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That is a strange thing for the union to offer. I would have thought it would strengthen their bargaining position if their strike had some public impact.....otherwise it would/could be a strike that would go un-noticed by the general public. Disrupting the lives of a large portion of the public could bring some pressure on the employer to settle.
It would also take the pressure off the federal government to put in back-to-work legislation, which has been very anti-union in recent cases, such as Air Canada.

CP would very much care about the public, because this is what could let them win the entire thing, by letting the feds end the strike quickly.
 
Everyone Happy
[FONT=&quot]TORONTO, May 22, 2012 /CNW/ - GO Rail service across the network, including the Milton line, will operate as scheduled despite a potential labour disruption at Canadian Pacific Rail that could occur as early as midnight Tuesday, May 22. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]GO Transit has recently learned that CP Rail and Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) have agreed to run commuter trains tomorrow, Wednesday, May 23, during a potential labour disruption. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]All GO Trains on the Milton line are expected to run as scheduled on Wednesday, May 23 - both during the morning and afternoon rush. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]GO Trains out of Hamilton are also expected to run as scheduled on Wednesday morning, and will now originate from Hamilton GO Centre as usual. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]GO Transit will continue to update customers on any changes that may affect GO service during the labour disruption. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Customers should visit gotransit.com for up-to-date information, watch and listen to television and radio news reports and sign-up for our On the GO alerts to receive customized, up-to-the-minute emails about changes to their service. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]For further information: [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Media enquiries - Vanessa Thomas, (416) 874-5974 , or Malon Edwards, (416) 874-5945 [/FONT]
 
That press release goes out of it's way to avoid saying they won't shut down the line after tomorrow.

The cynic in me thinks they just aren't ready to setup pickets tomorrow.
 
I didn't notice if anyone posted this earlier in the thread, my apologies if I'm duplicating at all.

I was bumbling around the 'net' when I came across a presentation by Metrolinx from May 2, 2012 for the Oakville Mobility Hub.

So I decided to peruse it, this part caught my interest:

Service improvements for Lakeshore GO
Line by 2015 include greater frequency
in the peak period and trains every half
hour in off-peak hours.


Of course we've heard stuff similar to this before, but I don't recall seeing the 2015 date with those specifics, in public, from Metrolinx.

For those wanted to read the presentation, it can be found here:

http://www.metrolinx.com/en/projectsandprograms/mobilityhubs/2012-05-02_MOMHS_POH_presentation.pdf
 
I didn't notice if anyone posted this earlier in the thread, my apologies if I'm duplicating at all.

I was bumbling around the 'net' when I came across a presentation by Metrolinx from May 2, 2012 for the Oakville Mobility Hub.

So I decided to peruse it, this part caught my interest:

Service improvements for Lakeshore GO
Line by 2015 include greater frequency
in the peak period and trains every half
hour in off-peak hours.


Of course we've heard stuff similar to this before, but I don't recall seeing the 2015 date with those specifics, in public, from Metrolinx.

For those wanted to read the presentation, it can be found here:

http://www.metrolinx.com/en/projectsandprograms/mobilityhubs/2012-05-02_MOMHS_POH_presentation.pdf

Go/Metrolinx can only talk about doing it now, since they don't have the crews to do it now. Hiring new personal and getting 2 years under their belt before trying to move over to the controls, will allow GO to put more service and move to the 30 minutes service can only happen in 2015, unless there a great rush of train engineers showing up for a position.

In fact, we should be moving to 20 minute service in 2015 if we had the 30 minutes service that was plan for 10 years ago.

The 2015 date has been around for some time since it has to do with the Pan am games.

With GO getting 5 new trains in 2015, they will be assign to the Lakeshore W line and maybe the east also.
 
GO Transit girds for on-time guarantee
http://www.thestar.com/news/transpo...--go-transit-girds-for-on-time-guarantee?bn=1

Another trip on the Milton line will be announced in June. The Richmond Hill and Stouffville lines will get longer, 12-coach trains later this year.

GO is also experimenting with non-commuter-based transit such as the weekend service to Niagara Falls during the warm-weather months. Next month, the Barrie line will also get weekend service, a pilot to see if there’s enough demand for city events to justify running trains into Toronto from the far reaches of the region.

