[smallspy]

GO already splits many of the weekend route 30 trips into two trips, but only for the following trips:

Eastbound from UW: 09:22, 10:17, 11:17
Westbound from Bramalea: 16:35, 17:35, 18:35, 19:35, 20:35

Excerpt from current eastbound weekend timetable
View attachment 499774

Excerpt from current westbound weekend timetable
View attachment 499773

If Brian Doucet was on the 09:17 eastbound bus, then the people left behind by the bus would have been picked up by a second bus 5 minutes later. Or maybe he was on the 08:22 bus which doesn't have a second bus.

Running the second bus as an express would provide a better service to customers by better distributing passengers between the two buses. As it stands now, eastbound passengers will all want to be on the second of the two buses, so they don't need to wait as long for the train at Bramalea. But if there are too many people for that bus, then the people who don't fit are stuck waiting 55 minutes for the next bus, which would connect to the train 60 minutes later.

I think the most important stop for the express bus to skip would be the Syntex & Financial stop in Mississauga, which would save about 5-10 minutes. Depending on the distribution of passengers between the stops in KW, the express could also skip Kitchener GO as you described. The goal would be that the express branch serves roughly half of the trips in the corridor, to divide demand evenly between the two buses.

If UW+WLU account for half of the riders, then the express should just run non-stop from Waterloo to Bramalea.

And beyond the scheduled buses, they will also run unscheduled extras to pick up the slack if necessary.

I can't speak to this specific case, but my understanding is that due to all of the additional traffic over the past several months that they've been allocating more and more of the spare buses up towards Kitchener on weekends.

Dan

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

Question:

Does GO transit even have enough Trains, Railroad Cars and Buses for extra service if every line besides Milton and Richmond Hill gets offpeak service?

 

[Allandale25]

^ wouldn't the trains replace the buses in this hypothetical situation?

 

[crs1026]

Question:

Does GO transit even have enough Trains, Railroad Cars and Buses for extra service if every line besides Milton and Richmond Hill gets offpeak service?

The off-peak services are fairly well covered by trainsets that currently lay over between peaks. Additional locos are in procurement and some older cab cars are being brought back into service. So equipment numbers are likely not a problem.

The constraint is how many are tied up and where. Bringing a trainset all the way to Allandale or Kitchener for an extra run may be a challenge. Similarly bringing trains back to Toronto after adding late-evening runs due to large crowds at Skydome etc is additional work and track occupancy at an hour when maintenance is getting going.

- Paul

 

[Allandale25]

^ definitely seems like why GO got the approval to do the Heritage Road Layover in Brampton. Not sure when construction will start.

 

[T3G]

Do the bike coaches on the Niagara trains only get dispatched on the weekends?

Was at Oakville today for the 2:50 Union bound departure. Two trains arrived within 3 minutes of each other at that time; I wasn't able to identify which one came from the Falls, but neither had any bike coaches on it.

 

[WB62]

Do the bike coaches on the Niagara trains only get dispatched on the weekends?

Was at Oakville today for the 2:50 Union bound departure. Two trains arrived within 3 minutes of each other at that time; I wasn't able to identify which one came from the Falls, but neither had any bike coaches on it.

Yeah, only the weekend trains do

 

[LNahid2000]

Do the bike coaches on the Niagara trains only get dispatched on the weekends?

Was at Oakville today for the 2:50 Union bound departure. Two trains arrived within 3 minutes of each other at that time; I wasn't able to identify which one came from the Falls, but neither had any bike coaches on it.

Weekends only. When I took the weekday train for the first time last month, it was packed because it was only 6 cars. At least we got there early since the 6 car trains can accelerate faster.

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

^ wouldn't the trains replace the buses in this hypothetical situation?

Yes and no. I wonder about the extra bus service to Milton, Richmond Hill, 407 in off peak.

The off-peak services are fairly well covered by trainsets that currently lay over between peaks. Additional locos are in procurement and some older cab cars are being brought back into service. So equipment numbers are likely not a problem.

The constraint is how many are tied up and where. Bringing a trainset all the way to Allandale or Kitchener for an extra run may be a challenge. Similarly bringing trains back to Toronto after adding late-evening runs due to large crowds at Skydome etc is additional work and track occupancy at an hour when maintenance is getting going.

- Paul

Thanks as always Paul. So we need more layovers. The question is where?

 

[christiesplits]

Quick question for GO Transit historians.

Does anyone know when the 407 West GO Bus from Hamilton GO to Square One was launched?

I believe it was a few years after the 407 was finished, but don't know the exact date.

 

[Metroscapes]

Quick question for GO Transit historians.

Does anyone know when the 407 West GO Bus from Hamilton GO to Square One was launched?

I believe it was a few years after the 407 was finished, but don't know the exact date.

CPTDB Wiki puts it on October 30, 2000.

 

[urbancog]

^ definitely seems like why GO got the approval to do the Heritage Road Layover in Brampton. Not sure when construction will start.

The May 2023 IO Construction Opportunities Pipeline states public tenders will be requested in Fall 2023 @ with an expected price of between $20M and $200M.

 

[innsertnamehere]

CPTDB Wiki puts it on October 30, 2000.

To Hamilton would have been later as I don't believe the Halton Region portion of the 407 opened until 2002. 407ETR actually paid to build it themselves - it's often forgotten that the 407 which was sold in 1997 only ran from the 403 in Mississauga to Markham Road.

I imagine the service was extended to Hamilton shortly after the 407 opened however - 2005 satellite imagery shows the Dundas St park and ride with bus facilities.

 

[wopchop]

West extension through Halton opened in Summer 2001.

Extending the highway west to QEW (and east to Brock rd) was part of the lease agreement that was signed. There was even a penalty clause if they didn't open extensions by a certain date.

 

[Allandale25]

‘There are too many bikes’: A sharp rise in the number of food couriers commuting into Toronto’s core has left GO Transit struggling — and the workers scrambling

In recent months, GO Transit operations have been adjusted to accommodate a growing influx of food delivery workers and their bikes in the GTA.

www.thestar.com

A few excerpts:

In response to increased courier traffic, Metrolinx told the Star it had made several changes, including: adding occasional trains along the Kitchener line, a popular route for food delivery workers that connects Union Station to Brampton, Mississauga, Guelph and Kitchener; doubling bike capacity on select trains; and increasing staff on platforms to ensure bikes don’t exceed the coach limit.

But Metrolinx and delivery workers seem to be in agreement on how to fix the overcrowding: introduce dedicated bike coaches on the Kitchener line.

However, couriers will have to wait until the fall when Metrolinx’s fleet of bike coaches — currently used by sightseers along the Niagara corridor, whose busy season is soon ending — will be redeployed to the Kitchen[er] line. The transit agency said it’s also working to procure more dedicated bike coaches, with e-bikes in mind.