GO Transit

[nfitz]

58 minutes ago, Shaun said:

What is a "Transit Safety Inspection"?

Information · The Union Station 21:45 to West Harbour GO 23:03 train is halting at Exhibition GO due to a transit safety inspection.

Was this Saturday? Presumably the fare inspection at Exhibition station after the Toronto FC game has backed up the crowd so much, that they are holding the train.

[Wayside Observer]

2 hours ago, nfitz said:

Was this Saturday? Presumably the fare inspection at Exhibition station after the Toronto FC game has backed up the crowd so much, that they are holding the train.

That was the first thing I thought.  When I read that, it reminded me of an early 2000s subway train on the Bloor-Danforth line that I was on which got held for a “Metropass check”.  Nobody batted an eye at the PA announcement. What the real reason was, no idea.

[Megabus Rider]

On 6/20/2022 at 3:31 PM, TRENT_TRANSIT_SYSTEM said:

Anyone know if GO is retiring any buses in 2022??? I really need to pick up 5 buses this summer. If not GO, anyone know where I can get some used GO spec buses?

Any luck in finding out if the MCIs are retired? Wiki has most of the 24xx retired but 1 was sold to Peel Regional Police.

[GTAmissions1]

Go Transit is now selling group weekday passes with a minimum of two people and maximum of 5 people. Effective July 5th for a one year period. 

Link to blog post: https://www.gotransit.com/en/blog/go-weekday-group-passes-are-here

 

[Gil]

1 hour ago, GTAmissions1 said:

Go Transit is now selling group weekday passes with a minimum of two people and maximum of 5 people. Effective July 5th for a one year period. 

Link to blog post: https://www.gotransit.com/en/blog/go-weekday-group-passes-are-here

 

Looks like it will be the same format as the weekend e-ticket passes.  Waiting for them to be able to load these directly onto your PRESTO card.  While the federal government scrapped the transit tax credit, hoping a future government or the provincial one will re-instate it.  Having the trips count toward your monthly count will help when it comes time to claim the credit.  The current setup as an e-ticket means the system doesn't know how many trips you made with it.  It should be treated just like any other period pass that you can load onto your PRESTO card.

[FutureHeartsJunkie]

On 7/5/2022 at 6:19 PM, GTAmissions1 said:

Go Transit is now selling group weekday passes with a minimum of two people and maximum of 5 people. Effective July 5th for a one year period. 

Link to blog post: https://www.gotransit.com/en/blog/go-weekday-group-passes-are-here

 

These new weekday passes - will be a good way to recover the ridership that was lost during the pandemic. It also help those who are going to the CNE in Toronto next month - to take advantage of the discounted evenings after 5pm (Monday to Thursday only).

Still with the CNE, I asked GO directly about when the CNE tickets (for the fair - not the transit fare to/from the Exhibition GO station) will be made available for sale at the GO stations - sadly, they advised me that "they don't have any information to discuss at this time".

[TRENT_TRANSIT_SYSTEM]

On 7/4/2022 at 9:54 PM, Megabus Rider said:

Any luck in finding out if the MCIs are retired? Wiki has most of the 24xx retired but 1 was sold to Peel Regional Police.

No 2400s have hit the market yet shockingly. Anyone know where they are being stored?

[Articulated]

9 hours ago, TRENT_TRANSIT_SYSTEM said:

No 2400s have hit the market yet shockingly. Anyone know where they are being stored?

I'm not sure how many MCI buses they're retiring.

During the pandemic, they mass retired 105 of the "Go-Anywhere" Enviro500 buses without direct replacements; meanwhile the last SuperLo buses arrived in 2020, but the last group that entered service during the pandemic would cover barely half of the retired Enviro500s, let alone any MCI buses due to be replaced.

While GO has been skating by on heavily reduced service for 2 years, with post-secondary schools returning to in-person classes in September they will need more vehicles to accommodate the return of ridership and service to its pre-pandemic level. Given they've retired many more buses than what they've received during this time, and with no known orders for new buses coming in the next few months, they will need to keep as many MCIs active for as long as possible.

[Shaun]

5 hours ago, Articulated said:

I'm not sure how many MCI buses they're retiring.

