[nfitz]

I.e. the Gardiner construction is starting up again this summer and is going to be a disaster for 5+ years with constant lane closures.

There isn't anything scheduled in that image Allandale posted until the fall. Though work continues on the Lakeshore bridge over the Don - which is still restricted to one lane westbound.

 

[dowlingm]

Track restrictions/limitations, only 1 platform at some stations, and CP operation are mainly the issue. Otherwise we would've had all day trains by now.

Right… but those are limitations every day, and weekday service is still run. Even a few morning and evening trains to suck up Jays trade would take pressure off the Gardiner I’d have thought. Maybe the sort of thing the City of Toronto could hand Metrolinx a cheque for instead of funding quarter-billion-dollar stations for them.

Hopefully the new Mount Pleasant service on the Kitchener line is another drip drip drip wearing down resistance to 7 day service on all GO train routes, even on peak/limited basis.

 

[RU479]

So from being around in Toronto yesterday, I noticed two things in terms of train consists.

The 16:58 to Old Elm is now a 12 car train. (originally a 10 car)
The 18:45 to Bloomington is now a 10 car train. (originally a 12 car)

 

[Hairball]

So some GO buses are being re-routed to use 407 station instead due to some construction: https://www.metrolinx.com/en/news/s...ouring-due-to-enbridge-gas-line-construction-

But uh, if I was coming from downtown, what time will the bus heading north leave the 407 station? It doesn't say on the schedule or anywhere, the communication is a joke. It says it will take about 40 minutes to get to the 407 station by subway from Union.

 

[anb]

So some GO buses are being re-routed to use 407 station instead due to some construction: https://www.metrolinx.com/en/news/s...ouring-due-to-enbridge-gas-line-construction-

But uh, if I was coming from downtown, what time will the bus heading north leave the 407 station? It doesn't say on the schedule or anywhere, the communication is a joke. It says it will take about 40 minutes to get to the 407 station by subway from Union.

Maybe they meant that all buses that were meant to depart Union Station Bus Terminal will be the same time they depart 407? They do mention that “GO buses will make all scheduled stops further north” on all 3 of the routes in the service updates.

They should’ve just written and rerouted these replacement buses to 407 station in the first place, or somewhere efficient like Finch or even Don Mills. If they wanted to avoid traffic on the DVP just like how they rerouted the Milton buses to avoid the Gardiner, I wonder why they didn’t do the same treatment with the other lines as well.

 

[Hairball]

I think that's what it sounds like, but that's the thing, these kind of communications should not be ambiguous. I even tweeted them and haven't got a response. The schedule should be clear, otherwise how the hell are you supposed to ride it?

But the rest of the stops starting from Unionville appear to be on normal timing.


EDIT: Got an answer from a tweet, so looks like the Union departure time is what the 407 departure time will be at, which therefore means the rest of the schedule is off, boy I think this is going to be horrible.

 

[turbanplanner]

So some GO buses are being re-routed to use 407 station instead due to some construction: https://www.metrolinx.com/en/news/s...ouring-due-to-enbridge-gas-line-construction-

But uh, if I was coming from downtown, what time will the bus heading north leave the 407 station? It doesn't say on the schedule or anywhere, the communication is a joke. It says it will take about 40 minutes to get to the 407 station by subway from Union.

The thing I find funny is Enbridge was either going to use lakeshore or the martin goodman trail to run the new line, and they picked closing 3 lanes of lakeshore instead. But people here say the city ONLY caters to cars??

 

[Bordercollie]

The thing I find funny is Enbridge was either going to use lakeshore or the martin goodman trail to run the new line, and they picked closing 3 lanes of lakeshore instead. But people here say the city ONLY caters to cars??

Who ever approved that project at the city needs to be repremanded.

 

[LNahid2000]

I want to go to a store near Confederation GO on Sunday and it's so difficult because of all this nonsense. First I thought I'd take the 12 both ways but then I saw this:

Then I thought, ok I'll just take the 12 westbound and then the bike to the 16 on the way back since the bus is usually pretty fast. Nope:

At this point I'm thinking it's going to be faster to just bike to Burlington GO on the way back. It's a nice ride on the waterfront anyway.

 

[anb]

Yeah it looks like they’re still as horrible at communicating to their riders about changes. Don't even know how they made the weekend service this unbearable. It also looks like they're choosing the wrong decisions all the time.

