Bureaucromancer
Active Member
Amazing how literally every line has the ops people finding reasons not to run anything like full service.
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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)
- Thread starter drum118
- Start date
crs1026
Superstar
It’s more a matter of the ops people scratching their heads at all the fiction and puffery the PR side is pushing out, and wondering how they are going to run anything like the promised service when much of the necessary track isn’t finished yet.
New platforms mean nothing without track. As @reaperexpress notes, both Kitchener and Barrie have local “hourly” trains making layovers in odd places just to interleave the extended runs to Kitchener and Barrie.
Maybe the construction should get finished first….
- Paul
ARG1
Senior Member
Well long term it seems like the province wants to extend the frequent section of the line to Bradford instead of Aurora. Whether or not that happens is...
reaperexpress
Senior Member
If we have a shortage of train crews, a service pattern which requires crews to shuffle trains around out-of-service for over an hour in the middle of their shift is probably not the best use of resources. We could probably provide far more useful train service hours if we reverted to the basic pattern with just hourly service to Aurora and redeployed the net extra crews elsewhere. I'm sure that Ops is trying to provide as much useful service as possible within the limited resources available.
True, but that doesn't necessarily mean that all of the local trains terminate at Bradford. To terminate 4 trains per hour, there should ideally be 4 tracks (2 turnback, 2 thru), which seems like a lot for Bradford. They might instead build one turnback track at Aurora (or Mulock) and one at Bradford, and run a service pattern something like:
2 tph to Aurora all stops
2 tph to Bradford all stops
2 tph to Barrie limited stops to Aurora, all stops north of Aurora.
Since the express trains make all stops north of Aurora, it still meets their 4 tph requirement for frequent service as far as Bradford.
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superelevation
Active Member
4 tracks to turn 4 tph seems pretty excessive, 3 should be plenty?
reaperexpress
Senior Member
Depends how long your layover is. If you have a train arriving every 15 minutes, and you need a few minutes to vacate the platform for the next train, then if you only have a single turnback track, you're limited to 10 minutes of layover. That may be fine if it's a short route and/or plenty of recovery time is available at the other end of the line. For example, UPX has an 8-minute layover at Union, enabling 4 tph with a single turnback track. But this is possible because the UPX route is quite short and predictable, and the other end of the route has two platforms and a 17-minute layover to soak up any longer delays.
On the Barrie line, the route is longer and the other end of the line is Union Station. Platform time at Union is in very short supply, so either trains will run through or turn back as quickly as possible. Either way, the line's recovery time will need to be disproportionately located at the outer ends of the services. It's a lot easier to add a platform at Aurora or Bradford than it is to add one at Union.
Molybdenum
Active Member
The Hunter Street lanes were completed in 2021 and are now continuous going past the GO station. They're just not on Streetview (or satellite view) yet
ShonTron
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Yet another weekend where Route 21 and Route 31 buses are being sent to Port Credit GO. It’s a shitty transfer because the trains only run every 30 minutes, with no coordination between train arrivals and bus departures at a loop that’s too small to handle three Route 21 branches and two 31 branches and the regular Miway buses.
Why would anyone take GO, especially from Brampton, with such a time-consuming forced transfer?
Why would anyone take GO, especially from Brampton, with such a time-consuming forced transfer?
Northern Light
Superstar
You must weigh in on this publicly; and tag the right folks; your opinion does get noticed there........even if it is ignored with crossed-fingers from time to time.
ShonTron
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I can’t believe how stupid this response is.
Bordercollie
Senior Member
But Metrolinx only owns the tracks to Bramelea so to provide services to Mount Pleasant would require GO to use CN tracks past Bramelea.
smallspy
Senior Member
But that's not CP, which is what GO's response was referencing.
There's also the fact that GO has short-term plans to run trains from Bramalea, which would make that connection from points west much easier.
That doesn't explain - or excuse - the PR rep's frankly incorrect response. We can give them the benefit of the doubt regarding their knowledge of the ownership of the lines, but the fact of the matter is that none of what they have written is applicable in this case.
Dan
WB62
Senior Member
JasonParis
Moderator
I caught the last Georgetown bus yesterday from USBT only to watch the board switch almost-completely red as I was boarding.
I really think permanent bus-only lanes on the Gardiner and/or Lake Shore need to be a priority of this city.
Northern Light
Superstar
In the heart of the City, I don't see this happening in the foreseeable future.
I think the Gardiner west of the Humber could spare a lane fairly easily and there is some room in the ROW in spots as well.
That said, it is key to set up some time of reserved/preferred lanes right around the bus terminal to get buses to/from the Gardiner.
Beyond that, I think, if they get rail service up to promised/planned levels, it should do a lot to dissipate the traffic. (Service that is every 15M or better on the core of the K-W and LSW lines, and every 30M or better on Milton will draw people out of their cars.