[Miltonrider]

As someone who lives in Milton I have a vested interest in increased Milton service as well. As I’ve posted before, I travel into the city a lot on weekends. Especially in the summer with my bike. This means driving down to Bronte and fighting for a spot on a LSW train that is already full coming out of Burlington. Even with driving to Bronte, it’s still faster than the Milton bus that stops at every street along Thompson and Derry Roads, then gets stuck in the 401 & QEW parking lots. I had to take the bus home from Toronto back in July (on a Saturday) and it took almost 25 minutes before we cleared Lakeshore and got on the QEW.

During the weekends, I would guess there are less than 10 trains (including both directions) through Milton, from what I can hear from my apartment. So, I don’t buy the lack of track capacity excuse.

When I contacted Metrolinx about increasing service, I too got the standard “Thank you for contacting GO Transit about our service on Milton GO Train”.

My options for increased service (without the need for expensive land purchase or grade separation) would be as follows:

#1 – Limited weekend service. For example. 4 AM trains to Toronto 7am, 8am, 9am & 11am and those same 4 trains can return at 4PM, 6PM, 8PM, 10PM. This would allow people to spend a day or early evening in the city for business or entertainment. No competing with LSW passengers

#2) Mid-day / weekend service: Reinstate the third existing track (that is covered in weeds between Dixie & Erindale) and run two-way train service between Union and Erindale. From Erindale, run the 21 buses along the transitway to 407/Trafalgar park’n’ride. Then up Trafalgar to the outlet mall at Steeles. Then hop on the 401 to Milton GO. (All the passengers that get on along Derry can make their way to Milton station.

#3 midday / weekend service: Adjust the 21 buses to the following route. Milton Go to 407/Trafalgar park-n-ride. Transitway to Renforth station. 427 to Dundas to Kipling terminal

In my opinion options 2 and 3 would be faster than the current 21 bus via Meadowvale GO.

I’ve been told that increased train service may not be possible due to lack of crew. I find that hard to believe. I’m sure the Milton train crews would love to get in some extra time, as unlike their LSW/E or even Kitchener and Barrie co-workers, they don’t get extra midday or weekend runs. So, I’m sure they would jump at the chance to run extra trains on the weekend.

Before the election, Doug Ford promised Milton expansion. What have we got so far? A repaved parking lot. How about instead of building the 413 (or a 401 tunnel), take that cash and put it towards expanding and making the Milton line comparable to the LSW/E lines. That would do more to ease congestion on the 401 than new highways or tunnels.
Thus ends my rant.

 

[WB62]

Milton train crews would love to get in some extra time, as unlike their LSW/E or even Kitchener and Barrie co-workers, they don’t get extra midday or weekend runs. So, I’m sure they would jump at the chance to run extra trains on the weekend.

This isn’t how crews work on GO and UP, jobs take crews on multiple different lines, no two jobs are the exact same.

Here are examples of some of the jobs and how they’re scheduled (first two images explain how to read the following four images):

 

[Achemarci]

Another day, another 21 absolutely rammed to the gills.

Departure from Milton GO at 12:20 PM. All seats full by Derry and Armstrong, bus completely full by Derry and Trudeau.

The bus didn't even manage to leave Milton and it was already at capacity.

I fully expect a solution from Metrolinx within 12-18 business months, likely something half assed like the time in the spring of 2023 when they diverted all service to Oakville GO (a good thing), while completely forgetting that people might want to travel between Trafalgar and Meadowvale GO and leaving the 27 running to Milton during rush hours only (a bad thing).

Forget school work, that stuff will be an absolute cakewalk compared to dealing with the stupidity of everyone in charge of things in this province that God forgot.

The problem is that they're sometimes running hourly service with single-decker buses. For example from TransSee on today Sep 11 we see:

9:10 - single
9:40 - double
10:15 - double
10:45 - double
11:20 - double
12:20 - single
1:20 - single

That just isn't gonna work. The bus ridership (including evenings) is mostly post-secondary students going to/coming from afternoon/evening classes in Toronto... it isn't an office-worker market that disappears during the midday even though running this low service would make it seem so. It is odd that Metrolinx doesn't treat Route 21 with the priority of a post-secondary route like others that go 'directly' to universities even though it basically is that.

Don't worry --- they added special Saturday train service on the Milton line (again showing how more service is totallyyyy impossible like some people claim), just so Lakeshore West people can get to the Blue Jays game during construction!!

 

[Miltonrider]

Thanks for educating me on how the crews work WB62 and E•MO•TION. It was very informative. I always thought that GO crews operated like freight and VIA crews, where engineers are qualified on certain lines (subs). I thought that each line would have different operating rules, thus Metrolinx wouldn’t go to the expense of training all their crews on all lines, especially for lines that only have rush hour service. The Milton line especially, since it is under CP rules, not GO rules. Under this incorrect assumption, I figured that Milton crews would not get as much travel time as LSW crews who go back and forth between Burlington and Oshawa, thus would like the opportunity to get more hours.

