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reaperexpress said:
GO stated recently that ridership is currently around 40% of pre-pandemic. That honestly seems like very healthy demand considering that they are scheduling barely half of the normal service, almost all of which is slow local service.
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I wonder how that 40% spreads out over the week. I suspect based on downtown/PATH activity it is nearer 30pc on Mondays and Fridays and 50pc or more on Tuesday-Thursday, because most people that still have hybrid arrangements are starting or ending the week at home.
 
Fritter said:
From an internal email, it looks like Mon-Fri is still at about 30% pre pandemic, but weekends its close to 85% pre pandemic. we shall see how things shake out, but GO may und up being a more leisure/recreational transportation service as oppose to a commuter service.
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dowlingm said:
I wonder how that 40% spreads out over the week. I suspect based on downtown/PATH activity it is nearer 30pc on Mondays and Fridays and 50pc or more on Tuesday-Thursday, because most people that still have hybrid arrangements are starting or ending the week at home.
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Where I work in a tower at King/University there are about a dozen staff who were former GO users that have flipped to driving, both because they find parking much cheaper and closer to the office than it was pre-pandemic, and also they like the flexibility to leave at the time they want without concern for the train schedule. "I'll finish this work day at home later" has become a much more accepted practice. As long as you are trusted to get it done, it doesn't matter if the work is emailed out at 4:00 p.m. or 8:00 p.m., so more people go in to the office at 8:00 a.m. and head home at 2:30 p.m. which doesn't work well for many GO lines.

However, none of them think that's a long term situation. They expect things more normalised by September.
 
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I bet it's a lack of service too. Why take the slow, non-express GO line when traffic is generally still below pre-pandemic levels and you can drive faster for a similar price?

re-introducing peak express services will help, and as more and more people go into the office more and more will return to GO. I'm not sure peak demand will ever be as acute as it was pre-pandemic, but ridership will probably be back to 80% of pre-pandemic or so within the next 12 months I imagine.
 
Traffic coming into Toronto is worse - and the DVP is awful going northbound from about 2PM to about 6PM - backing up all the way to Dundas or Queen sometimes, which wasn't normal pre-COVID. The only thing GO doesn't offer is flexibility, especially on the Richmond Hill or Milton lines, where the GO buses aren't as convenient or as fast, especially caught up in that traffic. The new GO bus terminal is nice in many ways, it's more suited to long-distance coaches. I found the old terminal easier to get to and from, especially on a bike.
 
That was pretty typical from what I remember. Traffic is pretty close to normal in most of the GTA now, but still slightly below pre-pandemic levels if you ask me. The central 401 is definitely not constantly congested all day long like it was in 2019.

Lots of congestion to go around still though. Traffic now reminds me more like how it was about a decade ago, still bad, but more tolerable.

GO's problem is a general fear of public transit still, a lack of service to attract riders, and the fact that many are simply still not commuting. Many people are back to the office now but many still aren't as well.
 
I suspect there will be a tipping point for commuting - the less busy roads have made it convenient for commuters to switch back to autos, but as the roads fill up again, that option will become less convenient. I do hear about people spending at least a couple days a week in the office again.

Any rides I have taken on LSE/LSW off-peak have been pretty well patronised. No more getting a quad to one's self, in fact they fill up pretty well. My rides on Kitchener/Barrie/Stouffville seem to be about what they were pre covid.

- Paul
 
crs1026 said:
I suspect there will be a tipping point for commuting - the less busy roads have made it convenient for commuters to switch back to autos, but as the roads fill up again, that option will become less convenient. I do hear about people spending at least a couple days a week in the office again.

Any rides I have taken on LSE/LSW off-peak have been pretty well patronised. No more getting a quad to one's self, in fact they fill up pretty well. My rides on Kitchener/Barrie/Stouffville seem to be about what they were pre covid.

- Paul
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the difference is Metrolinx is operating a fraction of the service they did pre-covid.

That will hopefully change in the next week or two..
 
Ridership from Kitchener seems to be booming. I know GO doesn’t have the infra in place yet for full two way all day all the way to Waterloo Region, but even a handful of weekend trains would be really helpful on the Kitchener Line.

Heck, you could even extend a few to Stratford to serve the summer tourism market. Trains wouldn’t have to cross the St. Mary’s bridge so you could run the MP40s.
 
ShonTron said:
Traffic coming into Toronto is worse - and the DVP is awful going northbound from about 2PM to about 6PM - backing up all the way to Dundas or Queen sometimes, which wasn't normal pre-COVID. The only thing GO doesn't offer is flexibility, especially on the Richmond Hill or Milton lines, where the GO buses aren't as convenient or as fast, especially caught up in that traffic. The new GO bus terminal is nice in many ways, it's more suited to long-distance coaches. I found the old terminal easier to get to and from, especially on a bike.
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The Bala Sub only sees one freight per day south of Langstaff. So why not make it a priority to run trains to langstaff? They may need to build a GO underpass and a third track or move the station to south of the York Sub which would allow trains to avoid the conflict.
 
SaugeenJunction said:
Ridership from Kitchener seems to be booming. I know GO doesn’t have the infra in place yet for full two way all day all the way to Waterloo Region, but even a handful of weekend trains would be really helpful on the Kitchener Line.

Heck, you could even extend a few to Stratford to serve the summer tourism market. Trains wouldn’t have to cross the St. Mary’s bridge so you could run the MP40s.
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I'm sure people would forgive the lack of the express service on the 25 if the mid day trains that were added back in September were still running. At least we still have the 30 running that also stops in Mississauga, and the route itself is like an all day 25F, however ends at Bramalea instead of the 407 Station. I feel for people that travel on the weekends as the only service running is the local 25, and its not even a 30 min service at least if they were going to make this the only unfortunate gateway into the Waterloo region. There isn't even an express branch like the University of Guelph commuters had on Sunday for a brief period in September.

I get if ridership is still low to them and they don't want to risk adding service only to have it be underutilized, but an over capacitated local bus and lack of overall weekend service to Waterloo desperately needs something. My recommendation if we're starting slow is to reintroduce the 25C branch or at least allow the 30 to run all day hourly on weekends, I mean it is called the KITCHENER Line after all and that's supposedly the "train replacement bus route"...
 
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