 

[Allandale25]

Opinion | New weekend GO transit schedule is a game changer for out-of-towners

The new weekend transit between Waterloo region and Toronto isn’t perfect, but it’s a massive step that provides choices for how we get around.

www.thestar.com

 

[christine]

I'm guessing terminating the 68 at Allandale Waterfront didn't sit well with passengers.

 

[blaixx]

I'm happy to report that GO has adjusted their fares (or at least updated their website) for trips between Hamilton and Guelph/Waterloo on Route 17. When I checked earlier in the week, this trip was showing as $20+ with Presto and $25+ with cash!

 

[turbanplanner]

I'm guessing terminating the 68 at Allandale Waterfront didn't sit well with passengers.

View attachment 469432

Let's make a two hour trip longer and have more steps!

 

[reaperexpress]

As noted earlier, Union Station bus routes are being detoured to various suburban terminals to avoid downtown congestion.

Lakeshore West Corridor
Route 16 Hamilton-Toronto Express is cut back to Aldershot (so now it just duplicates Route 18 Hamilton-Aldershot). If GO actually wanted to minimize delays to their customers, they would have cut route 16 back to somewhere like Clarkson, Port Credit or Long Branch, allowing the buses to travel non-stop from Hamilton down the HOV lanes of the QEW rather than making passengers sit through every single stop on the local train.

Richmond Hill Corridor
Route 61 Richmond Hill (Bloomington-Union) is detouring to Hwy 407 Station. The previous stop is Richmond Hill Centre, so this is probably the best option if the bus can't serve Union. Going to Finch or Don Mills would take about the same time in total, but be less reliable than going across the 407.

Barrie Corridor
Route 65 Newmarket (East Gwillimbury-Toronto) is detouring to Hwy 407 Station. So currently to get from Barrie Bus Terminal to Union Station departing at 09:57, you'd need:
- Shuttle bus from Barrie Term to Allandale (10 minutes incl transfer)
- Route 68 to Aurora (1h35)
- Route 65C to Hwy 407 Stn (10 min transfer + 23 min drive)
- Line 1 to Union (6 min transfer + 42 min ride)
Total: 186 minutes (3h06) Barrie - Union.

In the previous schedule (which had off-peak trains and bus service to Barrie term), this trip would have been:
- Route 68 from Barrie Term to Aurora (1h40)
- Barrie Train to Union (15 min transfer + 51 min train)
Total: 166 minutes (2h46) Barrie - Union

They could easily mitigate this difference by splicing together routes 68 (Barrie - Newmarket) and 66 (Newmarket - Hwy 407 Stn):
- Route 68B from Barrie Term to East Gwillimbury (69 min)
- Route 66 (actually the same bus) to Hwy 407 (50 min)
- Line 1 to Union (6 min transfer + 42 min ride)
Total: 167 minutes (2h46) Barrie - Union
To serve the East Gwillimbury-Aurora segment the current 65C Aurora-407 buses would be converted to 65 East Gwillimbury-407 buses which also provides the benefit of eliminating the transfer in Aurora for Newmarket passengers.

Stouffville Corridor
In the last schedule (when there were still off-peak trains), a trip from Mount Joy to Union was:
- Stouffville train to Union (53 minutes)
Total: 53 minutes Mount Joy - Union

Now that there are no longer off-peak trains, and the replacement buses are also being detoured to Hwy 407 (duplicating route 54 Mount Joy - Hwy 407), that trip is:
- Route 71E Mount Joy - Hwy407 (40 min)
- Line 1 to Union (6 min transfer + 42 min ride)
Total: 88 minutes (1h28) Mount Joy - Union

Interestingly, GO seems to have arranged temporary Presto fare integration for passengers transfering from GO to the TTC at Hwy 407 stn:

No mention of fare integration for passengers transfering from the TTC to GO though.

Conclusion:

Even if we accept that GO buses can't go downtown, these detours are far more disruptive than they would have been if GO had actually designed bus schedules around the simultaneous closures of the Union Station bus terminal, the Barrie line off-peak trains and the Stouffville line off-peak trains.

The website's rationale for these diversions is that the traffic was bad last year, which means that they have had an entire year to come up with such a schedule.

Now we are stuck with these buses running at unpredictable times, since the travel times included in their schedule have nothing to do with the actual travel times along a completely different route.