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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

As regards Cambridge - there have been calls on this thread to have that conversation in the fantasy thread rather than here, but it does feel to me like it is in a category of projects where it is more than crayons / photoshop of alignments which have been trails for decades, but also wouldn’t cost a ton of money.

Maybe there needs to be a thread for projects which have been professionally studied and for which there is some government support, but not enough for shovels in the ground.

Double tracking the Galt sub west of Guelph Junction and/or rehabbing the Fergus for passenger ops would be comparatively simple projects when one considers what is being proposed for Oshawa/Bowmanville’s route between GO and CP, closer to what is being done between Silver Junction and Kitchener. Expanding the reservoir berm the Galt passes through could be done in winter when the lower part is drained anyway

Business cases say what senior government want them to (e.g.both Northlander closure and reopening, GO to London inception) but also depend on current data. Ultimately rail transportation in the context of this thread is about transporting people, and anyone who has been following the immigration visa numbers for the colleges sector knows that we are seeing explosive population growth in southern Ontario to the extent that many national, provincial and local projections are horribly out of date.
 
Dan416 said:
However, the trip from Erindale is 39 minutes currently. Is it really possible for them to get it down to 29 minutes? Doesn't seem likely to me. Maybe 10 minutes from Milton and maybe 5 minutes earlier from Erindale. It's really not clear and as far as I can tell, the schedules don't show any change at all.
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I am not sure if you noticed but GO had added 10-11 minutes to the schedule earlier. Cooksville to Union is supposed to take 32 min but had been showing 43 minutes for about a month. Trains would normally reach anywhere between 32 and 40 minutes to Union. Maybe they are going back to the original schedule, which is what they mean by 10 minutes fewer.
 
Deadpool X said:
I am not sure if you noticed but GO had added 10-11 minutes to the schedule earlier. Cooksville to Union is supposed to take 32 min but had been showing 43 minutes for about a month. Trains would normally reach anywhere between 32 and 40 minutes to Union. Maybe they are going back to the original schedule, which is what they mean by 10 minutes fewer.
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But the January schedules show no time differences.
 
Deadpool X said:
I am not sure from where else they are getting 10 min off.
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Yeah that’s why I asked. They keep talking about it on the train and they say to check online and online doesn’t reflect what the hell they’re talking about. Way to confuse your customers. I’d say I’m pretty knowledgeable about this kind of stuff, and if I can’t figure it out, what will other people think?
 
I can’t believe it’s already that time of year again! They should operate this service more often
You_Doodle+_2023-12-02T16_40_06Z.jpeg
 
Urban Sky said:
The Fergus Sub/Spur is the only realistic chance for Cambridge to regain passenger rail service, as the 50 km between Milton and Cambridge along the Galt Sub lack any relevant population centre (almost like the 100 km between the greenbelt and Peterborough along the Havelock Sub), making an extension of the Milton line unviable…
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If the Fergus Spur is the "the only realistic chance", maybe it's time to dismiss the idea of passenger rail to Cambridge. The proposed routing to Pinebush has very poor connectivity, and as noted by others, busses would provide a vastly better service at a much lower cost.

The reality is that some places will never have passenger trains, even in Southern Ontario. Cambridge is just plain in the wrong place to make it a worthwhile addition to the GO rail network, as it lacks the size and ridership potential to justify the cost for its own branch.

Metrolinx needs to learn to tell smaller communities like Brantford and Cambridge agitating for rail "no". Busses will always be sufficient for them.

I hope the update to council in the Spring on this project will basically be to shelve it permanently and move on to something that will address the region's transport needs. Wasting resources on such a pie in the sky helps nobody.

crs1026 said:
If CN wants to abandon the connection to Guelph, that's fine - the remaining business can interchange with CPKC (actually, the railways will fight this kind of transfer of business, with the support of the current regulatory regime.....and that's something that legislation ought to address.... if CN abandons service, they should abandon the "ownership" of any business opportunity along that territory).
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The Fergus Spur as a freight connection is also unnecessary. Being so close to Guelph, any freight customers would receive better and cheaper service by transloading. The reality is that lines like the Fergus Spur and OBRY no longer have justification with the extent of transloading infrastructure in Ontario. Given associated costs and constraints of being connected directly to the rail network for a company make direct rail service no longer efficient or desirable. From an urbanist perspective, some extra truck miles for last mile delivery are a small price to pay for the potential of redeveloping underused railway lands.
 
