible to have some trains from bramalea go to the airport (reverse on the the airport branch) then turn to UP trains at the airport to continue to union? .
this would:

1) solve the issue of the UP taking away track slots to bramalea
2) give the west an easy ride to the airport
3) de facto give Bramalea 15 minute 2 way all day go

 

[Allandale25]

To be fair though, Metrolinx does own the Kitchener line as far as Bramalea. It's not entirely clear to us why there can't be hourly or half-hourly train service at least to Bramalea, which would provide a much more convenient transfer for Route 31 passengers than the trek all the way down to Port Credit.

I recall this discussion on UT over the years. I don't think they own it all the way to Bramalea GO Station's platforms. The late TOAreaFan used to point this out frequently because he felt that the Province should have got a better deal with CN when it bought the Weston Sub.

 

[anb]

Maybe they were actually planning to do 30 min, or at least 60 min weekend to Bramalea but then ridership went significantly down and they just decided to not go forward with it for now. Off peak trains are now starting to see a lot more ridership compared to the beginning of this year, and the same can be said about the buses.

The specific Union-Bramalea bus wasn’t as crowded on the weekends compared to the Georgetown/Guelph buses, but recently its growing to the point where they might need a second bus at times. After the Bramalea GO terminal is completely finished, and we see the remaining Brampton buses that serve big major destinations (Pearson, BCC, Shopper’s World, Humber/Sheridan, etc), its a no brainer to try to gain as much convinent regional ridership by introducing the enhanced train service to Bramalea.

is it feasible to have some trains from bramalea go to the airport (reverse on the the airport branch) then turn to UP trains at the airport to continue to union? .
this would:

1) solve the issue of the UP taking away track slots to bramalea
2) give the west an easy ride to the airport
3) de facto give Bramalea 15 minute 2 way all day go

That would probably take way too long at the state its in right now, especially to unnecessarily convert Malton/Bramalea to support high platforms only to have them gone when true 15 min service comes to the line. The local Brampton bus (115) will soon directly serve the Airport to/from Bramalea so ML for sure would redirect riders to that option instead. The only hope right now is for them to at least run 30 min service on weekdays while introducing any weekend service as well.

 

[reaperexpress]

I recall this discussion on UT over the years. I don't think they own it all the way to Bramalea GO Station's platforms. The late TOAreaFan used to point this out frequently because he felt that the Province should have got a better deal with CN when it bought the Weston Sub.

View attachment 413843

See the response by @Krypto98

CN also has little reason to use track 4 at Bramalea as it's R105 territory with a dead-end. The amount of CN trackage GO goes on between metrolinx weston sub and the start of track 4 is about 0.4 miles...

The 0.4 miles in question are the single track of the CN Weston sub which connects to the CN Halton sub track 3 and 4, which is in addition to CN track 2, which also has its own connection to the GO Weston sub, as you can see in your diagram.

CN does not need 2 tracks in order to run its 1 train.

 

[reaperexpress]

is it feasible to have some trains from bramalea go to the airport (reverse on the the airport branch) then turn to UP trains at the airport to continue to union?

No. There are not enough UP trains to run a 15 minute service to Bramalea. UP trains cannot serve Bramalea since it has no high platforms. There is no connecting track toward Bramalea at Wice (Pearson Junction). The doors of GO trains do not line up eith the platform screen doors at Pearson. Low-floor GO trains cannot serve the high-platform Pearson Station. Full size (e.g. GO) trains are not permitted on the airport spur.

 

[crs1026]

Similar to recent additions at Aldershot, the restrictions at Bramalea can mostly be mitigated by adding a power switch and signals at the west end of the station to connect T3 and T4. That would allow two opposing GO trains to pass through the station at close to the same time, without encroaching on CN on Tracks 1 and 2.

T3 was mostly built at GO’s expense, and CN seems to mostly accept that GO needs that track on a dedicated basis. That’s constrained by the presence of a daily road switcher which has to do work at the south side industries. No amount of track will help because the roadswitcher needs a certain amount of track and time to seesaw across the route onto the south side service track.

On a GO trip this week, I observed a fair bit of surveying going on along the right of way around Peel. I hope this is somehow a sign that triple tracking through Brampton is coming. As nice as adding service to Bramalea may be, this route won’t be adequate until there is more track between Peel and Silver…. we need shovels in the ground the whole way.

- Paul