GO Transit

[Acitta]

That being said, it was at least useful to me once...sadly, when we visit at Christmas I'm going to have to find another way from KW to London.

VIA would still be the most direct option at just under 2 hours. Alternatively PC Connect still operates, but it's almost a 4 hour trip which is ridiculous and you don't get a whole lot of time between transfers,  but it's still doable.

Flixbus and ONEXBUS have direct routes to London, but Flixbus only has westbound trips in the evening and ONEX only stops at Sportsworld.

[danbrotherston]

VIA would still be the most direct option at just under 2 hours. Alternatively PC Connect still operates, but it's almost a 4 hour trip which is ridiculous and you don't get a whole lot of time between transfers,  but it's still doable.

Flixbus and ONEXBUS have direct routes to London, but Flixbus only has westbound trips in the evening and ONEX only stops at Sportsworld.

Yeah, won't be tacking Flix or Onex...stopping at Sportsworld is pointless....MAYBE I'd take the ION to Fairway to pickup a bus, but connecting to Sportsworld...forget about it!

In any case, I will probably end up taking Via, but pretty much all the options are frustratingly awkward with a stroller and baggage and a little one. The GO train was nice for being able to roll on...and for it being basically empty lol.

I'm still frustrated with Via for charging me an extra 500 bucks because they only had first class seats available on the train the day after they restored service last winter...although not being stuck on an unmoving train for what was it...12 hours or more? I can't complain too much.

Well, who knows, maybe we'll get lucky and they'll have managed to roll out their new trains by then.

[Acitta]

Flixbus and ONEXBUS have direct routes to London, but Flixbus only has westbound trips in the evening and ONEX only stops at Sportsworld.

Yeah, won't be tacking Flix or Onex...stopping at Sportsworld is pointless....MAYBE I'd take the ION to Fairway to pickup a bus, but connecting to Sportsworld...forget about it!

In any case, I will probably end up taking Via, but pretty much all the options are frustratingly awkward with a stroller and baggage and a little one. The GO train was nice for being able to roll on...and for it being basically empty lol.

I'm still frustrated with Via for charging me an extra 500 bucks because they only had first class seats available on the train the day after they restored service last winter...although not being stuck on an unmoving train for what was it...12 hours or more? I can't complain too much.

Well, who knows, maybe we'll get lucky and they'll have managed to roll out their new trains by then.

I have been taking ONex for the return trip after taking the GO train one way. I don't mind going home from Sportsworld, but rushing to get there to catch the bus on time is a different story.

[danbrotherston]

Yeah, won't be tacking Flix or Onex...stopping at Sportsworld is pointless....MAYBE I'd take the ION to Fairway to pickup a bus, but connecting to Sportsworld...forget about it!

In any case, I will probably end up taking Via, but pretty much all the options are frustratingly awkward with a stroller and baggage and a little one. The GO train was nice for being able to roll on...and for it being basically empty lol.

I'm still frustrated with Via for charging me an extra 500 bucks because they only had first class seats available on the train the day after they restored service last winter...although not being stuck on an unmoving train for what was it...12 hours or more? I can't complain too much.

Well, who knows, maybe we'll get lucky and they'll have managed to roll out their new trains by then.

I have been taking ONex for the return trip after taking the GO train one way. I don't mind going home from Sportsworld, but rushing to get there to catch the bus on time is a different story.

Yeah, I mean, there are some context where I might consider it, but making multiple connections with luggage and a toddler isn't one.

But honestly, it's just such a bad arrangement...the fact that our main (I say main, because we have no other bus station in KW any longer) bus station is TWO buses/LRT away from downtown is just absurd. Why they didn't move the sportsworld buses to Fairway Mall...I will never know.

[neonjoe]

Go designs its commuter bus stations only for cars. It's just off the 401. We are lucky that there are GRT connections there.
In reality any GO bus that serves highway 8 should stop at Fairway but they probably deem it to be too much of a detour for the westbound buses.

[danbrotherston]

Go designs its commuter bus stations only for cars. It's just off the 401. We are lucky that there are GRT connections there.
In reality any GO bus that serves highway 8 should stop at Fairway but they probably deem it to be too much of a detour for the westbound buses.

Stopping at both would obviously be a delay, but I really don't think stopping at Fairview is a significant detour.

That being said, GO transit should do much better building highway side stations, but that's a whole other issue.

[timio]

If they had put the bus off-ramp beside whatever the Holiday Inn is now, it would have been an easier detour.

[nms]

Ontario proposes new way of funding GO Transit stations, spurring nearby development

Ontario's minister of infrastructure is proposing a new way of funding GO Transit stations that she says will both increase transit service and housing nearby.

Kinga Surma says legislation she introduced today would let municipalities fund the design and construction of new GO stations.

Municipalities could then recover the costs over time by levying a Station Contribution Fee on development that gets built around the station.

The fee would be a voluntary tool for municipalities and they would apply to the province to use it.

The government says they would need to show a reduction in development costs to help offset the fee for developers, such as reduced parking requirements or faster approvals.

The legislation would also allow the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) to enter into cross-boundary service agreements with neighbouring transit agencies.

[Bytor]

Ontario proposes new way of funding GO Transit stations, spurring nearby development

The legislation would also allow the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) to enter into cross-boundary service agreements with neighbouring transit agencies.

Allowing cross-boundary agreements should just be allowed by default for all transit services rather than special exemptions.

[ac3r]

Temporary changes to the Kitchener line - including weekend trains - between October 7th to 15th.

[nms]

Baby steps to weekend service. I wonder if this means that we'll get other special weekend service (eg heading home/back for Christmas; winter reading week...)

I guess they couldn't pitch this as a means to get here for Oktoberfest, could they?

[ac3r]

CN had a bit of a meltdown today (Oct 3rd) and GO Transit was heavily impacted. It appears that as of 8PM things were finally in order again.

[KevinL]

It seems they CAN do weekend trains! There's enough student movement expected around Reading Week that two trains will run each weekend bracketing it.



Hopefully this is the impetus for more regular weekend service soon.

[danbrotherston]

I would guess this is more reflective of their inability to run sufficient buses. But a one off service takes a lot of advertising to make successful.

[plam]

I would guess this is more reflective of their inability to run sufficient buses. But a one off service takes a lot of advertising to make successful.

Yes, I've been getting reports that the 6:30am bus trajectory from Toronto to Waterloo is super crowded (is that the bramalea bus that's crowded)? It's unimaginable to me to be a student commuting from Toronto into Waterloo for an 8:30 class, but I guess that speaks to the unavailability of housing in Waterloo these days.

One thing about running occasional service: they can run the Montreal metro all night once in a while but that adds to the maintenance backlog; they need the downtime to fix the tunnels. Less of an issue for trains that aren't literally under the ground?