If that is the case that GO crews are qualified on all lines, then I think there would be enough personnel to run limited weekend train service to/from Milton at least. They are doing it this weekend (although there is only one train in / out, which I will be taking advantage of to go to the Argo’s game).

Thanks again, and I look forward to further Milton line discussion and hopefully answers from the government when I contact them again.

 

[WB62]

Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay announced all lines will see increased rush hour service this October and November during yesterdays board meeting.

What service increases these will be is unknown so far:

This was announced 29 minutes in.

 

[stevensontransit]

Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay announced all lines will see increased rush hour service this October and November during yesterdays board meeting.

What service increases these will be is unknown so far:

This was announced 29 minutes in.

Does he mean only train or only bus routes, or both?

 

[WB62]

Does he mean only train or only bus routes, or both?

I think he was speaking about rail since he specifically mentioned lines, not routes. Can’t say for sure though

 

[stevensontransit]

I think he was speaking about rail since he specifically mentioned lines, not routes. Can’t say for sure though

Are those increased in rail lines in response to increased RTO mandates in downtown?

 

[WB62]

Are those increased in rail lines in response to increased RTO mandates in downtown?

Yeah that was directly mentioned as the reason why

 

[canarob]

RTO is broadly destroying quality of life in the GTA, but I welcome any increase in service generally.

 

[Northern Light]

Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay announced all lines will see increased rush hour service this October and November during yesterdays board meeting.

What service increases these will be is unknown so far:

This was announced 29 minutes in.

Some good details for different projects are sprinkled in here, that are not in the written materials.

Thanks for posting.

 

[Dan416]

I know they said all lines, but I am curious to see how (or if) this impacts the Milton line. I'm not overly optimistic, but I think a train that is needed is one leaving Union in between the 5:25 train and the 5:55 train, so it should be at 5:40 pm. The 30 minute gap between those trains make the 5:55 train overloaded.

 

[TripleQ]

So I have a child attending UW now and am developing a keen interest in certain GO bus routes, specifically 25 and 30. They came home on Friday, and basically the bus was full from Laurier onwards with many people left behind there. Just curious how GO handles this sort of situation, is there any ability add extra capacity on the fly or are people downstream from UW screwed? And if not, is there any adjustments to capacity in future weeks that can be made?

Also wondering if anyone has any experience with 25 westbound at peak student times (Sunday evening/Monday morning)? Is it full from Square One or would there generally be room to get on at Erin Mills or Winston Churchill transitway?

 

[ZEBuilder]

So I have a child attending UW now and am developing a keen interest in certain GO bus routes, specifically 25 and 30. They came home on Friday, and basically the bus was full from Laurier onwards with many people left behind there. Just curious how GO handles this sort of situation, is there any ability add extra capacity on the fly or are people downstream from UW screwed? And if not, is there any adjustments to capacity in future weeks that can be made?

Also wondering if anyone has any experience with 25 westbound at peak student times (Sunday evening/Monday morning)? Is it full from Square One or would there generally be room to get on at Erin Mills or Winston Churchill transitway?

The simple answer is to provide a GO Train to Toronto on the Kitchener Line at night, but that's a pipe dream for anyone in KW and UW/Laurier students. Much like the fiasco that is the Milton Line.

 

[reaperexpress]

So I have a child attending UW now and am developing a keen interest in certain GO bus routes, specifically 25 and 30. They came home on Friday, and basically the bus was full from Laurier onwards with many people left behind there. Just curious how GO handles this sort of situation, is there any ability add extra capacity on the fly or are people downstream from UW screwed? And if not, is there any adjustments to capacity in future weeks that can be made?

Also wondering if anyone has any experience with 25 westbound at peak student times (Sunday evening/Monday morning)? Is it full from Square One or would there generally be room to get on at Erin Mills or Winston Churchill transitway?

I went to UW and in my experience GO is fairly responsive once they realize there's an issue, so if the crowding is regular my guess is they'll start sending extra (unscheduled) buses to relieve crowding within a few weeks.

When I was riding the 25C and 25F (effectively today's 30), they were generally quite full but not leaving people behind - the schedules were very precisely tailored to the demand. However, it takes time to adjust the schedules, so the tightly tailored schedules can be thrown off. For example when they first introduced the 25F (UW-Laurier-Bramalea-407) they massively underestimated demand for the faster service, so they were leaving dozens of people behind until the next schedule change when they finally doubled the service frequency. The 30 has also been notoriously overcrowded westbound on weekends in the past, though they've added a ton of buses so maybe it's fine now.

Back a decade ago when I was riding it, the 25 local always had space to spare, even when the 25C express was overcrowded. It's so much slower than the express that people generally only take it if they have no other choice.

The simple answer is to provide a GO Train to Toronto on the Kitchener Line at night, but that's a pipe dream for anyone in KW and UW/Laurier students. Much like the fiasco that is the Milton Line.

They do provide a GO Train to Toronto on the Kitchener line at night. If any students are concerned about getting left behind they could take that since it's definitely not going to be overcrowded.