Where the Niagara trips ferry riders to one of the world’s top tourist attractions, the new Barrie service recognizes that people north of the city, in Bradford, Newmarket and Aurora, want to come downtown for the clubs, restaurants, baseball games and theatre.

“Really what we’re doing is a pilot to see what the potential is in other corridors. If it’s successful on the Barrie corridor, maybe we’ll try it on the Stouffville corridor next year as well,†said McNeil.

Please, please let this happen! :)
 
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Depending on my destination and schedule, I could see driving over to the King City or Maple GO stations and taking the train downtown in favour of the Viva and subway.

I wonder if they will consider skipping the York University GO station though. It is located in a 9-5 industrial park, has virtually no other transit connections, and assuming that the university opts to not run their shuttle bus to the station on weekends, no access to the campus.

On a side note, with GO cancelling tickets in favour of Presto, what does this mean for the TTC Times Two discount program? Even if they modify Presto terminals at subway stations to accept this promotion, you still have the entire surface network and a number of subway connections not equipped for the card yet.

Are they going to cancel or suspend the entire program, or move to an honour system where you show your Presto card and TTC transfer and they have to let you on regardless if you have taken any GO service? Or perhaps this could force the TTC to FINALLY move to a 2 hour transfer?
 
I wonder if they will consider skipping the York University GO station though. It is located in a 9-5 industrial park, has virtually no other transit connections, and assuming that the university opts to not run their shuttle bus to the station on weekends, no access to the campus.
There is a road, you can simply walk to campus. It's only a 15-minute walk. When I've arrived at this station in the afternoon, more people seemed to be walking somewhere, than getting on the shuttle bus (which surprised me! I snuck onto the student-only shuttle).
 
On a side note, with GO cancelling tickets in favour of Presto, what does this mean for the TTC Times Two discount program? Even if they modify Presto terminals at subway stations to accept this promotion, you still have the entire surface network and a number of subway connections not equipped for the card yet.

Are they going to cancel or suspend the entire program, or move to an honour system where you show your Presto card and TTC transfer and they have to let you on regardless if you have taken any GO service? Or perhaps this could force the TTC to FINALLY move to a 2 hour transfer?

I don't believe that TTC Times Two requires you to show a GO ticket. You just need to show a TTC transfer and as long as that connection was possible by GO then you transfer is still valid.

I wonder how many people actually make use of that program. I expect that the number is very small.
 
I'm glad they made the last train back north leave after midnight. I know there will be people coming down to go clubbing and bar hoppig late into the night, but realistically, they can't be the target market. What we need is service for people coming downtown for a game, show, movie, etc who want to have time to relax afterwards, go for a drink, or even a late dinner, and not have to worry about running to catch the last train departing at 9:30.
 
It's good that they're adding new services on these lines, but I fear that they will use the inevitably poor performance of the trials to justify not implementing them permanently.

I'm thinking about the Barrie Line in particular.

At the moment, people in York Region do not consider taking the GO train except for commuting. I don't think that very many people will wrap their heads around the train being an option, even with lots of advertising. Changing people's idea of a transit line takes time or tons of public excitement (like a subway line opening).

The service itself isn't that spectacular, so even if they do consider it they will probably not take it.

- The frequency is a bit limiting, with trains roughly two and a half hours apart.
- The train-bus service to Barrie is not very practical due to a long transfer at East Guillimbury. Taking the 11:46AM departure from Barrie, you won't arrive at Union until 2:21PM
- The line doesn't have strong transit connections, so the demand will likely be predominantly park-and-ride. But outside of rush hour, park-and-ride isn't so attractive since you could drive to your destination faster and at a lower cost.

When a subway line opens, it's a big deal. There is a lot of media coverage and people talk about it. As a result, many people try out the new service. When the Georgetown Line was extended to Kitchener, there was similar media coverage and public excitement, but almost everyone was disappointed about the service itself because it's slow, infrequent and impractical. In the end, people tended to just dismiss the service, continuing to take the bus or car.

I don't want the same thing to happen here. They need to provide service as good as possible so that when people try out the new service, they are pleased with it and will consider it in the future.
 
