GO/VIA Transit

[Jon Dalton]

I don't agree with encouraging people to drive to Burlington and Aldershot rather than aiming for frequent service to Hamilton GO and West Harbour. Where does that leave people without a car? Parking at GO stations can become an issue when service levels increase and Burlington already added a massive garage. Hamilton's GO stations are served by transit and available to residents of growing downtown condos. We can't encourage people to leave their cars at home, walk, bike, and move downtown if at the end we force them to drive just to get to the transit.

[TheRitsman]

Originally Posted by Jon Dalton

I don't agree with encouraging people to drive to Burlington and Aldershot rather than aiming for frequent service to Hamilton GO and West Harbour. Where does that leave people without a car? Parking at GO stations can become an issue when service levels increase and Burlington already added a massive garage. Hamilton's GO stations are served by transit and available to residents of growing downtown condos. We can't encourage people to leave their cars at home, walk, bike, and move downtown if at the end we force them to drive just to get to the transit.

We moved close to West Harbour on purpose because my partner's work is more precarious in Hamilton, and she regularly works in Toronto. Owning a car for $400/month + $400/month Go Train from Burlington Station really made us think of moving to Toronto as that $800/month savings would get us a decent rental in Toronto in addition to what we already pay here. Both of us have more job opportunities in Toronto, and we're young so we want to bar hop, hit up breweries, and party. Hamilton has some of that, but the same 5 joints suck sometimes, plus so many are closing or giving up on the city because the city seems to export potential without living up to it for the last 20 years. The only thing keeping this city going half the time is the optimism of good people. The politicians seem to have mostly given up.

[thistleclub]

Originally Posted by Jon Dalton

I don't agree with encouraging people to drive to Burlington and Aldershot rather than aiming for frequent service to Hamilton GO and West Harbour. Where does that leave people without a car? Parking at GO stations can become an issue when service levels increase and Burlington already added a massive garage. Hamilton's GO stations are served by transit and available to residents of growing downtown condos. We can't encourage people to leave their cars at home, walk, bike, and move downtown if at the end we force them to drive just to get to the transit.

I’m all for Hamiltonians using the Hamilton GO stations. Ideally, the City would be all-in on transit-supportive residential/employment density on all HSR routes, with elevated residential/employment density within 1km of GO stations, and the HSR would configure its service to serve those stations, and promote that service as a regional connectivity convenience. Under the historical status quo, however, we’re not quite there.

Most Hamiltonians live outside of normative walking/cycling distance from a GO station, and must consider whether they want to start their odyssey on the HSR or a vehicle (either as driver or passenger). Regrettably, that “final mile” alone is generally more swift under the latter option.

Then there’s the geography. For residents of Wards 12-15, Aldershot rail service is just as convenient as the downtown or West Harbour stations, enjoys twice the service frequency, and spares you a 15-minute crawl around the elbow of the harbour. For Hamiltonians in Wards 9-11 who are not boarding the HSR, kiss-and-ride at Burlington GO may be a more compelling option than driving to Confederation GO, then travelling by rail for an additional 20 minutes to each direction of the commute.

Even in Metrolinx scenarios where Hamilton GO stations get hourly rail service, Aldershot and Burlington have runs every 15-30 minutes, which may influence station-of-choice, provided that the travel differential doesn’t cancel out time savings. (The province has often opted to reduce his service in order to drive turnstiles at rail stations, so there’s that reality to contend with as well.)

I don’t think that the Hamilton stations are redundant or vestigial, but it does seem as if they are projected to have a more modest level of service and ridership than neighbouring stations in Burlington.

[thistleclub]

Dundas GO bus route to Aldershot reviewed by Metrolinx
(Dundas Star, Craig Campbell, March 18 2021)

Metrolinx reviewed a McMaster University engineering professor’s proposal to reroute a McMaster GO bus to the Aldershot train station through Dundas with a stop on York Road south of Watson’s Lane, and projected a net loss in ridership.

But Brian Baetz, the Dundas resident who co-authored the paper with research assistant Nicole Graziano, questioned Metrolinx’s analysis and said rerouting the Route 15 GO bus from Main Street West to York Road will not result in the organization’s predicted ridership loss, but would actually increase ridership.

Baetz said the idea needs political pressure, and pressure from interested citizens, to move forward.

“Rerouting the 15 GO bus from McMaster University Bus Terminal … is a cost-effective means of making public transit more accessible,” states the paper submitted by Baetz and Graziano to Metrolinx. “This project relies on existing infrastructure and presents a financially feasible option to better connect Hamilton and Dundas to the Aldershot GO station and surrounding communities.”

