Translude15
Frank the Tank
I can imagine they do given the nature of some TFC fans.
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- Thread starter drum118
- Start date
I can imagine they do given the nature of some TFC fans.
TOareaFan
Superstar
Yet it sounds like that while they look at the forest they are missing the trees......seems the drinking is happening on other trains not related to TFC matches.
canarob
Senior Member
The DVP is proper f***ed most weekends all summer given all the events and closures. The fact that we don't have any type of weekend summer service is appalling.
ShonTron
Moderator
I'd be fine if Stouffville was the next line to get all-day, hourly service (rather than Kitchener, my hometown line, or Milton, the busiest after Lakeshore). Stouffville has the advantage of being 100% Metrolinx-owned with minimal freight service (only a few customers in Scarborough and Markham). At least from 8AM to 10PM Saturdays and until 8PM Sundays with buses taking over after that.
As mentioned earlier, once the Georgetown South/UPX work is complete, there's nothing technically stopping GO from offering hourly two-way service on Kitchener as far as Mount Pleasant - there's enough capacity for CN to operate without GO being it their way. Milton's tough.
drum118
Superstar
The way I was looking at other lines that once electrification starts, EMU's be order for the UPX instead of spending $1m per train to convert them from DMU to EMU and use them for the Stouffville, Barrie, RH lines in off peak. Depending on ridership, service may have to be 30 minutes in place of hourly to start with.
Real EMU's can be order where more cars can be added to a 3 car train in various length to the point you can have 1-3 sets making up a 12-14 car train for peak time with very little cost to makeup or breakdown outside of peak service runs.
JasonParis
Moderator
Honest question, but is there one obvious reason why the DVP is always backed-up around Lawrence? Is it as simple as people getting confused by which way to turn once it hits the 401?
nhui06
Active Member
As someone who lives in Markham who desperately want to take a train Downtown (instead of driving), I completely agree. They do need to double track this route though (study is already underway). Otherwise, 1 train takes about 1.5 hour round trip (too long). IMO this will better serve north scarborough and markham better than the Scarborough subway extension.
bielawski
New Member
From what I've seen even the current track layout can support hourly trains to Mount Joy, using the new passing track south of Unionville. There would be a 50 minute long layover at Union at first but after GTS is finished it could be interlined with an hourly Newmarket service.
innsertnamehere
Superstar
Passing track isn't long enough to be useful, there is a reason the current off peak trains short turn at unionville. The passing track is almost never used, it's too short for moving trains to go by each other. It's only really useful for deadheading to mount joy to do additional peak trips if GO ever decided to do that without expanding the lincolnville layover yard.
That said, hourly off peak service is possible to unionville today.
That said, hourly off peak service is possible to unionville today.
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Even that would be better than nothing. I'd imagine that people would much prefer driving to Unionville than driving the whole way into Toronto.
ShonTron
Moderator
It works if you drive to GO - which sometimes GO still feels like it serves, ignoring pedestrian and cycling access and transit connections - GO had a dumb campaign mirroring the Toronto Police telling pedestrians to wear high-visibility clothing to be safe. Probably because walking through parking lots are sometimes the only way to get to a GO station and they don't really care about making it safer themselves.
It's time to get past the drive to a GO station to take transit mentality.
I'm not crazy about forced bus-train connections on GO, especially when they're too short of a logical terminal point (which I believe is Mount Joy). They add a lot of time for those making the bus connection - GO schedules 15-20 minutes in many cases for connecting GO buses to arrive before the train departs. It's faster in most cases to stay on the bus to Union Station.
Unionville is in a crummy location - built to maximize parking availabilty and little else. The GO station used to be at Old Unionville, the historic Toronto and Nipissing/Midland/Grand Trunk/CN station until 1991.
I hated the minimal midday service on the Georgetown Line because the trains terminated at Bramalea - an even worse place than Unionville is these days and I came from Brampton. The 9:35 Brampton-Union express got to Union within 40-45 minutes; this ended up becoming a 1h10 - 1h20 minute trip with a forced connection at Bramalea (a connection that was not guaranteed; I was on a train-bus that was supposed to connect with the 10:15 train; the bus arrived late and the next train was at 12:15, the driver merely dumped us and said we were on our own.). I was happy when the trains were cancelled and bus service brough back. The schedule and timing was much better.
That said, I'm okay with Unionville and Bramalea (and Bronte, Appleby, and East Gwillimbury and all other seas of parking that happen to have train plaforms); you're going to have to accomodate auto commuters. It does mean though that the rail services also need to connect the urban centres properly - stations like Brampton, Markham, Allandale Waterfront, etc. that are designed more to be walkable/transit-friendly.
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canarob
Senior Member
The old station is a little out of the way for most of Markham as it's only really surrounded by millionaires in century homes. There are already more residents within walking distance to the new station when compared to the old one (all the dense development across Kennedy, etc), never mind once Markham Centre develops further. Main street Unionville is great as a tourist destination and somewhere to eat, but it's not a real main street with many residents like Main Street Markham, etc.
nfitz
Superstar
I'm noticing that the text on the Schedule Changes page - www.gotransit.com/public/en/updates/schedulechanges.aspx no longer mentions the new weekend Lakeshore trips in June that was mentioned there a few weeks ago, and is in the press release. It still mentions the Barrie and Niagara Falls trains.
Bad editing or policy change?
ShonTron
Moderator
I don't like how the first train from Union northbound on the weekend Barrie service is at 12:40 - I would have liked to see an earlier departure, even by an hour. Pretty much the same schedule as last year. GO's weekend services should try to serve people from Toronto getting out to Barrie/Simcoe County (I've done this last summer) as much as people going into the city for the day/weekend.
rbt
Senior Member
I assume they chose train times based on bus ridership statistics and technical constraints. They don't even bother running the 9am bus to Barrie (stops in Newmarket) so an early morning train is likely overkill.
The 10am northbound bus trip often has lots of space too on the rare occasion I take it.
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