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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

Metroscapes said:
That seems tight. But I think the principle here is that, even if there were legit delays, there's no explanation or attempt to publicly communicate a new target. It's just clamming up and smiling nervously.
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It’s worse than that in that it appears that the construction in spots requires the contractor to start by building the outer wall of the north embankment and work inwards…. Wouldn’t surprise me if ML has actually pushed the third track off in the schedule so more gets done faster on the Ontario line. And of course nobody is going to fess up if that is the case.
In any event, there is still lots of bridgework to be done, so I would not expect the third track to be finished before next spring at the earliest.

- Paul
 
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nfitz said:
I have no idea how they could have promised a September 2024 date.
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Really easily. There is no reason why they couldn't run express trains tomorrow, if they wanted to. While the signal system is not quite as robust as the system installed on the Weston Sub, it is still plenty good enough to allow them to have three trains running eastward - or westward - at speed between Danforth and Union.

I fear the problem is more one of corporate laziness, an unwillingness to try and do something a little harder. There seems to be a lot of that permiating the organization.

Dan
 
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smallspy said:
Really easily. There is no reason why they couldn't run express trains tomorrow, if they wanted to. While the signal system is not quite as robust as the system installed on the Weston Sub, it is still plenty good enough to allow them to have three trains running eastward - or westward - at speed between Danforth and Union.

I fear the problem is more one of corporate laziness, an unwillingness to try and do something a little harder. There seems to be a lot of that permitting the organization.
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When you take the old (2019) express timings and insert them in the current schedule, its interesting how few overtakes are actually needed to introduce some express runs - and if that were done, some of the "trippers" that originate at Oshawa/Whitby and only make one trip to Union before laying up might be adjustable by a couple minutes.

For that matter, the "express" runs need not run as frequent or as fast as before the cancellation - if they gained a couple minutes' running time, they could interleave with the stopping trains and not require overtakes at all. I doubt that many riders would actually check new versus old timings, and the political pressure would be addressed. Or start some local trains at Pickering as in the past.

White and yellow runs are current, green are the old express times inserted in the schedule. The heavy box border shows where an overtake would be needed.
Have the 07:55 arrival move to 07:59, the 08:23 to 08:29, and the 08:42 to 08:44, 08:55 to 09:00, and you virtually eliminate the overtakes.

- Paul

1753542158961.png
 
crs1026 said:
When you take the old (2019) express timings and insert them in the current schedule, its interesting how few overtakes are actually needed to introduce some express runs - and if that were done, some of the "trippers" that originate at Oshawa/Whitby and only make one trip to Union before laying up might be adjustable by a couple minutes.

For that matter, the "express" runs need not run as frequent or as fast as before the cancellation - if they gained a couple minutes' running time, they could interleave with the stopping trains and not require overtakes at all. I doubt that many riders would actually check new versus old timings, and the political pressure would be addressed. Or start some local trains at Pickering as in the past.

White and yellow runs are current, green are the old express times inserted in the schedule. The heavy box border shows where an overtake would be needed.
Have the 07:55 arrival move to 07:59, the 08:23 to 08:29, and the 08:42 to 08:44, 08:55 to 09:00, and you virtually eliminate the overtakes.

- Paul

View attachment 669072
Click to expand...
And that doesn't even take into account the still-existing triple track section from Guildwood to Danforth. Another option would be to move the departures of the expresses ahead to ensure that they pass the locals within that section.

Dan
 
So we have 2 people here, with reasonable knowledge and expertise who have put together a realistic plan to insert some express trains back into the LSE schedule, and all the minions at Metrolinx earning top dollar can't come up with a plan to improve customer satisfaction and ridership?
I guess I'm missing something. 🙄
 
Fritter said:
So we have 2 people here, with reasonable knowledge and expertise who have put together a realistic plan to insert some express trains back into the LSE schedule, and all the minions at Metrolinx earning top dollar can't come up with a plan to improve customer satisfaction and ridership?
I guess I'm missing something. 🙄
Click to expand...

Well, the spectators don’t have access to budget, crews, or equipment cycles - so it’s easy to plan something on paper.
But I agree with @smallspy that the word “can’t” seems to crop up more often than it should in MLspeak.
And as few of the spectators have ever worked on an overseas rail line where things are said to be done to a more expert standard, we aren’t very compelling to the recent ML hires /s

- Paul
 
crs1026 said:
When you take the old (2019) express timings and insert them in the current schedule, its interesting how few overtakes are actually needed to introduce some express runs - and if that were done, some of the "trippers" that originate at Oshawa/Whitby and only make one trip to Union before laying up might be adjustable by a couple minutes.

For that matter, the "express" runs need not run as frequent or as fast as before the cancellation - if they gained a couple minutes' running time, they could interleave with the stopping trains and not require overtakes at all. I doubt that many riders would actually check new versus old timings, and the political pressure would be addressed. Or start some local trains at Pickering as in the past.

