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Taking the weekend 30 and transferring to a Kitchener line train at Bramalea, the service changes (at least for now) feel like a system that "works". No milk run 25, no Square One (after 10 years of transferring through it, not being physically present at Square One is a major life goal for me), just a straight shot nearly single-seat ride to Toronto at a much cheaper price than Via Rail and only about 15 minutes' longer trip door-to-door than Via would be. The bus was fairly full but not a clown car in the way weekend 25s have been for a full year. It no longer feels like a breaking-point situation. Definitely an improvement.
 
So now here’s the review of the new Milton rerouting. The train ride was.. a typical LSW trip so nothing special. It was about 2 mins late arriving into Oakville, but the bus driver waited an extra 5 mins before departing which is nice to see. There were a few passengers on and surprisingly they were all Milton bound riders. No one got off at Sheridan College or Trafalgar/407 (or anywhere in between). In tact the latter actually seen quite a few get on so that’s a great sign and i’m glad to see there’s new trip generators especially on another frequent-ish corridor. I’m guessing there will be more people coming to and from these points during the weekdays.

It took just over an hour and a half for the entire trip from Union to Milton. Not sure how that compares to the old way of the bus that did that run direct, but its rather decent considering this is a detour while also having more transfers along the way. Milton residents can get to Sheridan College a lot more easily now if there were any of them. Quite a number of people got off at Milton which i was glad to see this being just as receptive as well. Its a shame that this bus doesn’t extend to the 25/401 Park and Ride so there could be an even greater extension of connecting the GTA, but this service overall is a nice start. This feels like a start for something new in Milton as its no longer just a Toronto bound commuter town anymore.
 
tmlittle said:
Taking the weekend 30 and transferring to a Kitchener line train at Bramalea, the service changes (at least for now) feel like a system that "works". No milk run 25, no Square One (after 10 years of transferring through it, not being physically present at Square One is a major life goal for me), just a straight shot nearly single-seat ride to Toronto at a much cheaper price than Via Rail and only about 15 minutes' longer trip door-to-door than Via would be. The bus was fairly full but not a clown car in the way weekend 25s have been for a full year. It no longer feels like a breaking-point situation. Definitely an improvement.
Click to expand...
That's great to hear. Hopefully Metrolinx will extended a couple trips to Kitchener if ridership is very high.
 
anb said:
As expected, the train was near full, to the point where it took me until the front of the train to finally get a quad that is free. The number of bikes in each car were massive as well, its really fun to see, but not too much if you factor the strollers as well. Got on at Malton and there were a lot of passengers, even more than the usual bus that comes every hour. Its a possibility that some people just wanted to try the train, but then again maybe not as it was impressively smooth getting into Toronto.

Got on the 12:08 train at Malton, and got off at 12:32 at Union. Idk if its just me but the trip feels faster when you skip Etobicoke North, but of course it would feel that way because of a stop being removed. Speeds were consistent, people felt calm, and most important of all, people weren’t crammed into one space for 30-60 mins hoping they can get there faster. And just as expected, people were getting off just as much at Weston and Bloor. Hopefully their trips got more efficient for them.

I believe it was just a 6 car train which explains why the train felt more full so if they can expand the number of cars in the future that would be recommended as i do see this getting more popular if its already this receptive. Overall good start to the weekend train and wishing service can expand further from here.
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A full 6 car train still fits about 162 seated so it has capacity for 972 people sitting, even if 1 person sat in each quad seat that's about 240 people on board or approximately 3.5 busses
 
anb said:
So now here’s the review of the new Milton rerouting. The train ride was.. a typical LSW trip so nothing special. It was about 2 mins late arriving into Oakville, but the bus driver waited an extra 5 mins before departing which is nice to see. There were a few passengers on and surprisingly they were all Milton bound riders. No one got off at Sheridan College or Trafalgar/407 (or anywhere in between). In tact the latter actually seen quite a few get on so that’s a great sign and i’m glad to see there’s new trip generators especially on another frequent-ish corridor. I’m guessing there will be more people coming to and from these points during the weekdays.

It took just over an hour and a half for the entire trip from Union to Milton. Not sure how that compares to the old way of the bus that did that run direct, but its rather decent considering this is a detour while also having more transfers along the way. Milton residents can get to Sheridan College a lot more easily now if there were any of them. Quite a number of people got off at Milton which i was glad to see this being just as receptive as well. Its a shame that this bus doesn’t extend to the 25/401 Park and Ride so there could be an even greater extension of connecting the GTA, but this service overall is a nice start. This feels like a start for something new in Milton as its no longer just a Toronto bound commuter town anymore.
Click to expand...
It was 1h21m from Milton to Union. I'll try this trip now you mention it, and the Meadowvale and Erindale ones as well.
 
Garuda said:
That's great to hear. Hopefully Metrolinx will extended a couple trips to Kitchener if ridership is very high.
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My bet is that they'll need to add some additional route 30 trips on Sundays starting in September. The old Route 25F (Waterloo - Bramalea - Hwy 407) was very popular on Sundays and the 30 is the closest alternative in the current network.

I'd prefer that they run those extra trips as a faster express branch (e.g. non-stop from Laurier to Bramalea), rather than just running two identical buses back-to-back.

January 2023 weekday schedule:

Capture.JPG


For example, rather than having an extra trip departing UW at 12:53 and making all stops to Bramalea (followed by 20-minute wait at Bramalea), it could depart UW around 13:10, Laurier around 13:18 and then run non-stop to Bramalea, arriving at 14:38. That way the existance of the extra trips would actually get people to their destinations faster.
 
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denfromoakvillemilton said:
It was 1h21m from Milton to Union. I'll try this trip now you mention it, and the Meadowvale and Erindale ones as well.
Click to expand...
Tried the Milton local 21 route, went to Toronto Premium Outlets, then took the returning GO 25L from there to Sq One later. Then tried getting back to Union using the Erindale-Port Credit bus. Keeping this one brief since I said a lot in my last few posts, but the driver actually used a detour via Confederation Pkwy to get to Cooksville, then Hurontario straight to PC, just these 2 stations as stops after Sq One and that's it. This worked well as we got there about 10 mins before the Union bound train pulled in. The whole trip took 65 mins total, which isn't bad at all. Then took a Kitchener train back home, seen similar results as when I explained it before, and that was the day.
 
What kind of reconstruction is going to happen from Humber to 427? This portion is at grade. Or are they talking about overpasses?
 
Deadpool X said:
What kind of reconstruction is going to happen from Humber to 427? This portion is at grade. Or are they talking about overpasses?
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Reconstruction pavement, barriers/jersey walls/guardrails and several design updates. There are substantial re-workings of the Kipling and Islington interchanges as I recall, and likely other things, I don't recall.
 
other than equipment/crews, is there any reason GO can’t operate a barebones Milton service on weekends? does CP do anything on Sat/Sun it wouldn’t do on a weekday?
 
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