[Streety McCarface]

With the TTC OpEx being primarily funded through farebox recovery, I don't believe that it will find itself with more limited funding than it already deals with,a nd in the case of UPX, lower fares were offset by higher ridership, so there's likely to be a breaking even on GO revenue at these lower fares.

I also should state I am new to Toronto and don't feel that the divide between TTC (subway) and GO needs to be so stark. Most of the people I've spoken to who live in the city think of GO only as a purely suburban/interurban service that they used that one time after their friend got married, had a kid and moved to Oakville. They don't seem to think of it as a viable way to get around the city. I hope that with increased frequency and (lots) more infill stations, that mentality will change, and fast.

I'm talking about TTC fares. A loss of TTC ridership means a lower farebox revenue. AKA, services are cut and things get worse.

 

[ShonTron]

Oh, I checked the UPX lot and it was full. Some of the reserved spots were annoyingly empty. The Green P and on street parking in the area were also all occupied.



Fair enough. I exaggerated. Wilson to King on Tuesday afternoon took 40 minutes. However, the reverse trip that night was awful (just like when I was complaining last week): King to St. George was quick, but Dupont to Wilson was awful.

I used to park in the paid reserved spots (not the accessible permit spots) at Brampton when I took the late morning VIA train downtown and had one of the family cars. I figured that if a bunch of spots were empty after 10AM (the last GO train to Union left at 8AM during that time), no one was going to use it that day. I never had a problem, but that was on occasion, and admittedly, I was playing with fire.

 

[smallspy]

My (albeit limited) experiences on the line state otherwise. I was delayed near 20 minutes southbound on Monday.

Yeah, I waited a little over 20 minutes at Downsview Park for a southbound train a few weeks ago, and it was standing room only when it arrived, completely full as of Wilson, left people waiting at subsequent stations.

The southbound issues of that scale are a lot less frequent, and I suspect that if you gave precise dates that they could be lined up with specific situations, delays or closures. Monday for instance, there was a situation in the evening that resulted in trains turning back at St. Clair West from the north for a period of time.

But the northbound issues are seemingly every day at the tail end of the rush hours, and are well documented.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.

 

[hw621]

I used to park in the paid reserved spots (not the accessible permit spots) at Brampton when I took the late morning VIA train downtown and had one of the family cars. I figured that if a bunch of spots were empty after 10AM (the last GO train to Union left at 8AM during that time), no one was going to use it that day. I never had a problem, but that was on occasion, and admittedly, I was playing with fire.

You can take a VIA train downtown from Brampton?

 

[gweed123]

Does GO even have the capacity for this? Trains are packed up the ass with people during rush hours. Maybe off-peak fares being this low? I don't see this being feasible with a huge migration of TTC users to go transit in this short of a term.

Maybe take some of those AM inbound-only runs (Richmond Hill, Milton, etc) and have them become local GO shuttles? Milton continues east to Rouge Hill, Richmond Hill continues west to Long Branch, etc? More difficult to do that in the PM though, unless you just have a dedicated train that runs between Long Branch and Rouge Hill.

 

[ShonTron]

You can take a VIA train downtown from Brampton?

Yes. At the time, there were GO-VIA 10-packs you could buy, which were upgrades to a paid GO fare (10-ride or monthly). It didn't guarantee you a seat, but that wasn't a problem. GO bus service to and from Brampton has improved considerably since then (this was in the early 2000s, when Union Station bus service was awful), and I don't think those packs are sold anymore. At the time, there were three round trip VIA trains a day between Toronto and Kitchener, now there's two.

 

[TOareaFan]

I used to park in the paid reserved spots (not the accessible permit spots) at Brampton when I took the late morning VIA train downtown and had one of the family cars. I figured that if a bunch of spots were empty after 10AM (the last GO train to Union left at 8AM during that time), no one was going to use it that day. I never had a problem, but that was on occasion, and admittedly, I was playing with fire.

hopefully you weren't the guy that I used to have to complain about when I had a reserved spot in Brampton

Your logic was/is not far off on use (I used to reserve a spot and not use it at all most days) but I don't think it can apply at Weston as there are limited spots but trains each direction all day every 15 minutes.........if I lived near that station I would be reserving a spot there for sure.

 

[nfitz]

You can take a VIA train downtown from Brampton?

You've been able to do this since the 1800s.

You can do it from Malton station as well, near Pearson Airport. And Oakville/Aldershot on the Windsor line, and Oshawa on the Montreal/Ottawa line.

