News   Mar 28, 2024
 1.3K     3 
News   Mar 28, 2024
 675     2 
News   Mar 28, 2024
 938     0 

GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

Some more new October 11 schedules are out. Big service cuts for Stouffville GO trains on weekends; there's only 10 trains per day in each direction, rather than 15.

On the Kitchener line, they've added a minute eastbound between Kitchener and Guelph, and 17 minutes (eastbound) between London and Kitchener; they've only added 10 minutes westbound. London to Union is now 4 hours and 13 minutes in each direction.

I thought they removed one slow order to make the trip faster
 
Some more new October 11 schedules are out. Big service cuts for Stouffville GO trains on weekends; there's only 10 trains per day in each direction, rather than 15.

On the Kitchener line, they've added a minute eastbound between Kitchener and Guelph, and 17 minutes (eastbound) between London and Kitchener; they've only added 10 minutes westbound. London to Union is now 4 hours and 13 minutes in each direction.

Holy crap, they absolutely gutted the Stouffville and Barrie weekend timetables, leaving gaping holes not filled by any replacement bus. For example, they cancelled the 19:13 and 20:13 trains, leaving you no way to get to the 20:12 and 21:12 route 70 buses.

Capture.JPG


The Barrie line was similarly gutted, yet bizarrely there are still those awkward trains heading to Barrie, which require tons of deadhead movements. Personally I would have kept the regular hourly service to Aurora and sacrificed the midday trips to Barrie, since at least there is a bus alternative. Even if there were a bus replacement to Union, getting a bus into Union station is a nightmare nowadays, so trains are essential.

Capture2.JPG


As previously noted, the Niagara weekend train service has now been cut in half, operating with a single trainset rather than two. The morning departure from Toronto (10:07) seems a tad late, not arriving in Niagara until past noon. Hopefully when tourist season comes back around they will add an additional departure at 09:07.

Due to the temporary closure of St Catharines station, weekend GO trains now travel 77 km non-stop from Aldershot to Niagara Falls in 75 minutes, which is by far the longest station-to-station distance and time in the network.
 
Last edited:
Holy crap, they absolutely gutted the Stouffville and Barrie weekend timetables, leaving gaping holes not filled by any replacement bus. For example, they cancelled the 19:13 and 20:13 trains, leaving you no way to get to the 20:12 and 21:12 route 70 buses.

View attachment 431641

The Barrie line was similarly gutted, yet bizarrely there are still those awkward trains heading to Barrie, which require tons of deadhead movements. Personally I would have kept the regular hourly service to Aurora and sacrificed the midday trips to Barrie, since at least there is a bus alternative. Even if there were a bus replacement, getting a bus into Union station is a nightmare nowadays, so that would be a terrible option.

View attachment 431642

As previously noted, the Niagara weekend train service has now been cut in half, operating with a single trainset rather than two. The morning departure from Toronto (10:07) seems a tad late, not arriving in Niagara until past noon. Hopefully when tourist season comes back around they will add an additional departure at 09:07.

Due to the temporary closure of St Catharines station, weekend GO trains now travel 77 km non-stop from Aldershot to Niagara Falls in 75 minutes, which is by far the longest station-to-station distance and time in the network.
Is dead heading the train back to union faster?

Is this due to lack of crews?
 
Is dead heading the train back to union faster?
No in this case we're talking about the way Aurora trains need to deadhead back and forth to the siding in King City in order to let Allandale trains through. Since Aurora station only has 1 track.

However, on closer inspection, the trains they deleted are specifically the ones which needed to do that deadhead movement. So I retract my previous statement: this timetable does use resources efficiently.

Is this due to lack of crews?
Yes.
 
No in this case we're talking about the way Aurora trains need to deadhead back and forth to the siding in King City in order to let Allandale trains through. Since Aurora station only has 1 track.

However, on closer inspection, the trains they deleted are specifically the ones which needed to do that deadhead movement. So I retract my previous statement: this timetable does use resources efficiently.


Yes.
Bradford has two tracks why not just extend the train to Bradford?
 
Holy crap, they absolutely gutted the Stouffville and Barrie weekend timetables, leaving gaping holes not filled by any replacement bus.
I'm not seeing any changes for Route 65 from the previous (September 24) schedule, other than an extra weekday peak train in each direction.
 
Holy crap, they absolutely gutted the Stouffville and Barrie weekend timetables, leaving gaping holes not filled by any replacement bus. For example, they cancelled the 19:13 and 20:13 trains, leaving you no way to get to the 20:12 and 21:12 route 70 buses.
After looking at the Train Schedule changes page it appears these changes started this weekend instead of the 11th. Considering how often Barrie/Stouffville trips were cancelled due to "crew availability" in the past several months I'm guessing their solution is to just remove trips out of the schedule.
 
I'm not seeing any changes for Route 65 from the previous (September 24) schedule, other than an extra weekday peak train in each direction.
I was noticing for example that the weekend northbound 10:53, 13:53, 16:53, 21:53 and 23:53 trains have been deleted. But I see now that they are also missing from the September 24 schedule
 
And yet, Alstom doesn't seem overly concerned. As they don't seem to be looking for more CSRs, conductors or engineers at the moment..
 

Back
Top