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Monday, May 14, 2018

Who's Not Been Serving Us Lately? Part 12


Special to This Crazy Train
By Chris P. Bacon

Route 11 — RIP

In the first installment of this series, we looked at the inefficiencies of (seasonal) Route 11 between St. Catharines and Niagara-on-the-Lake.  After four years, Metrolinx’s planners agreed with the analysis provided by TCT, because this year, Route 11 will not operate.

Instead, GO Transit has partnered with Parks Niagara (and WEGO) to get you to, and about, Niagara Falls and NOTL.  This arrangement started last year. 

Exact details of the excursion packages and their pricing remain a mystery at this time.  GO Transit advertises the travel package for $30:




Niagara Parks advertises the packages FROM $30, depending on what stops you make:



GO Transit stated that packages “will be available to purchase at the beginning of May”, yet Niagara Parks will only commit to “coming soon”.  If memory serves me correctly, Niagara Parks had problems launching their programme last year, too.

Metrolinx invites us to “Start planning your May Long Weekend GO Train trip today!”  But don’t specify you want to GO to NOTL; you’ll get this error message:


Is this another Passenger Charter violation?

As for the efficiencies of operating GO Transit’s trains, it is assumed the first train leaving Niagara Falls for Union station will continue to deadhead to The Falls from the Willowbrook yard.  If someone can provide insights on this matter, please feel free to comment.

Again, you’re welcome, Metrolinx, but there really is no need to thank us.  It’s our mission at TCT to provide you with operational insights and analyses at an affordable price.  You’ll be happy to know that this year we are holding the line on our service fees, i.e. we are working pro bono again.

As for Route 11… RIP.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Travelling the Niagara corridor on GO is a hilarious nightmare. It's ridiculous that this corridor doesn't have better options yet. The mythical GO train stations that are supposed to come there sometime between now and the next supernova are badly needed, now. Even the existing 'stations' in place for the current bus routes are laughable. I've seen many people stranded at the corner of Barton/Nash (Stoney Creek stop) in terrible weather, or wandering around in confusion at the clusterf*ck that is the St. Catharines Fairview station. And how is it that to travel from Hamilton (arguably a major centre in the area) to anywhere in Niagara you either have to back track on GO to Burlington OR slog it out on the HSR to the Stoney Creek station in no man's land? Many, many times I have seen lloooonngggg lines on this route and people left behind.