During the pandemic, they mass retired 105 of the "Go-Anywhere" Enviro500 buses without direct replacements; meanwhile the last SuperLo buses arrived in 2020, but the last group that entered service during the pandemic would cover barely half of the retired Enviro500s, let alone any MCI buses due to be replaced.

While GO has been skating by on heavily reduced service for 2 years, with post-secondary schools returning to in-person classes in September they will need more vehicles to accommodate the return of ridership and service to its pre-pandemic level. Given they've retired many more buses than what they've received during this time, and with no known orders for new buses coming in the next few months, they will need to keep as many MCIs active for as long as possible.

So.... should they put in an order for something soon? It's going to take a year to be delivered.

Did all of the non super low floors get retired? Are any still in storage?

[Doppelkupplung]

On 7/9/2022 at 8:53 AM, Articulated said:

I'm not sure how many MCI buses they're retiring.

During the pandemic, they mass retired 105 of the "Go-Anywhere" Enviro500 buses without direct replacements; meanwhile the last SuperLo buses arrived in 2020, but the last group that entered service during the pandemic would cover barely half of the retired Enviro500s, let alone any MCI buses due to be replaced.

While GO has been skating by on heavily reduced service for 2 years, with post-secondary schools returning to in-person classes in September they will need more vehicles to accommodate the return of ridership and service to its pre-pandemic level. Given they've retired many more buses than what they've received during this time, and with no known orders for new buses coming in the next few months, they will need to keep as many MCIs active for as long as possible.

I'm pretty sure the ISM powered 2400s are almost all gone. Never see them around anymore, save for the odd unit and the Vaxbuses. TOK has a few now, and I'm sure others have found second lives. That leaves about 167ish MCIs in the fleet. 

I'm curious to see if they'll order more MCIs. I know they will always need some, but I feel like the SuperLos will really cap the MCIs to limited quantities. 

[Shaun]

2 hours ago, Doppelkupplung said:

I'm pretty sure the ISM powered 2400s are almost all gone. Never see them around anymore, save for the odd unit and the Vaxbuses. TOK has a few now, and I'm sure others have found second lives. That leaves about 167ish MCIs in the fleet. 

I'm curious to see if they'll order more MCIs. I know they will always need some, but I feel like the SuperLos will really cap the MCIs to limited quantities. 

The question is will they order D4500's with lifts or CRT version 

[T3G]

RQQ-2022-LCLO-694 - RQQ-2022-LCLO-694: Painting Services for Bi-level Rail Coaches & Other Rail Eqpt

https://www.metrolinx.merx.com/public/solicitations/2244024508/abstract?origin=0

I presume the days of the old livery BiLevels are numbered.

[Shaun]

11 hours ago, T3G said:

RQQ-2022-LCLO-694 - RQQ-2022-LCLO-694: Painting Services for Bi-level Rail Coaches & Other Rail Eqpt

https://www.metrolinx.merx.com/public/solicitations/2244024508/abstract?origin=0

I presume the days of the old livery BiLevels are numbered.

Doesn't GO have their own paint shop at TMC and at their east maintenance facility?

There is a need to paint more than what is being rebuilt?

[T3G]

1 hour ago, Shaun said:

There is a need to paint more than what is being rebuilt?

It's hard to be sure given how vague the tender description is, but I assume this is exactly the case. I suspect they may be making a push to recolour all of the remaining old livery BiLevels. I don't remember them tendering any painting services up to this point.

[G.A]

23 minutes ago, T3G said:

It's hard to be sure given how vague the tender description is, but I assume this is exactly the case. I suspect they may be making a push to recolour all of the remaining old livery BiLevels. I don't remember them tendering any painting services up to this point.

Sounds like they are fast-tracking it. Now I wonder if they're going to repaint the F59PH's as well.

[MCIBUS]

On 7/10/2022 at 8:29 PM, Shaun said:

The question is will they order D4500's with lifts or CRT version 

But will they be Diesel or Electric?

[smallspy]

11 hours ago, Shaun said:

Doesn't GO have their own paint shop at TMC and at their east maintenance facility?

No.

 

Dan

[Megabus Rider]

On 7/10/2022 at 6:19 PM, Doppelkupplung said:

I'm pretty sure the ISM powered 2400s are almost all gone. Never see them around anymore, save for the odd unit and the Vaxbuses. TOK has a few now, and I'm sure others have found second lives. That leaves about 167ish MCIs in the fleet. 

