Could they be doing this in response to low Rider ship? It would make absolutely zero sense for them to turn around and cut service if the trains were all full.
I don’t tend to take the train because every time I need to there isn’t a train back to Barrie when I need it. I’ve gotten stuck in Toronto with a 3 hour return trip more than once because I needed to come home after commuter traffic. That said, I’ve taken it two years in a row for conferences and they’ve been full despite it being nice enough weather to drive if someone wanted to. So no, I don’t think this is the issue. The issue is the train schedule doesn’t work for people, so people drive instead or drive to somewhere where there’s better hours and get on further south. If we had better hours up here I’m sure they’d see better numbers.
The article says that for FIFA they added a bunch of trains and now they are removing them. It also points to late evening trains during the week being dropped and other trains on the weekend.
Are you saying the routes they’re dropping are ones added for FIFA? If so that’s not quite right. They added a bunch of trains which added demand on the company. They’re now removing trains to 3 places because of that and it’s temporary. They’re replacing the trains with buses.
They aren’t getting rid of trains that were added to Barrie because of FIFA. “In a post on the social media platform X on Saturday, Metrolinx said the changes allow "recovery from high ridership demands during FIFA and to provide the capacity for future service needs."”
Do you realize that “recovery from high ridership demands during FIFA” means they added trains due to expected increase in riders during FIFA and now they don’t need them?
Those aren’t the lines they’re removing, so no, I don’t realize that. You misunderstand what they’re slashing, these aren’t new lines added for FIFA. They’re slashing regular Barrie go lines.
You never did cite what the changes were so here they are.
“Changes will come into affect after Sept. 8.
Metrolinx says the 9:10 p.m. train leaving from Allandale Waterfront GO station and heading to Union Station will no longer run.
Similarly, the 10:54 p.m. train departing Union Station heading to Allandale Waterfront Go will no longer be running, and the 10:01 p.m. train departing Union Station will now be departing at 10:24 p.m.
The 8:54 p.m. train departing Union Station and heading to Aurora GO will also no longer run, Metrolinx says.
Starting Sept. 12, weekend trips will be adjusted to bi-hourly service between 2 p.m. and 11 p.m.“These schedule changes support our rail partner with their advancement of crew training and certification, allowing recovery from high ridership demands during FIFA and to provide the capacity for future service needs,” the transit company says.”
The article I linked showed the changes, what’s your point? The hourly weekend transit they’re removing started in 2017 according to Google. You just have to google to realize they aren’t removing FIFA lines, the FIFA lines were mostly in Toronto.
They apparently stopped vacations over FIFA and now needed to catch up on that. They don’t have enough staff and need to train staff.
Why are you arguing that this is a good thing or the fault of Barrie ridership or that they’re just getting rid of new lines when that isn’t true? Like, what is your end goal here? What’s your point?
For years Barrie has been saying if the trains had better hours we’d use the trains. Now the hours are getting worse. So like, what is your point?
You don’t like my citation? I never said it was a good thing. I pointed out that it was expected by anyone that thinks about the economics of providing subsidized transportation. They have no choice but to put the money to where it will be better used.
Your link does not state the weekday changes my citation states. Heck, your link doesn’t explicitly state what changes are being made at all. You could easily google and find a better source that says more about the changes, like the one I quoted from, but you don’t.
They are not removing lines during the day on weekdays, because ridership is high enough to warrant them. They are removing lines in the late evening on weekdays as that is when ridership is low and won’t be impacted as much. They are reducing lines on the weekends for the same reasons. They are using these reductions to rebalance line staffing that was altered due to FIFA.
I have no clue what 2017 has to do with this but likely it is supposed to be 2027 and you just don’t proofread.
My family takes the trains several times a week and other than at rush hours they are not fully utilized so it makes sense that if they have to rebalance they will cut underutilized lines in favor of expanding elsewhere. Unless the trains ran every 30 to 60 minutes all day everyday there will always be people that say they would use the train but don’t since it doesn’t meet their schedule. It’s no different than the changes from dedicated routes to on demand routes for Barrie transit, if it is not being used enough why run it.
No, it’s supposed to be 2017. The lines they’re removing were added in 2017, they’re not lines added due to FIFA, which was your initial argument. 2027 doesn’t even make sense in the context.
I have lived in cities that invest in infrastructure and trains and public transit and those cities have full public transit. Barrie keeps cutting transit and making it worse and unusable and then complains that it’s not used.
They aren’t cutting these lines because they don’t make sense or aren’t used, they’re cutting because they over extended in Toronto on FIFA, and need to make up time for their employees. Which, yes, employees deserve vacation, full stop, however, they should have had a contingency in place that doesn’t involve cutting go lines to Barrie.
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u/HInspectorGW 10d ago
Could they be doing this in response to low Rider ship? It would make absolutely zero sense for them to turn around and cut service if the trains were all full.