White and yellow runs are current, green are the old express times inserted in the schedule. The heavy box border shows where an overtake would be needed.
Have the 07:55 arrival move to 07:59, the 08:23 to 08:29, and the 08:42 to 08:44, 08:55 to 09:00, and you virtually eliminate the overtakes.

- Paul

View attachment 669072
Click to expand...
If they use the express track that is still in service between Guildwood and Danforth, they can run the expresses at full speed. Based on the previous schedule, an express train can save 10 minutes, so it would depart Pickering 5 minutes behind a local and arrive Union 5 minutes ahead. Most notably it would arrive at the start of triple track (Guildwood) 2 minutes behind the local, and reach the end of triple track (Danforth) 4 minutes ahead.

There's currently a cluster of Lakeshore East trains arriving Union a few minutes apart around 08:30:
Screenshot 2025-07-27 at 17.41.35.png


The easiest way to reintroduce express service would be to just make one of those runs express, while maintaining 15-minute local service.
Screenshot 2025-07-27 at 17.41.22.png


As far as I can tell, both of the affected trains arrive out-of-service from Whitby yard, so it should be possible to shift their departure times without messing other stuff up. The only possible reason I could see with this schedule being infeasible is if moving the train's arrival from 08:34 to 08:37 somehow creates issues for the train's next trip. But it's only a 3-minute difference so I doubt it. The main downside of this schedule is that it reduces the buffer between the trains, so if either the local or express are delayed, the delay will propagate onto the other train (unless they're more than 6 minutes delayed in which case they'd just run in sequence and not overtake).

To run more than one express trip they'd probably want to add additional trips to avoid creating a gap in the 15-minute local service. So that depends on them having an available crew and trainset. It looks like an additional trip could be added that overtakes the local trip arriving Union at 08:27, but the 08:20 Stouffville Line trip would need to shift a couple minutes earlier to make room. Currently there's no counter-peak service on the Stouffville Line so that shouldn't create any scheduling conflicts, but the uneven headway might prevent them from introducing counter-peak service in the future. There seems to be plenty of room to add an express trip arriving Union at 08:07.
Screenshot 2025-07-27 at 17.49.53.png


TL;DR: I agree with you and @smallspy that it seems possible to re-introduce express service without waiting for the third track to be reinstated between Danforth and Union.
 
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Stouffville line

Starting Tuesday, Sept. 2, we’re adding two new weekday trips on the Stouffville line.

NEW! 3:32 p.m. train departing Union Station, making all stops to Unionville GO arriving at 4:13 p.m.
NEW! 5:37 p.m. train departing Unionville GO, making all stops to Union Station arriving at 6:18 p.m
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This is quite new as no trains currently turn back at Unionville GO, they all go to Mount Joy or further.

It's incremental service but Northbound 30 min frequency now starts at 3pm instead of 4pm.

For Southbound service, from Unionville GO, trains now come every 2 hours instead of a 4 hour gap.
 
chrisw said:
This is quite new as no trains currently turn back at Unionville GO, they all go to Mount Joy or further.

It's incremental service but Northbound 30 min frequency now starts at 3pm instead of 4pm.

For Southbound service, from Unionville GO, trains now come every 2 hours instead of a 4 hour gap.
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It’s nice to see Metrolinx immediately adding service after bringing the second track online between Agincourt and Kennedy in early July.
 
stevensontransit said:
Go fall service changes effective August 30th is out and upsettingly many of these changes show small improvements outside post secondary increases considering those return to office mandates by many companies and employers in Toronto and Ontario public servants that’s announced today: https://www.gotransit.com/en/travelling-on-go/service-changes-will-begin-on-aug-30
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Brantford is getting a third GO bus stop at Erie Ave and Ninth Ave. I hope that means the 15 bus extension is going well.
 
PShells said:
It’s nice to see Metrolinx immediately adding service after bringing the second track online between Agincourt and Kennedy in early July.
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It's nice, but.... In the new schedule, I see only two Oakworth-Highland meets per day 1550/1559 vs 1552/1601, and 1748/1757 vs 1750/1759.

Still plenty of gaps in the service pattern, and one-way peak service still prevails.

I would call this a very timid toe-in-the-water implementation, and no big advance on a line that continues to represent a huge stranded investment by virtue of failure to complete the Highland - Underwood double tracking.

Show me 30 minute headways, unbroken during peak periods, and I might be celebrating.

- Paul
 
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@smallspy may or may not have some insight he can share on near-term service plans..........but I have to say, with the return to office mandates, both public sector and private, and crowding already an issue.

I think think the government will get an earful if this is the best effort in the near term.

****

Over on Reddit, someone else (among many) emailed to complain about the lack of LSE express service, and got a response. The response was non-committal pablum............but FWIW:

1755263448600.png


From:
https://www.reddit.com/r/gotransit/comments/1mqgous/lakeshore_east_express
 
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