I'm curious to see if they'll order more MCIs. I know they will always need some, but I feel like the SuperLos will really cap the MCIs to limited quantities. 

Interesting, when were they auctioned?

[Doppelkupplung]

10 hours ago, Megabus Rider said:

Interesting, when were they auctioned?

Absolutely no idea, sorry. I don't follow that scene as closely as others. 

[FutureHeartsJunkie]

The planned GO Transit shuttle linking the Oshawa GO station (in Durham Region) and Northumberland County - has been postponed to September 2022.

Source:
https://northumberland897.ca/news/2022/7/6/go-shuttle-anticipated-to-begin-sept-5

[Shaun]

10 hours ago, FutureHeartsJunkie said:

The planned GO Transit shuttle linking the Oshawa GO station (in Durham Region) and Northumberland County - has been postponed to September 2022.

Source:
https://northumberland897.ca/news/2022/7/6/go-shuttle-anticipated-to-begin-sept-5

Hopefully this will result in a successful trial and bus service to Kingston from Oshawa serving local communities. Along highway 2 would make sense. 

[FutureHeartsJunkie]

On 7/14/2022 at 8:20 AM, Shaun said:

Hopefully this will result in a successful trial and bus service to Kingston from Oshawa serving local communities. Along highway 2 would make sense. 

While such a service from Kingston to Oshawa is feasible - do keep in mind that the GO buses do not have any washrooms onboard (not like Megabus/Coach Canada, Rider Express).

Having a shuttle running along Highway 2 from Oshawa to Kingston - would be too extreme and too far!

Switching gears (and while it's only a month or so away), I wonder what GO will offer - for the comeback of the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) in Toronto next month in terms of the service (and/or if they will bring back staff at the ticket counters who wanted "full service ticketing" - or something like that)...

[Chris W]

3 hours ago, FutureHeartsJunkie said:

While such a service from Kingston to Oshawa is feasible - do keep in mind that the GO buses do not have any washrooms onboard (not like Megabus/Coach Canada, Rider Express).

Having a shuttle running along Highway 2 from Oshawa to Kingston - would be too extreme and too far!

It should also be noted that this shuttle is actually an OnDemand type service. Details of which are still to be determined.

[Shaun]

18 hours ago, FutureHeartsJunkie said:

While such a service from Kingston to Oshawa is feasible - do keep in mind that the GO buses do not have any washrooms onboard (not like Megabus/Coach Canada, Rider Express).

Having a shuttle running along Highway 2 from Oshawa to Kingston - would be too extreme and too far!

Switching gears (and while it's only a month or so away), I wonder what GO will offer - for the comeback of the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) in Toronto next month in terms of the service (and/or if they will bring back staff at the ticket counters who wanted "full service ticketing" - or something like that)...

If you ran the bus from Oshawa to Kingston by feeding the VIA stations then that would make sense. The first bus would be timed to meet the first train and the last bus would leave after the last train. This would allow people to take the train and not drive to the station. 

[FutureHeartsJunkie]

On 7/16/2022 at 4:42 PM, Shaun said:

If you ran the bus from Oshawa to Kingston by feeding the VIA stations then that would make sense. The first bus would be timed to meet the first train and the last bus would leave after the last train. This would allow people to take the train and not drive to the station. 

Excuse for my delay in response, but thanks for your clarification. 

The other weekend, I took full advantage of the $10CDN one-day pass (valid either on Saturday or Sunday) to go to Downtown Toronto. I didn't experience any issues when activating the pass and it is worked as advertised. 

ICAMI (In Case Anyone Missed It), lately you may have realized that there are not many people who work at the Ticket Offices at the stations (for GO Train and GO Bus). That's why you may see a roaming customer service agent who can assist you with your travels and/or assist you with ticket purchasing.

If you folks attempt to buy a train ticket or load your PRESTO Card at a station next time, that agent will advise you to either use the on-site TVM (Ticket Vending Machine) or load funds on your PRESTO Card at that same machine respectively. 

Not sure if it's a permanent thing or not, but with the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) in Toronto just around the corner - many people will wonder if the in-person ticket sales will be back either for that event or beyond that. 

At the same time, they advise their customers to use contactless means (either using their PRESTO to pay their fare, use a TVM to buy ticket or go online to buy the E-tickets)....