GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

[Dan416]

Trip from Milton GO to Toronto will be quicker in new year | INhalton

Beginning Jan. 6, Milton commuters who take the GO Train to Toronto will find the ride a little bit quicker. Metrolinx, the company the runs GO services, announced that the completion of some recent maintenance work will enable trains to run at regular speeds and shave 10 minutes off many trips...

www.inhalton.com

So, the 10 min delay is not reflected in the PDF tables. The current PDF tables show the trip taking 64 minutes. But, the 74 minutes trip time is reflected in the timetable (non-pdf)

Bus & Train Schedules

Find all GO Train and GO Bus schedule information here.

www.gotransit.com

View attachment 530204
Some Reddit threads from the past couple months.

https://www.reddit.com/r/gotransit/comments/17m2v4w

https://www.reddit.com/r/Milton/comments/1807xut

There were certainly delays these past couple months.

I just checked the December schedule again, and they’re magically showing the trip as taking 49 minutes now (versus 39 minutes) from Erindale, which it wasn’t, or rarely was. We’re not actually getting improved service, just removing the buffer time that I had never even seen added in.

 

[generalcanada]

Interesting: only Lakeshore East and West were mentioned as electrification candidates.

not specifically "candidates" per se. but prioritized lines.
Barrie, Kitchener and Stouville lines are being electrified to be clear, but, It basically confirms what UT'ers have been talking about for years now. Lakeshore East and West are the easiest to get electrification going for. Theyre going to be running electrified service before the other lines

 

[allengeorge]

not specifically "candidates" per se. but prioritized lines

Ah - you’re exactly right: they did say that they were prioritized.

 

[chrisw]

Some massive crowding at Union Station for New Years. Pictures from Twitter.

Source 1, Source 2, Source 3.

 

[reaperexpress]

This is similar to my experience during New Years pre-pandemic. I figured that the reason they added so many more NYE trains this year was to prevent this from reoccuring. I guess the additional trains weren't enough, or they weren't timed to line up with the actual peak demand.

 

[WB62]

These people aren’t even heading to GO though, everyone in those photos is heading to the TTC subway

This is similar to my experience during New Years pre-pandemic. I figured that the reason they added so many more NYE trains this year was to prevent this from reoccuring. I guess the additional trains weren't enough, or they weren't timed to line up with the actual peak demand.

 

[crs1026]

These people aren’t even heading to GO though, everyone in those photos is heading to the TTC subway

I am told that GO was similar, ie trains filled beyond capacity.

Maybe less than perfect for this year, but hopefully data that will create an even greater scheduled throughput next year.

Definitely an indication that people are willing to leave their cars at home and take transit, so the glass is far from empty.

- Paul

 

[chrisw]

Some videos from someone waiting for the GO Train.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1741845799070212296

 

[reaperexpress]

Some videos from someone waiting for the GO Train.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1741845799070212296

They were running trains every 15 minutes on Lakeshore West after midnight. Assuming they were all 12-car sets (I really hope they were), that's a crush load capacity of over 12,000 people per hour on LSW alone.

Here are the capacities of the services they ran last night during the peak hour (00:30-01:30)
4 tph (12,000 pph) Lakeshore West
1 tph (3,000 pph) Milton
2 tph (6,000 pph) Lakeshore East
2 tph (6,000 pph) Kitchener
1 tph (3,000 pph) Barrie
1 tph (3,000 pph) Richmond Hill
1 tph (3,000 pph) Stouffville

In total that's a capacity of 36,000 people per hour between 00:30 and 01:30.

Part of the issue may have been crowd distribution. In previous years crowds have been very unevenly distributed throughout the station and throughout the trains, resulting in severe overcrowding in some areas and some coaches, while other areas and coaches had spare capacity. Given how crowded the trains are, maybe they should add some express services. With such crowding it takes forever at each stop for people to get off the train to make room for people to exit, then get back on again.

 

[Allandale25]

I am told that GO was similar, ie trains filled beyond capacity.

Maybe less than perfect for this year, but hopefully data that will create an even greater scheduled throughput next year.

Definitely an indication that people are willing to leave their cars at home and take transit, so the glass is far from empty.

- Paul

The Union Station south concourse will open in 2026. I wonder if that will help a little.

Union Station platform construction project to facilitate better GO Transit service progressing

A $560-million project to build two wider train platforms and a new concourse at Union Station is underway. It should be finished in 2026.

toronto.citynews.ca

 

[Northern Light]

The Union Station south concourse will open in 2026. I wonder if that will help a little.

Union Station platform construction project to facilitate better GO Transit service progressing

A $560-million project to build two wider train platforms and a new concourse at Union Station is underway. It should be finished in 2026.

toronto.citynews.ca

Ahem; slippage.



No, I can't say for sure; but that's not a wild guess on my part either.

We shall see what Mx has to say in the months ahead.

 

[Bojaxs]

A lot of people are saying they should have had more trains running. Try to take into account the staffing issues Metrolinx must have been experiencing. I'm sure a lot of the station staff and Alstom crew members weren't keen to work these hours. Probably a lot of "book offs, sick calls", etc.

 

[crs1026]

The Union Station south concourse will open in 2026. I wonder if that will help a little.

Union Station platform construction project to facilitate better GO Transit service progressing

A $560-million project to build two wider train platforms and a new concourse at Union Station is underway. It should be finished in 2026.

toronto.citynews.ca

One would hope so.

The problem with uneven distribution along the platform is real, especially when specific venues let out - eg Skydome patrons flooding in from York Street (wise Jays fans do learn to walk to the Bay end before finding stairs to their platform).

As for last night, the reports I heard suggested that some trains were indeed full end to end. The issue was likely uncertainty over when peak flow would happen - hard to predict for a once a year event with few people likely to leave before midnight.

But then....ridership on this evening was probably at the high end, period.

- Paul

 

[crs1026]

A lot of people are saying they should have had more trains running. Try to take into account the staffing issues Metrolinx must have been experiencing. I'm sure a lot of the station staff and Alstom crew members weren't keen to work these hours. Probably a lot of "book offs, sick calls", etc.

I don't dispute that ML has a staffing challenge generally, but.... I'm a bit hard nosed on this topic.

As the role of transit grows, we will have to see a different employment bargain that exchanges (whatever) for an expanded requirement to work holiday shifts, or any other time when the public needs peak service.

I'm quite familiar with the realities of what workers do to improve their lot....and I get some interesting input from people who hold union rep roles about what today's workers will and won't accept.... sounds like there is a generational shift .... but at the end of the day, if the employer needs staff for more trains on New Years, the employment bargain should enable that (with appropriate consideration in the other direction, I would stress).

- Paul

 

[reaperexpress]

In the longer term we also need to move to one-operator trains (1 operator + 1 CSA, vs 2+1 currently), to enable us to run far more trains with a given number of staff. That is not currently possible due to the large potential for human error in our current signal systems, but once ETCS is equipped on the core network, local trains which never leave ETCS territory should be able to have only a single operator, just like they do everywhere else that uses ETCS.