Another Failed GO Transit Service Disruption

Happy Saturday!

I have previously wrote on my blog about how I think that GO Transit's service disruptions are poorly thought-out, and ineffective substitutions to the rail services that they supposedly replace. This weekend, GO proved that they had not learned any lessons when service was replaced on the UP Express.

In this blog post, I will outline my issues with this weekend's service replacement, and how GO can work at more effectively replacing their rail service in the future. Again.

The Service Offered

When the UP Express is replaced by buses, GO offers their route 35. This bus operates from the corner of Station St and York Street, and terminates at Pearson Airport Terminal 1. This service operates every 30 minutes, with estimated travel times from between 30 minutes and 50 minutes. These buses do not serve Bloor and Weston Stations, but the Kitchener Line was able to provide the service towards Union this weekend (although passengers had to use TTC to get to Pearson). Buses operate via the Gardiner and the 427, and throughout the day anywhere from four to six vehicles were being used.

Generally, when the UP Express is not operating, but the Kitchener Line is, the work being performed is on the spur to the airport. However, this weekend's disruption reduced the tracks at St Clair to one, which is sufficient for the hourly-in-each-direction Kitchener line but not the four-times-hourly-in-each-direction UP Express.

My Issues

The replacement bus service was not an effective replacement of the rail service, for a number of reasons. My first concern is regarding the location of the stop at Union Station. Despite being a GO bus, it does not stop at the Union Station Bus Terminal. While the stop is directly outside of the UP Express station, GO's language noting that the stop is "just outside Union Station" isn't helpful. Union Station is sprawling, and the front door faces Front Street. This bus stop is located out a tertiary staircase at a far side of the station. I will give GO credit for offering a map showing where the stop is (or like, near where the stop is I guess).

Second, the capacity was greatly decreased with this service. Let's assume the following:

1. Vehicles have a full seated load with no standees; and
2. The GO buses in use are double-deckers.

With the above, the four-times-hourly UP Express can carry 692 people. The twice-hourly bus can carry 162 people. In effect, capacity is decreased by 76.5%. While a rail replacement will never carry as many people as the train line, this severe reduction is effectively GO telling passengers to find other options. While not part of this calculation, the UP Express can carry far more standees than the GO bus can, further widening the capacity gap.

The last main concern is reliability. Obviously, the traffic on the Gardiner is bad. It did not help that for part of the day today, there was a crash at Park Lawn that reduced the highway to one lane westbound. The thirty to fifty minute estimate was a grave understatement. Thirty-minute delays beyond the predicted were common, and some trips that should have taken 40 minutes took 70. This is far beyond the reliable 25-minute trip time that the UP Express can regularly provide. At some point in the day, any semblance of a schedule was lost, and buses appeared to be running early because they had to run so there weren't crazy gaps.

 

One particular challenge is that, given this is an airport shuttle, there is a lot of luggage. If a bus is late, it isn't as simple as a bus offloading passengers and picking up new ones, there is at least ten minutes of dwell time. This limits how much time can be recouped.

I think the big issue here is the insistence on providing a one seat ride to replace the service. Transferring with luggage is not convenient, I get it. I've done it myself and it is not fun. However, if the alternative is a trip that nearly three times as long, with wait times double the usually, assuming you can get on a vehicle with the reduced capacity, some sacrifices should be made. 

One last thing - the UP Express needs to be better integrated under the GO brand. Why does it have its own website and why are delays not listed on the GO website? I actually complained to GO about this seven years ago, but alas.

My Proposal

I think the direct Union to Pearson buses cannot happen anymore. The downtown traffic is just too severe, and GO knows this themselves. These direct buses simply don't provide an effective service, and there are ways to better leverage the trains that are running, especially when people stuck on the buses on the Gardiner watch GO Trains whizzing past.

Since the Kitchener Line was running, customers should have been directed to the existing hourly train service. Passengers could travel as far as Malton, then catch a shuttle to Pearson Airport there. The drive time from Malton to Pearson is a fairly reliable ten minutes. When a train arrives at Malton from Union, two buses could be waiting to take passengers the rest of the way. An additional bus could be located at Pearson to fill gaps as needed. From Union to the airport, this trip would be a reliable 50 minutes, including the transfer.

To further leverage existing services, a shuttle could also be operated from Long Branch. The Lakeshore West line operates half-hourly before 3pm and every fifteen minutes after 3pm, so while not every train would have a connecting bus (mostly after 3pm), passengers could use this as alternative. It would help split demand, and provide options for passengers. This segment should be assigned five buses. From Union to the airport, this trip would be a reliable 50 minutes, including the transfer.

GO's other airport routes, the 40 and 94, should offer additional service to the east, in order to reduce demand on the shuttle services. GO should also provide TTC funding for additional 900 Airport Express buses from Kipling Station, as this route is much busier without the UP Express running, especially in lieu of the stop at Bloor.

I also note that most UP Express disruptions involve the spur to the airport. During these disruptions, the Kitchener Line is not impacted. I think a solution would be to operate one train running between Union and Bramalea, every hour. This would create a thirty-minute service from Union to Malton, with shuttles the rest of the way. This could be done easily as GO owns these tracks. Of course, this was not an option this weekend as capacity was strained, but there are situations where this can be used.

Conclusion

In the year and a half since I last blogged about GO Transit's service disruptions, there are still treating them the same way. While there are better solutions when the UP Express is delayed, GO provides a half-assed service that doesn't work for customers, and reflects poorly on our city for tourists both arriving and leaving.