dowlingm
Senior Member
Remember there is a capacity limitation (the Canal lift bridge) for which GO only has so many slots available. So they could probably do more, but only so much more once you count 2 Amtrak movements a day plus GO’s.
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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)
- Thread starter drum118
- Start date
smallspy
Senior Member
I think that you're conflating Metrolinx's agreement with the Canal Authority regarding their two "closed" slots (which represent the times for the weekday morning inbound and afternoon outbound rush hour trains) with there being an actual limitation on trains over the canal.
Metrolinx is allowed to run as many trains as they want, insofar as CN is willing to let them. CN has no limitations to the number of trains that they are allowed to run on that line.
The agreement with Metrolinx and the Canal Authority is solely in regards to ensuring that there are no ship crossings of the bridge at the times that coincide with those two rush hour trains. Beyond that, Metrolinx is bound by the same limitations as CN - ships have right-of-way.
Dan
lenaitch
Senior Member
MX was also experiencing running crew staffing issues, unless that has been solved.
Allandale25
Senior Member
Not sure if this is new news.
dowlingm
Senior Member
Ah - thanks for the clarification Dan. I was under the impression that the closed slots reflected all current GO scheduled services.
Achemarci
New Member
We're now at November 2019 train service levels on the Milton line 5 years later... yay? Only 1 more train than 30+ years ago in October 1990-May 1991 during which there were 19 trains per day compared to 20 thirty years later. Wow what a benevolent government.
DirectionNorth
Senior Member
The off-peak service on other lines is far above what was offered 30, 15, 10 years ago (maybe not 5 years ago).
Milton GO should be on the priority list for 2030s projects, but Metrolinx is short on project management capacity and competence as it is. Milton GO Expansion would be billions in any country, let alone this one, and there are other transit projects ongoing. As long as Milton remains a peak-in-peak-out service, there won't be significant expansion above current levels. While Doug's governance is questionable at best, return to pre-COVID commuter service is not even close to what causes me to roll my eyes.
nfitz
Superstar
The Milton information seems to be new news, and it's good to see that they've finally reversed there Covid cuts on that line.
But they still haven't restored about 50% of their mid-day and reverse-peak service on the Lakeshore line. Hopefully once Alstom sorts out their staffing and training scheduling mess, we'll see that sometime in the New Year.
crs1026
Superstar
There's scheduling and there's ridership. I rode the Milton line last week and while the train was pretty full, I had no trouble getting a seat at Kipling.
I wonder how ridership compares to 2019?
- Paul
I wonder how ridership compares to 2019?
- Paul
Sunnyside
Senior Member
Take this with a grain of salt as I’ve literally never ridden the Milton Line, but, ridership is likely in line with how peak demand has changed since the pandemic. That is to say, the Milton line’s overall ridership likely mirrors systemwide peak figures of 70-90% of prepandemic ridership. That’s still quite impressive, seeing as it is/was the second-most ridden line even as a peak-only service.
Concrete numbers would be nice, though, as this would highlight how much AD2W has become a necessity for good ridership post-pandemic across the network. But without data, the real question is…
WHERE is the TTS 2021?!
sixrings
Senior Member
Wow it’s practically all day. Grateful.
Allandale25
Senior Member
Here's the Metrolinx post with the timings of the new trains. Notes adjustments for other trains on other lines.
More rush hour service coming to Milton Line
Two additional rush hour trips for Milton Line, minor schedule adjustments across GO rail network.
www.metrolinx.com
reaperexpress
Senior Member
Empirically one would expect Milton to lag behind Lakeshore W and Kitchener in ridership recovery even if service frequencies were equal. We know that generally peak period commuter ridership to downtown is much lower than in 2019 but off-peak ridership across the region is higher. The land use and transit connections around the Milton line are not well suited to off-peak or counter peak travel even if there were such train service, since there aren't many destinations along the line. It's effectively a shuttle from Mississauga to downtown Toronto.
In contrast the Kitchener and Lakeshore lines have substantial trip generators all the way along the line, like KW, Guelph and Hamilton, which fuel all-day two-way ridership.
So I don't think it's concerning that Milton ridership is still lower than 2019. It means that we don't need to run the trains very close together to handle the peak surge. Pre pandemic, AM peak service was every 11 minutes, but now we will have the same number of departures at 15-minute headways, producing a longer span of service.
Bojaxs
Senior Member
I would say there's probably some counter peak demand for stations like Kipling, Cooksville, Erindale (UTM students).
Sunnyside
Senior Member
There’s almost certainly demand along the entire corridor, these are probably the most notable that could see immediate ridership uptake. Lots of people riding buses that connect to Milton line stations, or that could use the line as an alternative throughout the day. It is effectively entirely urbanized from end to end, after all.