[miketoronto]

I was on the GO TRAIN coming home from work tonight, and I was thinking.

Brampton is the only suburban area in the Toronto area without hourly GO train or bus service seven days a week.

-Pickering, Ajax, Whitby, Oshawa, and even Clarington and its hamlets recieve hourly train and bus service seven days a week.

-Markham-Stouffville now recieve hourly service seven days a week.

-Aurora-Newmarket now have hourly service seven days a week.

-Mississauga, Oakville, Burlington receive hourly service seven days a week. Mississauga even sees service as frequant as every 10-15min at times even on the off peak.

-Hamilton gets tons of service every 20-30min seven days a week.

That leaves Brampton as the only area without hourly service.

What do you think is the reason behind GO transit doing this?
Howcome ridership in Newcastle can support a bus running every hour to the train, yet Brampton can't?
Do Brampton people travel less out of their suburb then people in the other parts of the region?

 

[spmarshall]

I gave up trying to fight this one, so I moved. Bunch of cabbageheads.

GO Transit practices geographic discrimination. Not only is the service crappy, it's a higher fare Brampton-Union than Aurora-Union or Meadowvale-Union, a farther distance.

Maybe because Hazel is the "Peel rep" on GO Transit, and not the regional chair, like Durham, York or Halton?

 

[unimaginative2]

It completely baffles me, especially since Brampton is also a major employment centre. That would make it even more suited to all-day service as opposed to merely commuting.

I have a bit of a conspiracy theory that everybody along that train line gets ignored by all levels of government. The South Mainline (Lakeshore route) receives twice as much VIA service as well as all the track improvements even though the population served is far smaller.

 

[doady]

Maybe because Hazel is the "Peel rep" on GO Transit, and not the regional chair, like Durham, York or Halton?

I doubt it. Hazel doesn't have absolute power over GO and the Georgetown line also serves Mississauga anyways.

There are a lot of wierd things about GO Transit's bus service, especially their focus on serving park-and-ride lots in the middle of nowhereand completely ignoring dense transit hubs. That's just the way GO is.

It doesn't matter anyways since the Georgetown line will be the first to get all-day train service.

 

[drum118]

My understanding that Brampton will see 30-60 minute service once a new track is built some where around 2010 now thanks to Blue22.

 

[unimaginative2]

As long as the Blue 22 track improvements go through.

 

[Sir Novelty Fashion]

Is the Brampton service not constrained, like drum says, by the usual constraints of GO not owning its own tracks, and / or there not being enough track to go around?

Or is it just a budgetary decision?

 

[samsonyuen]

What about Vaughan and Richmond Hill? And is the service through to Uxbridge throuhout the day?

I thought the only all-day train service was the Lakeshore lines?

 

[spmarshall]

We're talking buses though. Surely GO could have hourly bus service to Union like the Milton, Bradford or Stouffville lines? Right now, weekends and reverse trips (such as from Brampton in the afternoon and evening) are every three hours.

 

[dashingdan]

But the Georgetown line is the only other line other than Lakeshore to have any trains outside of rush hour. Even Milton doesn't have that.

 

[Darkstar416]

Brampton does have half-hourly Go Bus service to/from Yorkdale/York Mills though. It's access directly to downtown T.O. which could really stand to be feeded-up.

 

[spmarshall]

Brampton does have half-hourly Go Bus service to/from Yorkdale/York Mills though. It's access directly to downtown T.O. which could really stand to be feeded-up.

True, but for a trip that takes 65-75 minutes to Yorkdale from Downtown Brampton, it's a rip-off ($6 one-way), because you have to pay for the TTC fare as well, and the trip becomes 90-100 minutes. A direct bus from Downtown Brampton to Union when express is 35 minutes, via Bramalea and Malton about 45-50 minutes. Hardly anyone wants to go to Yorkdale or York Mills.

Oshawa/Whitby/Ajax/Pickering also has the half-hourly Highway 2 service to York Mills/Yorkdale (and better to Scarborough) along with the hourly train/train meet service.

 

[Transportfan]

(Quote) Is the Brampton service not constrained, like drum says, by the usual constraints of GO not owning its own tracks, and / or there not being enough track to go around?

There is a bottleneck east of the 4 corners where the line goes down to single track. There have been plans to put in a 2nd track for at least 5 years now, but the project seems stalled.