It suggests a GO bus stop at the existing Watson’s Lane loop on York Road. It’s the turnaround for HSR’s Dundas Local 52A route that travels into Pleasant Valley and back, including stops at Old Ancaster Road, Ogilvie Street, Governor’s Road, Main Street, York Street and York Road.

The proposed GO bus route would access Highway 403 from York Road.

“Improved connection of Dundas and the surrounding community will simultaneously help reduce transportation-related greenhouse gases while improving already existing public infrastructure,” the paper states. “With more accessible GO bus routes which lead directly to the Aldershot GO train station, people will be more inclined to use public transportation over private vehicles.”

Metrolinx director of bus services Doug Spooner responded to the paper with an analysis suggesting the new route would add 920 “new boardings” per month, and an estimated increase in travel time for westbound trips of two minutes. Eastbound trips were estimated to take the same time as the current route along Main Street West to Highway 403.

“Our analysis indicates that a service addition (i.e., new stop) will negatively affect customer travel times and create additional scheduling challenges given our current network. This will result in a forecasted reduction of 690 boardings per month. Additionally, due to the increased running time, there will be additional costs to run the service,” the Metrolinx report states.

Metrolinx’s analysis suggests that eliminating the stop at Main West and Haddon Street would result in a forecasted reduction of another 650 boardings per month.

Metrolinx projected a net loss of 420 boardings a month for the rerouted GO bus through Dundas and decided not to recommend the proposal.

Baetz responded to the analysis, stating in an email that the ridership drops predicted by Metrolinx due to additional travel times in one direction, and loss of the Main Street stop, were “contestable” and he estimated an overall ridership increase of more than 700 per month.

He said riders who currently board at Haddon would still be able to access the bus on the McMaster campus, and the small increase in travel time won’t have the impact Metrolinx suggested.

“But more importantly, it provides the possibility of regional transit service to a rather sizeable community ... Dundas has very limited HSR service, but a rerouting of the Aldershot GO bus would give folks in town a very efficient way of getting to Toronto on GO,” Baetz stated in an email to Spooner.

“We lost our Via rail stop in Dundas decades ago, and were told then that Aldershot would provide rail service. But Via does not stop in Dundas, and it means driving to Aldershot, where parking is often very congested. This GO bus rerouting would go a long way to providing access to Toronto by rail on GO, or to Toronto-Montreal or to New York City by Via.”


Well, yes. VIA does not stop in Dundas because, as you say, the community lost the stop decades ago.

Added to which, despite stagnant population growth, Dundas residents arguably enjoy better HSR service than any other Hamilton suburb, though most of it is on the Delaware variants.

The HSR's Dundas Local 52A route reliably posts some of the lowest ridership and worst farebox recovery rates in the city (at around 11K boardings annually, it's outdone only by the Rock Garden route) and operates as a philanthropic venture — half-hour headways 12 times daily, split between weekday peaks.

GO's 15 runs around 19 times a day on weekdays and 9 times a day on Saturday/Sundays.

Not sure what to make of the fact this wiffleball proposal was potentially made possible by the resources of McMaster's CityLAB.

[TheRitsman]

What I don't get about this, is they don't have to reroute anything, just end the route at Dundas instead... Haddon > McMaster > Dundas. Turn around Dundas > McMaster > Haddon/403

[thistleclub]

Or they could extend the route to the West Hamilton Loop at Main West & Lower Lion's Club, which is essentially the same distance and has better HSR integration.

Really just depends where the author of the report lives and which community they feel is underserved by transit.

[JoeyColeman]

The 15 bus goes to Brantford now, McMaster is no longer the terminus.

[thistleclub]

Greyhound Canada Closes its Services in Canada

Due to sustained ridership declines in Ontario and Quebec, Greyhound Canada has made the difficult decision to discontinue all operations on its remaining routes in Ontario and Quebec, and will permanently close all services in Canada effective May 13, 2021.…

All Ontario and Quebec routes (excluding Canada – US cross-border services) that were temporarily suspended in May 2020 will permanently end as of midnight, May 13th as follows:

Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal

Toronto-London-Windsor

Sudbury-Ottawa/Toronto

Toronto-Kitchener/Guelph/Cambridge

Toronto-Niagara Falls

Ottawa-Kingston

Greyhound Canada implemented a range of cost reduction steps during recent years, including frequency adjustments to route schedules and other efficiency measures.

In 2018, after years of declining ridership and the impact of a changing and increasingly challenging transportation environment, including de-regulation and subsidized competition such as VIA Rail and publicly owned bus systems, the difficult decision was made to suspend service in the western part of Canada. Services continued in Ontario and Quebec.

