I am reasonably sure that the Fed Bus is not subsidized by the general student population, actually. School buses are cheaper than highway coaches.

The technical details of running more trains are not really the big barrier – though getting time from the rail corridor owners is a factor. The bigger barrier appears to be in what GO considers its market.

First statement is against the perceived demand. An expensive transit service targeting recreational travel is a touchy situation. If you ask me if I would chose the GO train to attend an event in downtown Toronto on a weekend the answer is abso-freakin-lutely. It would be a reasonably priced, reasonably comfortable (ok, never had to sit on a GO train for a long time, but still….) reasonably fast (especially factoring in traffic concerns, 2 hours would be amazing to Union) travel option. However, the difference between asking me if I would use the train for a weekday commute vs. a weekend excursion is that (in theory) choosing the train for a work commute implies that I am intending to use the train at least 60% of the weekdays. Ask people if they would use the weekend train at least 50% of the weekends. That number is smaller, because recreational travel is not consistent. If money is tight, you don’t choose to not go to work, but you may choose not to go to a baseball game. And there are a lot of people who will want a service that aren’t going to support it to the frequency that a high-volume commuter service requires.

Having said all that, my recent experience traveling to Toronto on a Friday afternoon points to an obvious demand, which is the university students. There was about a bus full of people waiting to board the GO bus (which was behind schedule due to an accident closing the 401, but that is a separate issue). There was at least 6 times that many people waiting to board the FED bus, which based on their published schedule, were probably all headed for Scarborough. the FEDs charge 20 bucks for a round trip ticket that must be purchased two days in advance for outbound trips on Fridays with returns Sunday only. I don’t know the financial details of this system, but considering there was at least 3 bus loads (school buses–so comfort is obviously not a selling point) of people paying that price for that distance of a trip, I really expect that the FEDs are subsidizing the travel fairly severely. I may be wrong in this, as I don’t have the numbers. And I think this is an incredible service being offered to students. But if you simply empower the FEDs to sell tickets at a special rate to students, I am sure it would represent a decent basis for GO service extensions to several different locations. Put them on the train and at least two of the afternoon cars to Toronto will be full. Hell even designate a couple of cars as FEDs cars and put only students in them.

While writing this I have noticed something about the GO service which is probably the biggest hurdle to weekend trains or reverse demand runs. The Kitchener Guelph route is an extension of the Georgetown line. Two of the 7 morning trains on that route will be starting here and traveling the extra distance. Trains do not operate in the reverse direction along this line during the morning, and the same happens in the afternoon. So what we are asking for is a pretty major change to the basic operating mode of their entire system. I think it is a good idea, and if the first arriving train in the morning can be one of the ones that departs later that same morning there may be a more efficient use of hardware that seems to do a lot sitting around in storage yards thru the day.

Damn this got long….

I just got a phone call response from my written inquiry to GO Transit regarding the status of GO Train service to Kitchener on the extended Georgetown line. The lady that called me, I must admit I have already forgotten her name, indicted that schedules have not been fully finalized yet but that, in her words, “there will definitely be service in place before the end of 2011.” I challenged her that there has been no information from GO Transit since the original announcement of the introduction of this service. I asked her about rumours of service starting in January or March of next year and she clearly restated her response, “There will be rail service to Kitchener before the end of 2011.”

I guess we will know in 60 days if she was telling the truth.

Greyhound wants to cut service in Guelph/KW. It is assuming, just because of 2 trains a day, everyone is going to jump ship from them. This again, is unlikely as the convenience of the Greyhound sked compared to what GO will offer to start with is not even close to convenient for many commuters , especially those in Guelphs south end who want to park downtown but won’t because, well, no parking is there. Greyhound really really wants GO to pick up the slack o it can save some $ even though this is one of the more $ runs in Southern Ontario.

Hamilton-Guelph service is provided twice a day, way to early in both cases, by Abouttown Northlink. Obviously, GO would be a better choice to run between the two, however, GO is only allowed to run certain distances (aka Hamilton-Toronto Express Bus) So this would be an issue. Guelph always said it wanted better connections to Kitchener, and there is great GO service from Aberfoyle to KW, but no proper link from Downtown Guelph to Aberfoyle (via UoG) again a missed opportunity.

I was going to suggest to Patrick that, given his Sunday experience travelling to Toronto, he should drive to Aldershot instead and take the hourly GO train in. Then I caught hisl one “worst thing about not owning a car in Kitchener” and thought “oops! That’s not going to help him”. However, why doesn’t GO Transit offer a bus connection between Kitchener, Guelph and Aldershot?

The private company that handled the Guelph to Hamilton run backed out, leaving the corridor wide-open and many University of Guelph students in the lurch. If private interests won’t provide the service and the demand is there, well then it’s time for public interests to step forward, don’t you think? And by operating to Aldershot rather than just to Hamilton, passengers have the flexibility of travelling to Toronto, Hamilton and all points in between. By providing a connection between K-W and this line at Aberfoyle (assuming it’s a convenient transfer), we now get a public transit connection to the Ikea in Burlington, and I know some people who’d like to use that. :-)

It’s reached the point that I’ve stopped going to Toronto on Sunday because the return trip is hell. If I want to go to Toronto I take a weekday off work instead. So I don’t even count in the weekend traffic stats anymore.

By far the worst thing about not owning a car in Kitchener is not being able to get to Toronto easily (not that it’s all that easy even if you do have a car). This lack of access is the #1 reason why I would move away from KW given the right opportunity. It’s great that we’re finally getting GO service but this strikes me as much too little, far too late.