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- The frequency is a bit limiting, with trains roughly two and a half hours apart.
- The train-bus service to Barrie is not very practical due to a long transfer at East Guillimbury. Taking the 11:46AM departure from Barrie, you won't arrive at Union until 2:21PM
- The line doesn't have strong transit connections, so the demand will likely be predominantly park-and-ride. But outside of rush hour, park-and-ride isn't so attractive since you could drive to your destination faster and at a lower cost.

I agree partially with your premise. It isn't the ideal service to attract regular weekend visitors. But I expect it will do noticeably better than you think.

Yes, it is a very long haul from Barrie, but most of the trains don't even originate there. It is a lot less time from Bradford/East Gwillimbury and south and that's where the majority of the riders are. The three Burlington stations seem to generate a lot of trips on weekends and they have 1 hour rides to Union, and they use it even to events downtown they could drive to easily.

Remember if they already have a GO pass or PRESTO card, it's probably a free trip. If there are several people going, I think the break even cost would be hit if even one of them have a pass, given the costs of gas and parking. It's also a plus in that it allows everyone to drink alcohol and it avoids that awful 400 cottage country traffic.

I'm sure there will be a few quiet weekends, but I wouldn't throw out this experiment based on the possible inconveniences of the minority of riders coming from the furthest stations.
 
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I agree partially with your premise. It isn't the ideal service to attract regular weekend commuters. But I expect it will do noticeably better than you think.

Yes, it is a very long haul from Barrie, but most of the trains don't even originate there. It is a lot less time from Bradford/East Gwillimbury and south and that's where the majority of the riders are. The three Burlington stations seem to generate a lot of trips on weekends and they have 1 hour rides to Union, even to events downtown these people could drive to easily.

Remember if they already have a GO pass or PRESTO card, it's probably a free trip. If there are several people going, I think the break even cost would be hit if even one of them have a pass, give the costs of gas and parking. It's also a plus in that it allows everyone to drink alcohol and it avoids that awful 400 cottage country traffic.

I'm sure there will be a few quiet weekends, but I wouldn't throw out this experiment based on the possible inconveniences of the minority of riders coming from the furthest stations.

On weekends when the Jays have an afternoon game, I sometimes take the GO from Burlington when I'm down for the weekend. Both the 11:10 and 12:10 trains have a lot of people in Jays gear waiting on the platforms.

I think that, at least for weekends, but even for weeknights, GO should adopt a "Game Day/Night Train" for at least some of their lines. 1 inbound (on weekends), and 1 outbound (every game night) train that is timed specifically to work with the start and end of whatever event is taking place. ACC events aren't as crucial, because it will be at most 20,000 people in attendance. But especially weekend games, the Jays have been pulling in mid 30,000s lately (the game 2 Sundays ago vs the Mets was 43,000).

If they had inbound trains that arrived at around 12:30, and outbound trains that left at around 4:30, it would attract a lot of people I would think. I can only really speak for the timing on Lakeshore West, but it sucks for Jays games. You either get in at 12:10, and you're stuck waiting for an hour, or at 1:10, in which case you miss at least the first inning. A train arriving at 12:40 would be golden. Plus if GO marketed those extra trains specifically as "Jays Trains" or "Leafs Trains" they may get a few more riders simply based on the fact that people know that they can catch a train that is timed specifically for those events.
 
It's good that they're adding new services on these lines, but I fear that they will use the inevitably poor performance of the trials to justify not implementing them permanently.

I'm thinking about the Barrie Line in particular.

At the moment, people in York Region do not consider taking the GO train except for commuting. I don't think that very many people will wrap their heads around the train being an option, even with lots of advertising. Changing people's idea of a transit line takes time or tons of public excitement (like a subway line opening).

The service itself isn't that spectacular, so even if they do consider it they will probably not take it.

- The frequency is a bit limiting, with trains roughly two and a half hours apart.
- The train-bus service to Barrie is not very practical due to a long transfer at East Guillimbury. Taking the 11:46AM departure from Barrie, you won't arrive at Union until 2:21PM
- The line doesn't have strong transit connections, so the demand will likely be predominantly park-and-ride. But outside of rush hour, park-and-ride isn't so attractive since you could drive to your destination faster and at a lower cost.

Lots of York Region people use the Stouffville GO buses on the weekend, so for us it's not really a new service so much as a drastic improvement. Way more people would use GO on the weekend if it was a train since it would be more reliable. I've been stuck in a GO bus in Saturday DVP traffic many, many times!
 

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