GO Transit lakeshore route

On Thursday I rode the GO train between Union Station and Ajax on the Lakeshore East route. It was my first experience riding GO. What a pleasant trip! The cars I rode in were clean, the seats were comfortable and undamaged, everything appeared to be in good working order, understandable announcements of upcoming station stops were made, the trains were on time, and the fare was a steal! I wish I could consistently say the same for Metra (my commuter carrier)!

The only observation I have is that both trains (to Ajax ~ 12:13 PM and from Ajax ~ 8:54 PM) appeared to be mostly empty. Any idea why?

By the way, while in Toronto I rode the TTC subways and streetcars, too. What a treat! I couldn't believe what seemed to be 4-5 minute headways on the Yonge St subway last SUNDAY afternoon with standing room only on the trains! Wow! CTA, are you paying attention???

I'm glad you had a Good Expreience on GO also Metra can't hold a Candle to GO. I can barley understand the Station Announcements I just by when I see it I believe it.

AmtrakFan

orangeline wrote:On Thursday I rode the GO train between Union Station and Ajax on the Lakeshore East route. It was my first experience riding GO.

The only observation I have is that both trains (to Ajax ~ 12:13 PM and from Ajax ~ 8:54 PM) appeared to be mostly empty. Any idea why?

During rush hours, the weekday GO trains are packed full (and then some) with commuters. Some consists run all day, keeping much longer than necessary trains during the off-peak hours rather than substituting different ones. I guess this is more efficient. On weekends the trains are shorter.

I've ridden Metra (on the Aurora and IC electric lines) and enjoyed the experience.

Ken V,

Thanks for your observations. I noticed that in the AM rush hours some trains had 10-12 bi-levels pulled (pushed) by a single diesel, so there must be a real need for the service.

Don't get me wrong that I don't like Metra -- I ride them several times a month (BNSF line) and they are very good. What I meant to point out was that GO seemed to outperform Metra in all the things that make for a positive experience.

However, as to the TTC subway, it is head and shoulders superior to the CTA "L" service. A very efficient operation! Why aren't there more lines?

Well they are proposing new subway lines in the future in Toronto but it costs $$$$$$$$. If I'm correct the Sheppard subway line costed over 4.6 billion dollars Canadian to build.

http://www.toronto.ca/ttc/pdf/subway-rt.pdf

This shows all the subway stops and lines in Toronto.

But anyways it depends on how the city grows and how much people live in it to get to and from work and to how many people rely on public transit, but for the GO Trains, they are going to be doing some updates and upgrades to their service, they wanted to propose building a 3rd track to connect to CP's old North Toronto Station (which is now the LCBO) on CP's North Toronto Sub, they got the room to do it or just upgrade the tracks, crossings and signals on that subdivision to run GO Trains on.

Ken is right. GO maintains regularly intervalled trains along its Lakeshore lines and many of these trains run through, end to end. A journey from Oshawa to Burlington or vice versa takes almost two hours. At certain times of day, depending upon the traffic flow, trains in one direction on either the East or West line can be either bursting full or largely empty. This situation will occur, of course, in the opposite directions (east line compared to west). Because of the time required to traverse the entire Lakeshore line and the necessaries such as fueling and servicing, it does not pay to cut off cars during low-ridership periods since they will just have to be reattached very shortly thereafter! The movement of GO trains is a ballet of train operations and is something to behold.

cheers,
Ori
va3ori - va3xw