Comments on: Underwhelming Start to GO Train Service

By: Sean

Sean — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 08:23:26 +0000

On another blog, someone talked to VIA/GO guy in Guelph, they said they get $2000.00 a day, break that down on a 10 ride ticket value and you get about 185 people.

By: J M Collinson

J M Collinson — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 20:52:13 +0000

Anybody have a sense of GO Train ridership levels from KW and Guelph now that the holiday period is over?

By: Steve Host

Steve Host — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:34:00 +0000

Also, on the subject of the Reverse commute option: I analyzed the current situation and came up with the following, which ultimately puts a fairly uphill battle to bring Train services in the reverse commuter direction of the present flow:

http://gokw.org/?p=500

I definately agree that starting with a Bus service would be a great beginning, and activisim of this type would be a worthwhile endeavour – what does the current private sector bus service provide and does it indicate demand in the reverse commute direction?

By: Michael Druker

Michael Druker — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 04:13:25 +0000

Thanks, Stephen.

I stand by my calculations, though. I counted 52 km for a downtown to downtown round-trip – about 5 litres with your fuel efficiency, which is under $6 at current gas prices. Parking in downtown Guelph can be had for $50-60 a month, or under $3 per workday. Which brings the marginal cost of driving the commute to less than $9. Those marginal costs are what people most see when they are comparing travel modes, and it is always strange when transit costs more than driving, especially at the margin. The pricing is wrong in this case.

By: Stephen C. Host

Stephen C. Host — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 03:36:22 +0000

Michael, A bit late to the party on this post, but great blog you guys have. Glad to see more transit activism, in 2006 when I started GOKW.ORG there was no one else… just two of us plus volunteers making the rounds with all the politicians :)

Nonetheless, your comment on round trip to Guelph: $12.60 for a round trip is not true. The average vehicle round trip is 62 KM is $8 in gas (at 10l/100KM), parking is how much, say $5 for a monthly pass user, plus insurance ($4), depreciation/capital/car payments ($3), your looking at $19/day to commute by car if you pay for parking, $14 if you don’t. Also don’t forget the fact some of these car numbers are paid on weekends and holidays, and when you don’t use commuter transit, you don’t pay.

At least at $12.60 it’s almost half the price of VIA :)

By: Michael Druker

Michael Druker — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 15:42:02 +0000

Mark – That seems like a good suggestion, though I assume the trains would be stored in Kitchener over the weekend.

By: Mark Dowling

Mark Dowling — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 15:38:50 +0000

Is it known whether trains will be stored in Kitchener Friday PM-Monday AM or returned to Toronto? If the latter, it should be explored whether for instance the first PM train could be dispatched to Toronto after the arrival of the second and the second PM train sent back on Saturday morning. This would assist not just the student market but also K-W-C residents looking to spend the weekend in Toronto. Both trains could then be serviced in Willowbrook over the weekend and returned on Sunday evening.