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- Thread starter drum118
- Start date
Krypto98
Active Member
Anyone know if there is any particular operational reason Go is using a double header consist for the London trains, (locomotive 558 and 561 to be exact)
SaugeenJunction
Senior Member
According to recent Google Maps imagery there isn’t a switch from the track that serves the furthest west platform to the Milton Line track(s). I’m not sure how Milton Line trains could serve Bloor GO? Was one installed recently?
Urban Sky
Senior Member
Maybe it's to aid on-time performance through better acceleration? You would be surprised how much travel time represents the difference between once loco and six cars (which has the same power-to-weight ratio as 2 locos+12 cars) and the same loco with twelve cars...
There is no such connection between the Galt Sub and any platform track at Bloor, to the best of my knowledge...
reaperexpress
Senior Member
MALTON, not Milton. They mistakenly put Malton as the destination for the westbound trips which terminate at Bramalea. I noticed this in the GTFS data yesterday.
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reaperexpress
Senior Member
Well today the train was delayed again in London, and the destination has already been changed from Union Station to Kitchener GO before the train has even reached St Marys. I assume this is a dummy change which makes it easier for them to swap consists on the runs east of Kitchener.
Don't mind the mislabeled Stratford station...
UPDATE: a half hour later, the station labels have been corrected but now the line is missing west of Kitchener... I think someone's fixing stuff as we speak.
UPDATE 2: Yep. Stations/line are all fixed now, and a new train is waiting in Kitchener to fill the 7:32 departure that should have been operated by the London train. But for some reason it's showing as 6 minutes late even though its scheduled departure time isn't for another 24 minutes.
When I did my undergrad at the University of Waterloo, hardly anything ever started at 8:30. Students and profs both avoid scheduling classes that early whenever possible. In first year many of my friends who were technically in the 8:30 statistics class would actually go to the afternoon lecture for the same course instead. Admittedly this only works in first year where there are multiple lectures for the same course. In later years I had a couple instances where the prof asked on the first day if anyone had a problem if we started at 9:00, and of course nobody objected.
In general, students are extremely reluctant to get up early. And parents wouldn't be thrilled to get up at 4AM on Monday morning to drive their kid to downtown London to catch the train either. I did once take the first GO train of the day while I was studying in Waterloo, but that was because I stayed up late, not because I woke up early.
The only way GO will capture any "going home to London for the weekend" demand is if they run an eastbound trip on Sunday afternoon.
Sure, if they're willing to pay an additional $16/day in addition to their train tickets.
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smallspy
Senior Member
Protection. The train now operates so far away from GO's core network that there is a legitimate concern that should the train crap out that it would take several hours to source the buses to rescue the passengers. A second locomotive added to the consist should ensure that only in the most extreme of cases would a train not make it to its destination.
On top of that, Metrolinx has retained the services of two small Southwestern Ontario bus lines to provide buses on an emergency basis should the need arise, but their primary plans still call for the use of their own equipment and staff.
One has not been installed, nor are there plans for that to ever happen.
There are no plans to have platforms built for the Milton line tracks at Bloor, either.
Dan
Urban Sky
Senior Member
That would be a similar reasoning as for why VIA always has two units on its Winnipeg-Churchill service, since the lack of road coverage would only leave helicopters for evacuation...
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robmausser
Senior Member
CN: "No. "
drum118
Superstar
Your right.
As I was working on some photos last night I realizes that the switch is for the 2nd Milton tracks (5 & 6) and no connection to Track 4 for the Bloor station. The other thing I should have caught what the next 2 stations were as they are on the KW line, not Milton
nfitz
Superstar
Unless it's changed since I was a student, classes end at 4:30 - other than the dreaded 6 pm to 9 pm evening spot - but I only ever had a couple of those over the years there.
Gosh, does that mean VIA had to barge out TWO locomotives after the flooding and suspension of the line, with a train trapped in Churchill? Talk about bad luck ...
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ShonTron
Moderator
I was on the Algoma Central train heading back south from Hearst in 2014. The locomotive had a serious problem. Luckily, we were just approaching Oba, so we had a general CN freight locomotive stationed at the yard there to haul our disabled train the rest of the way back to Sault Ste. Marie.
Bordercollie
Senior Member
So I guess at that time CN operated both trains? So you didn't need a new crew to take you home?
ShonTron
Moderator
CN owned and operated the ACR since the mid 2000s. The slow ride into Oba and the switch of locomotives added time - a new relief crew met the train at Searchmont, so we were pretty late getting back into the Soo.
Deadpool X
Senior Member
Why are there no plans for having Milton trains stop at Bloor station? Is it because that line already stops at Kipling station and anyone that wants to use subway can get off at Kipling?