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Saturday, October 23, 2010

Holy Christ, I can't even get a train to Clarington, and now there's talk of trains to Guelph, Kitchener, Timbuktu

via The Guelph Mercury Record

ON - Ridership on GO Transit buses has more than tripled in less than a year as university students embrace intercity transit.

Now there’s word GO Transit may soon launch a plan of some sort to extend commuter trains to Kitchener.

GO buses launched last November, to help build ridership toward trains. Buses stop at Waterloo universities as well as in Kitchener and Cambridge.

Most buses go to Mississauga. Some go to the Milton GO train station. Buses do not go directly to Union Station in Toronto.

Their first month, GO buses carried 6,500 passengers. In September they carried over 20,000. Extra buses have been added to meet demand, in particular to carry students away from Waterloo on Fridays.

This is good news for students. But working commuters won’t abandon their cars until they have reliable trains.

Ontario’s approved plan calls for four trains a day out of Kitchener in the morning, with four trains returning in the afternoon and evening.

The proposal, costing $153 million to launch, is still without provincial funding, GO spokesperson Vanessa Thomas said. She would not elaborate on alternate rail plans and said the provincial transit service is not currently considering extending trains from Milton to Cambridge.

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6 comments:

Marion said...

Oshawa to Bowmanville GO Train Service Expansion and Maintenance Facility
Improvements:

-Extended service for the Lakeshore East corridor between Oshawa and Bowmanville
-Improved service with new layover and maintenance facilities
-Opportunity to add up to five potential new GO stations

Project description: GO Transit is looking at expanding service from Oshawa to Bowmanville and building a new rail maintenance facility in Whitby. An earlier feasibility study recommended the preferred route for this expansion, as well as potential station, layover, and maintenance facility locations. A Transit Project Assessment Process (TPAP) Environmental Assessment (EA) is currently underway and will investigate the future service requirements between Oshawa and Bowmanville and the potential impacts of building a new rail maintenance facility in Whitby.....

Dan said...

They're also looking into sending trains to Niagara Falls (regular service, via an extension of the Lakeshore line) and the costly Peterborough line.

Peter B said...

All aboard, next stop Kookamunga!!!

TomW said...

The Peterbrough line idea is pretty dead, because the route runs through a load of greenbelt, and basically all the track woudl need replacing.

"Working commuters won’t abandon their cars until they have reliable trains."
Rubbish. People will commute by bus if it's reliable, comfortable, and sufficiently quick. Oddly, those are the same reasons pick trains... people don't choose transit because of the mode.

GO's priorities for extending services are the Richmond Hill and Lakeshore East lines. (Also to Bloor station to the Milton line). However, both of those carry price tags more like $1,000m than $100m.

C.J. Smith said...

I knew about the LE expansion. I was just commenting on how one expansion hasn't been funded and then there are plans for more.

Projects are all over the place. Let's see some action, some money and less talk.

Start with bringing trains to Courtice. Me first, please. Smell ya later suckahs!

TomW said...

None of its funded... :-(
Meanwhile, the Ontario government is pressing aheady with extending Higwhay 407... which will cost hundreds of millions, if not billions, run through greenbelt, and do nothing to promote transit usage. They province already owns the land - they should build a rail line there instead. (Which requiers less land than a road, so they can sell off the excess).

Ahem. Rant over now.