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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

denfromoakvillemilton said:
I think sending train back to Toronto would work I guess in case of an emergency. I see your point @ARG1 but I just think with the crew shortage we should be focusing on the GTHA.

I don't like the Niagara Falls plans either with not stopping at St Catharines. Feels like that is the bulk of the ridership actually being missed.
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Couldn't they put a trailer there as a temporary solution until the station is renovated?
 
denfromoakvillemilton said:
I think sending train back to Toronto would work I guess in case of an emergency. I see your point @ARG1 but I just think with the crew shortage we should be focusing on the GTHA.

I don't like the Niagara Falls plans either with not stopping at St Catharines. Feels like that is the bulk of the ridership actually being missed.
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I rode the weekend Niagara train almost every week over the summer, the crowds getting on at Niagara far exceeds the crowds getting on at St. Catharines.
 
reaperexpress said:
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 to Union, getting a bus into Union station is a nightmare nowadays, so trains are essential.

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.
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It looks like this was an error. The schedules have been updated with the missing trips and there is no reduction in service. I suspected it was an error since the buses holding for nonexistent trains didn't make any sense.
 
reaperexpress said:
Okay... but there's a maximum amount that each crew can work in a day. 3 hours of work at 4AM is 3 hours that they can't do later in the day. Currently the morning and afternoon London trains are run by two different crews because it would be too long of a shift otherwise.
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Even if that's true, and if we assume that that crew is willing to work anywhere in the system, 1 extra crew is probably not enough to add substantial service to any existing line. Where exactly would we put them to make a needed service improvement?
 
ARG1 said:
Even if that's true, and if we assume that that crew is willing to work anywhere in the system, 1 extra crew is probably not enough to add substantial service to any existing line. Where exactly would we put them to make a needed service improvement?
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I don't know the details of where that crew could potentially be deployed, but any other services they could provide would be more useful than providing one daily round trip between London and Kitchener.

The Niagara weekday train may also be a candidate for temporary cuts (starting at West Harbour instead of Niagara Falls) depending on how much useful staff time that would unlock. St Catharines station is closed anyway (that was roughly 50% of the weekday ridership from Niagara in my 2019 count), and GO route 12 is just as fast from Niagara Falls to Union due to the weekday train's reverse move into West Harbour.
 
LNahid2000 said:
It looks like this was an error. The schedules have been updated with the missing trips and there is no reduction in service. I suspected it was an error since the buses holding for nonexistent trains didn't make any sense.
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Thank heavens that the Stouffille and Barrie weekend cuts didn't happen. Those timetables would have been brutal. Odd that they made such timetables in the first place - it wasn't just an accident. As I noted earlier, the trips they deleted on the Barrie timetable were specifically the trips which had a time-consuming deadhead movement between Aurora and King City. Perhaps it was a backup in case of more extreme operator shortages.
 
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reaperexpress said:
Thank heavens that the Stouffille and Barrie weekend cuts didn't happen. Those timetables would have been brutal. Odd that they made such timetables in the first place - it wasn't just an accident. As I noted earlier, the trips they deleted on the Barrie timetable were specifically the trips which had a time-consuming deadhead movement between Aurora and King City. Perhaps it was a backup in case of more extreme operator shortages.
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You know................my recollection is that Phil's contract expires next year............

I have someone in mind who should apply for his job....... Ahem, Reaper!
 
Northern Light said:
You know................my recollection is that Phil's contract expires next year............

I have someone in mind who should apply for his job....... Ahem, Reaper!
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Yeah nah. That's a political job. I'd rather keep playing with my blinking lights and coloured pencils, thanks.
 
reaperexpress said:
Yeah nah. That's a political job. I'd rather keep playing with my blinking lights and coloured pencils, thanks.
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The Steve Munro excuse, LOL (said with affection).

Always good to have someone knowledgeable be an outsider; and/or a do-er; but there is value in shaking up the system by having it be accountable to someone who actually knows what they are talking about;
won't be taken in by bafflegab, and isn't prone to speaking same.

Personally, I think it would be a good fit for you for awhile; I also think it would set an interesting precedent if the CEO actually directly worked on some projects, with some teams, because they were capable of doing so......

🙂

But it is once again Ontario's loss......as you turn down another job here........ LOL
 
Northern Light said:
The Steve Munro excuse, LOL (said with affection).

Always good to have someone knowledgeable be an outsider; and/or a do-er; but there is value in shaking up the system by having it be accountable to someone who actually knows what they are talking about;
won't be taken in by bafflegab, and isn't prone to speaking same.

Personally, I think it would be a good fit for you for awhile; I also think it would set an interesting precedent if the CEO actually directly worked on some projects, with some teams, because they were capable of doing so......

🙂

But it is once again Ontario's loss......as you turn down another job here........ LOL
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The CEO doesn't spend their time solving technical challenges. They spend their time dealing with intra-organisational issues, financial issues and dealing with other organisations, etc.

If I had a management position I would actually get a lot less accomplished. There is no need for me to be the one making decisions, I merely need to convince those who do. Then someone with functioning inter-personal skills can deal with organising implementation.
 
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