C_Johnson_1995 said:
If the Fergus Spur is the "the only realistic chance", maybe it's time to dismiss the idea of passenger rail to Cambridge. The proposed routing to Pinebush has very poor connectivity, and as noted by others, busses would provide a vastly better service at a much lower cost.

The reality is that some places will never have passenger trains, even in Southern Ontario. Cambridge is just plain in the wrong place to make it a worthwhile addition to the GO rail network, as it lacks the size and ridership potential to justify the cost for its own branch.

Metrolinx needs to learn to tell smaller communities like Brantford and Cambridge agitating for rail "no". Busses will always be sufficient for them.
Click to expand...
I know this isn’t the takeaway your looking for, but in short, to even say what you have said should be embarrassing for our nation or whomever you choose to attribute blame. On a historical and economic policy level, we should really ask if it is right that Cambridge, a railway town, can only be served by buses.

I see passenger service to Cambridge as a not-so-lofty goal inhibited by the cost, itself a product of policies and failures around the railroads/ways. It is our example that makes me question whether this climate is a social failure; why are well-connected cities like Cambridge penalized for being so? CN/CP operated high quality service when it was their responsibility, yet now Metrolinx only offers high quality service elsewhere.

That is the problem; something is misaligned from then and now, and it is very likely burning money in one way or another. Our path of least resistance for delivering passenger service completely negates prior advantages and assets the RRs themselves showed exist.This should seem wasteful. While GO obviously needed to navigate our policy landscape, we are lucky they were in the right place and time to buy corridors. We cannot replicate that across Ontario; greater change is needed to make our cities whole again.
 
Sunnyside said:
I know this isn’t the takeaway your looking for, but in short, to even say what you have said should be embarrassing for our nation or whomever you choose to attribute blame. On a historical and economic policy level, we should really ask if it is right that Cambridge, a railway town, can only be served by buses.

I see passenger service to Cambridge as a not-so-lofty goal inhibited by the cost, itself a product of policies and failures around the railroads/ways. It is our example that makes me question whether this climate is a social failure; why are well-connected cities like Cambridge penalized for being so? CN/CP operated high quality service when it was their responsibility, yet now Metrolinx only offers high quality service elsewhere.

That is the problem; something is misaligned from then and now, and it is very likely burning money in one way or another. Our path of least resistance for delivering passenger service completely negates prior advantages and assets the RRs themselves showed exist.This should seem wasteful. While GO obviously needed to navigate our policy landscape, we are lucky they were in the right place and time to buy corridors. We cannot replicate that across Ontario; greater change is needed to make our cities whole again.
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I would take the GO trains up to Cambridge & Brantford but no further than that. But then people in Woodstock and Stratford are going to want GO trains. Where does Metrolinx draw the line? Where does VIA rail step in? Every city can argue they're a "rail city". GO trains are meant to be reginal not intercity. I'm sure there's people on this forum that would argue Peterborough should be served by GO trains.
I also think Metrolinx should really focus on improving what we currently have, versus constantly extending the lines. I would rather have seen more funding going towards improving Lakeshore East rather then spend that money on extending the line to Bowmanville.
 
Bojaxs said:
I would take the GO trains up to Cambridge & Brantford but no further than that. But then people in Woodstock and Stratford are going to want GO trains. Where does Metrolinx draw the line? Where does VIA rail step in? Every city can argue they're a "rail city". GO trains are meant to be reginal not intercity. I'm sure there's people on this forum that would argue Peterborough should be served by GO trains.
I also think Metrolinx should really focus on improving what we currently have, versus constantly extending the lines. I would rather have seen more funding going towards improving Lakeshore East rather then spend that money on extending the line to Bowmanville.
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I think the reason why so many people push for GO trains is because GO is just about the only rail operator around these parts who seems to take expansion seriously. VIA has 4 trains departing daily from Woodstock and 1 from Stratford - I think it's rather generous to call that a service.

I don't know the politics of the lines serving these towns, but if VIA ran more often, perhaps the calls for GO expansion to there wouldn't exist.
 
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