I rode train 645 (Ottawa-Toronto) yesterday, and although they announced that they expected delays due to remaining switch and signal issues from the ice storm, most of the delays we experienced seemed routine in nature.
On the VIA segment (Ottawa-Brockville), we got delayed by about 15 minutes total, waiting for 2 VIA trains to pass in the opposite direction on the single tracked line
On the CN segment (Brockville-Pickering), we got slightly delayed a few times due to switching track for no apparent reason (we'd switch to the left track, then later back to the right, without ever encountering a train in the opposite direction). Maybe these were due to the aforementioned switch or signal issues. But the net delay was relatively minor, maybe a few minutes.
The GO segment was where we really got screwed over. We were running behind a GO train, and at Guildwood where the line widens to 3 tracks we took the express track and the GO took the local track. We overtook the GO train just as it was pulling out of Scarborough, well before the bottleneck where the line reduces to 2 tracks due to Ontario Line construction:
At this point we were 35 minutes late and the GO train was about 2 minutes late.
Metrolinx dispatching had two options. If they let us go first, we would reach Danforth station about 30 seconds to a minute earlier than the GO train. By the time the GO train finished loading passengers at Danforth, the VIA train would have cleared the jnction and the GO train would get a signal to proceed within a few seconds of closing the doors. We were travelling a lot faster than the GO train would, so by the time the GO train made it through the switches we would be long gone and it would be able to accelerate up its normal speed.
But instead, they chose to line the GO train through first, so we had to sit in Danforth station for 5 minutes waiting for that train to catch up to us, then load passengers, then switch through the junction, then clear the tracks ahead of us, and of course since we were now right behind a slow-moving train, we couldn't travel at full speed.
To make matters worse, VIA train 79 (Toronto-Windsor) was holding for us at Union station so passengers could make the connection, meaning that the delay to our train continued to spread throughout the VIA, GO and CN networks. And because we were occupying the express track (without any benefit), an eastbound VIA train got stuck behind a GO local train all the way from Union to Pickering.
This is far from the first time I've seen this type of hostile dispatching from GO towards VIA.
On Metrolinx-owned tracks, GO trains always get priority, because they're the ones whose on-time performance is a performance metric for dispatchers.
But from the perspective of the general public it is absolutely outrageous that one publicly-funded passenger rail agency is sabotaging the operations of another publicly-funded passenger rail agency. We need to demand that Metrolinx dispatch trains in a way which produces the best outcome for the public and rail network overall, not just their own micromanagement objectives.
