robmausser
Senior Member
Wait, GO RER doesn't stop at all stations?
Re-read what I said.
GO RER will stop at all stations, at least within the GO RER area.
Its the express commuter trains from Barrie (non RER) that will bypass all the GO RER stations.
So the Barrie Line would look something like this.
From Barrie: An electric locomotive pull 10 Bi-levels stops at all stations from Allandalle Waterfront to Aurora. Then it runs express, bypassing all stations to Union. This means people will actually benefit from GO-RER who don't even take it, their commute will be faster than before. If someone needs to get to a station in between, they will transfer to the GO RER system at Aurora. 90% of people go to Union though.
From Aurora: A GO RER train 6 car EMU runs from Aurora and stops at every station between it and Union.
The reasoning for removing stations is that the people who take the GO long distances, from Kitchener, Barrie, Oshawa etc, will have slower commutes because all the stations add up. This was the focus of the backlash on Kirby and Lawrence East station recently.
This viewpoint is flawed because it neglects the very fact that none of these trains from these areas will be stopping at the new stations. Also it neglected the fact that the new EMU trains that will stop at all stations will have much better acceleration and can get up to speed quicker than the current trains, meaning an extra stop is negligible on their performance. The study looked at the current GO system and simply plopped new stations onto it. It didn't take into account how the nature of GO RER will transform the network.