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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

tylerbell said:
I really hope these trains are packed and Metrolinx sees how much demand there would be for weekend service all the way to Kitchener.
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At this point, I am sure Metrolinx sees the demand for weekend train service to Kitchener -- look how busy Route 30 weekend buses got as soon as they were introduced last spring. The special reading week trains are likely there to ease crowding on the existing buses during a known crunch time. I could see something happening again for the winter break and the February reading week too now, with limited weekend trains sometime later next year.
 
I wrote about the painfully slow GO Transit ride to Peterborough on my website. Part of the issue is that the bus pulls off to serve carpool lots that no one usually gets on or off at. But there's an opportunity to make at least the 35/115 split park-and-ride actually useful. A few daily express runs would be great too.

seanmarshall.ca

The slow way to Peterborough

Peterborough has useful GO bus service, but it’s a slow ride from Toronto. New coach bus competitors offer speed, but not much else. There’s an opportunity to do better here. I also upd…
seanmarshall.ca seanmarshall.ca
 
Screenshot_2023-09-30_121055.jpg


The train geek in me wishes little white flags could be added to the GO engines for these trains to indicate it's a special or extra just as railways did in the past. Hope I have that history correct @smallspy @crs1026

23962_5.jpg
 
^You are correct - at one time, white flags and white marker lights - collectively referred to as "symbols" - indicated a train that was not shown in the timetable and therefore had no timetable priority in relation to scheduled trains.

The symbols were a function of the old timetable-and-train-order operating rules where trains' authority to proceed was laid down by timetable and then modified by written orders relayed by local station operators. That system of operation was superseded in the 1980's by a newer system which was based on verbal orders dictated from RTC directly to the crew, usually by radio. The new system dispensed with timetable authorities, and therefore all trains effectively became "extras".

Even in the old days, white flags and lights were redundant in territory governed by CTC, although special instructions sometimes required extra trains to display white flags while in CTC territory.

The GO F59's were built with marker lights, and occasionally some crew member lights them up just for laughs - but they have no significance any more, and I'm not sure if their use is even allowed. But maybe the engineer will be tempted......

- Paul
 
tylerbell said:
I really hope these trains are packed and Metrolinx sees how much demand there would be for weekend service all the way to Kitchener.
Click to expand...
They are clearly well aware of the demand for weekend service to Kitchener given that they need to run three double decker buses express to Kitchener for each train arrival at Bramalea during busy parts of the day:

Screenshot_20230923-150426.png

ShonTron said:
I wrote about the painfully slow GO Transit ride to Peterborough on my website. Part of the issue is that the bus pulls off to serve carpool lots that no one usually gets on or off at. But there's an opportunity to make at least the 35/115 split park-and-ride actually useful. A few daily express runs would be great too.

seanmarshall.ca

The slow way to Peterborough

Peterborough has useful GO bus service, but it’s a slow ride from Toronto. New coach bus competitors offer speed, but not much else. There’s an opportunity to do better here. I also upd…
seanmarshall.ca seanmarshall.ca
Click to expand...
It's good that they've finally introduced some express trips on the 88, but it's a bit limiting that it's only 3 round trips per day on Thursdays and Fridays. They really ought to run some express trips on Sundays as well, to cover the other direction of people's weekend trips.

The timing of the express trips is also not great - they have a 25-minute transfer to the train at Oshawa station, which undermines their speed advantage.
Capture.PNG

I wonder what route the 88C express takes. The fastest route would be via the 407E and and 418, but I don't know if the province waives the fees on the 407E (which they own) for GO. They really should, it's the least they could do to make that public expenditure of theirs at least a little bit useful for people who don't own cars.

Also, Flixbus and Rider Express aren't the only ones running from Toronto to Ottawa via Peterborough, Book a Ride does as well.
 
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reaperexpress said:
I wonder what route the 88C express takes. The fastest route would be via the 407E and and 418, but I don't know if the province waives the fees on the 407E (which they own) for GO. They really should, it's the least they could do to make that public expenditure of theirs at least a little bit useful for people who don't own cars.

Also, Flixbus and Rider Express aren't the only ones running from Toronto to Ottawa via Peterborough, Book a Ride does as well.
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It would be hilariously dumb if the province charged themselves to use GO on their owned portion of the 407 but anything can happen. The 52/56 buses got rerouted to use the 407E earlier this year so it is possible for a Peterborough-407 Station route one day using the entire Highway there.
 
Has anyone noticed a huge increase in the emergency alarms pressed? I've had it happen on 5 out of the last 6 trips I took, some of them more than once on the ride!!
 
turbanplanner said:
Has anyone noticed a huge increase in the emergency alarms pressed? I've had it happen on 5 out of the last 6 trips I took, some of them more than once on the ride!!
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I've only noticed one.

But I've been on YRT a bit lately, and I hadn't realised that any agency was STILL using the identical strips to ask the bus to stop at the next stop!

Was it a lot of weekend and off-peak travel you've seen this, where riders might not be as familiar with the system as the regulars?
 
nfitz said:
I've only noticed one.

But I've been on YRT a bit lately, and I hadn't realised that any agency was STILL using the identical strips to ask the bus to stop at the next stop!

Was it a lot of weekend and off-peak travel you've seen this, where riders might not be as familiar with the system as the regulars?
Click to expand...
Brampton also has this primarily on their Zum buses so its a bit understandable to how one might be confused with what the yellow strip does as its so inconsistent.
 
nfitz said:
I've only noticed one.

But I've been on YRT a bit lately, and I hadn't realised that any agency was STILL using the identical strips to ask the bus to stop at the next stop!

Was it a lot of weekend and off-peak travel you've seen this, where riders might not be as familiar with the system as the regulars?
Click to expand...
Two were today on the niagara train, it happened 3 times. I was in the coach that it happened in once and nobody admitted to pressing it, so maybe it's an error? But they were all in different coaches. I think some people hit it on purpose on one of the other trips because the service ambassador was chewing people out to only use it for emergencies, not pointing out it's not for a stop request.
 
From many years of experience on GO trains, I've seen these accidental alarm calls many times and it's a continuing phenomenon though most notably outside of rush hour, but I don't think there's any more than usual now.

The most common misuse I've seen is always passengers who wake up at the last moment and realise they are about to miss the doors closing at their stop and think that pressing the alarm will keep them open long enough to get out of the train, and this actually does work sometimes.

I've also seen this on the Niagara express trains where people press it to try and force the train to stop at a station that would normally be skipped, which of course doesn't work. Interestingly, I was once on one of those Niagara trains sitting in the CSA car which did made an unscheduled stop at Appleby, and it was because a group of clearly confused first time passengers very politely explained their situation to the CSA well before getting there who then asked control for permission to stop there, and it was granted with the train stopping only long enough for him to open the one door adjacent to him to let them out.
 
Jonny5 said:
From many years of experience on GO trains, I've seen these accidental alarm calls many times and it's really a continuing phenomenon, though most notably outside of rush hour, but I don't think there's any more than usual now.

The most common misuse I've seen is always passengers who wake up at the last moment and realise they are about to miss the doors closing at their stop and think that pressing the alarm will keep them open long enough to get out of the train, and this actually does work sometimes.

I've also seen this on the Niagara express trains where people press it to try and force the train to stop at a station that would normally be skipped, which of course doesn't work. Interestingly, I was once on one of those Niagara trains sitting in the CSA car which did made an unscheduled stop at Appleby, and it was because a group of clearly confused first time passengers very politely explained their situation to the CSA who then asked control for permission to stop there, and it was granted.
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I though there were signs posting a fine for misuse. Has it ever been enforced?
 
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