Offhand, the only GTA station with a restriction is Guildwood

 

[TOareaFan]

You've been able to do this since the 1800s.

You can do it from Malton station as well, near Pearson Airport. And Oakville/Aldershot on the Windsor line, and Oshawa on the Montreal/Ottawa line.

Offhand, the only GTA station with a restriction is Guildwood

I thought Malton was a station that gets bypassed unless they know there is a reservation (either to get on or get off) there. In the 30 or so times in my life I have used VIA to/from Brampton I don't think my train has ever stopped at Malton.

A quick check on the station's web page shows this:

Indication on the stop sign


For a stop at this station on trains 84, 85 and 87, reservations are required at least 4 hours in advance the day of departure.

I think that means if there is no reservations 4 hours in advance for that station (getting on or getting off) the train will not stop. Is that right?

 

[felix123]

I'm talking about TTC fares. A loss of TTC ridership means a lower farebox revenue. AKA, services are cut and things get worse.

Ah ok, I understand now that you're referring to fares and you have a good point. I still think that if our strategy thus far for funding the TTC were to make GO unaffordable/uncompetitive, then it would be a pretty terrible strategy. The Liberal govt's proposal of taking over the subway would solve that issue from a funding perspective, as would the NDP's pledge to restore 50% provincial funding to the TTC.
Either way, forcing Toronto to rely on so heavily on farebox recovery is stupid. It's costing the province far more in lost productivity than it's saving.

 

[felix123]

Maybe take some of those AM inbound-only runs (Richmond Hill, Milton, etc) and have them become local GO shuttles? Milton continues east to Rouge Hill, Richmond Hill continues west to Long Branch, etc? More difficult to do that in the PM though, unless you just have a dedicated train that runs between Long Branch and Rouge Hill.

Could someone at Metrolinx please give this person a job? This should have been done a long time ago in Toronto. I understand that when Phil Verster came in as CEO at Metrolinx, he insisted on exactly what you've suggested, in that services shouldn't be terminating at Union but should instead continue through.

 

[hw621]

Could someone at Metrolinx please give this person a job? This should have been done a long time ago in Toronto. I understand that when Phil Verster came in as CEO at Metrolinx, he insisted on exactly what you've suggested, in that services shouldn't be terminating at Union but should instead continue through.

Once he gets in he will be swamped by bureaucracy

 

[Streety McCarface]

Ah ok, I understand now that you're referring to fares and you have a good point. I still think that if our strategy thus far for funding the TTC were to make GO unaffordable/uncompetitive, then it would be a pretty terrible strategy. The Liberal govt's proposal of taking over the subway would solve that issue from a funding perspective, as would the NDP's pledge to restore 50% provincial funding to the TTC.
Either way, forcing Toronto to rely on so heavily on farebox recovery is stupid. It's costing the province far more in lost productivity than it's saving.

Don't get me wrong, we need to make GO more competitive, and the province really needs to start funding the TTC. However, removing so much fare revenue from the TTC farebox at once could have detrimental effects on the system. We might have to stop certain SOGR projects as a result of this.

 

[smallspy]

Could someone at Metrolinx please give this person a job? This should have been done a long time ago in Toronto. I understand that when Phil Verster came in as CEO at Metrolinx, he insisted on exactly what you've suggested, in that services shouldn't be terminating at Union but should instead continue through.

What makes you think that they aren't trying to implement this?

In some respects, and at least on a short-term basis, GO's hands are still somewhat tied because of their arrangements with the freight railroads. Looking long-term, those arrangements become less of an issue, but things like staffing and running maintenance of the trains, as well as track time, then become the limiting factor.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.

 

[felix123]

What makes you think that they aren't trying to implement this?

In some respects, and at least on a short-term basis, GO's hands are still somewhat tied because of their arrangements with the freight railroads. Looking long-term, those arrangements become less of an issue, but things like staffing and running maintenance of the trains, as well as track time, then become the limiting factor.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.

I understand and stated that that Phil Verster wants to implement this. I feel that the reason it wasn't started before has far less to do with track/switch/freight/maintenance limitations and much more to do with the status quo, in that GO has been envisioned for most of its history as peak period regional transportation to Union station. That that's being challenged only now as opposed to decades ago highlights a systemic issue of perhaps not dreaming big enough. I'm glad that that's showing signs of changing now, but those changes start with calls from people like gweed123.