The pandemic, and required travel restrictions to help keep Canadians safe, brought a further dramatic drop of approximately 95 percent of normal volumes before operations were fully suspended in May 2020.

Our service is reliant on the farebox – we are not able to sustain operations with a significant reduction in ridership and the corresponding revenue loss.

Greyhound Canada has made significant outreach efforts to provincial and federal governments for financial support for the industry. Financial investments from governments for Canada’s inter-city bus sector have been negligible. Operations are not feasible absent of financial support.

[JakeLRS]

All Day Go Train Service rumoured to start later this summer. (Hopefully for real this time).

Of course, we’ll have to wait for the official announcement.

https://twitter.com/rath_randy/statu...58688034816007

Via Twitter

Randy Rath @rath_randy

Sources tell me that all day GO train service is coming to Hamilton's West Harbour GO station starting later this summer. Announcement coming Monday.

[SteelTown]

ugh, we have to wait all weekend now?! Boo.

[ShavedParmesanCheese]

So help me, don't get my hopes up like this...

[RaginRonic]

(in reference to all-day GO here)

I WANT ALL-DAY CHOO-CHOO!

(in reference to LRT here)

I WANT STREET CHOO-CHOO!

Get my point? X-)

[woreg75]

Definitely a much more improved service.. sooner than you realise...

[thistleclub]

Is Hamilton getting all-day GO Train service at last?
(Insauga.com, Nathan Sager, July 23 2021)

A game-changer for Hamilton commuters and day-trippers — all-day GO Train service to Toronto — appears to be on track, at last.

The City of Hamilton and the Ontario government says Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney will be in Hamilton on Monday morning (July 26) an make an an announcement about public transit improvements for Hamilton. Reports online are that GO Train will be added at the West Harbour GO Station downtown near Bayfront Park before the end of the summer.

The station at 353 James St. N. is on the Canadian National Railway (CNR) line through the north end of Hamilton. It opened in June 2015, shortly before Hamilton hosted events during the 2015 Pan Am Games.

However, because the CNR has priority on the line, GO Train service to downtown Hamilton has been limited and the station has been chronically underused. Trains only depart from and come into the city centre during morning and evening rush hours on weekdays.

The vast majority of trips on the Lakeshore West line begin or stop at the Aldershot station in Waterdown. Hamilton residents face an extended trip time since their options for getting to Aldershot mean connecting via a shuttle bus from the Hamilton GO Centre on Hunter Street East, cycling, or using a ride-share service or taxi.

In addition to Mulroney, Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger and Flamborough-Glanbrook MPP Donna Skelly will also appear at the announcement. The three politicians will be joined by Metrolinx CEO and president Phil Verster, and LiUNA international vice-president Joseph Mancinelli who is also the Central and Eastern Canada regional manager for the labour union.

Read it in full here.


NOTE: "The vast majority of trips on the Lakeshore West line begin or stop at the Aldershot station in Waterdown", is a weird claim and nakedly incorrect, and not simply because the Aldershot station is in Burlington. Metrolinx's ridership numbers clearly demonstrate that the station's ridership volumes place it roughly in the lowest third of the Lakeshore West field — above Mimico, Long Branch, Hamilton Centre, and West Harbour (excluding Niagara because it's so severely handicapped it makes a flimsy comparison).

Introducing transit service is one thing. Maintaining it is another. Hopefully the political will, operating budgets and ridership fares are there to support expanded trains without cutting bus service.

[ScreamingViking]

The writer probably meant scheduled train trips, not passenger trips.

And I imagine most commuters from Hamilton drive themselves to Aldershot (or Burlington or Appleby if living in the east end and Stoney Creek) rather than using the modes noted.

[ShavedParmesanCheese]

I can vouch for that. I live in the East End and if I need to go get a relative or head to Toronto, I get the 11 into Burlington.

[woreg75]

Well..
With our bids coming up, like soon...
I'll be telling people to stand clear of the doors much more from a west location...

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by woreg75

Well..
With our bids coming up, like soon...
I'll be telling people to stand clear of the doors much more from a west location...

Interesting! It's been a couple of years, but if you've been working LSW for a while I have probably been on one of your trains.

[woreg75]

I usually live on the LS lines, three years now.. Niagara on the weekends.. I'm looking through our bid package in front of me, and there is change for sure which should hopefully bring more activity.
It's wonderful as there are more things to bid on job wise.
Think it's a positive step in the right direction, especially after such a long shutdown... I'm sure there will be more, as the powers above me are very ambitious..
Here's hoping.

[ZTrade]

Would this include weekend service or is it just hourly weekday service?