Thanks to SS for bringing these to my attention. I don't troll the Metrolinx website, nor did I know these were publicly available!
I've been a bad blogger in that regard.
GO's president admits train service took a nose dive and it's blamed on aging signal equipment. Lots of slapping on the back about UP Express and high fives about Pan Am Games service.
What I found interesting was this commitment in the chart on the very last page, "We will strive to have seats available for every passenger on 80% of weekday rush hour train trips."
Right now, GO has only met this 66% of the way.
It was 62% two years ago.
On the LSE, in the past five years, ridership volume never appears to change, at least to me. So I have to ask, what was it like 10 years ago? 15 years ago? Share your experiences in the comments.
8 comments:
That kind of crap annoys me to no end. The infrastructure has been aging since Day 1. They knew it would be an issue, so why not start looking at replacing it before it starts to degrade to the issues experienced this year? A little forethought and you would have save a lot of money and even bad press by replacing it before it reached this point and not refunding for services not rendered.
As for the seats availability: that one is hard. But 2% is still not enough of an improvement. I know the train I take in the morning is variable from season to season, which coach and even depends on station maintenance/platform construction - Pickering anyone?.
The train home: a complete gong-show. 4 years ago, you could arrive just before the doors closed and managed to get a seat. Now, you have to be ON the train at least 5 mins, sometimes 10 depending on coach, to even dream of getting a seat. Any seat.
The ride home has been like that for as long as I can remember!
Unless I absolutely had to take the 4.07 (formerly 4.10), I avoided that one. And the 5.53.
My usual train home in the 5.10. And at one point, it was sane. Then for a while, I took the 5.20 to avoid the insanity. But considering how that one is also border-line gong-show-esque, I am back on the 5.10.
The only other piece from this report I'd pick apart is the UP Express. But Steve Munro does a terrific job on how loose Metrolinx is with the numbers of ridership and when to break even (is it 3 years or 3 to 5? ) as well as ridership statistics that seem way to aggressive (e.g. Double number of passengers in a year? etc.) http://stevemunro.ca/2015/09/21/evolution-demand-union-pearson-express/
This morning the 19:20 LSE from Whitby was packed, I was lucky to get a seat upstairs, and from a guy that was annoyed to have to move his backpack. He was obviously not a regular commuter and seemed annoyed at how busy it was.
Same with the 5:10 homeward bound, I have to arrive 5-10 mins early or stand. I'd say if you went 10+ years back it wasn't this bad, more people have been moving out of the city for years. I know Go has been doing their best to keep up but still makes me feel mad that people in Ajax or Pickering usually don't get a seat.
Waiting to hear "...In keeping with our time service guarantee, Blo Transit will now add 5 more minutes to your commute time..."
If you're on the train, at least you're moving toward your destination. Saturday, Sept. 5 is the only day I'm aware of that some LSW trains could not accommodate eastbound pax, because the trains were FULL, like Japanese rush hour commuter trains FULL.
Bus overflow situations on Route 12 are not uncommon, even after GO Transit's new VP of Operations promised there would be cover buses to accommodate the overflow. Are other bus routes experiencing this phenomenon?
So, if you're standing on your train, I'm happy for you. You're moving. At least you're not stranded and being treated like a 3rd class customer.
I'm a LSW rider, and I don't think I've ever been on a rush hour train where there was at least on person standing b/c all seats are taken....how did they get above 0% achievement. I suppose if you start the rush hour at 3:30 there might be some trains until the 4 o'clock trips begin, but from that point till 6pm every train will have people standing on it.
I reread CJ's post and I don't think they mean seats for 80% of the people....but seats for 100% of the people, 80% of the time.
What am I missing.
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