GO’s New London-Toronto Train Moves Fewer Passengers Than a Half-Full TTC Bus

More than a month after Metrolinx began testing GO Transit rail service between London and Toronto, the trains are running almost empty, according to new passenger figures. But the provincial transit agency says it backs the project, saying Ontario’s growing southwestern region needs more transit and new services take time to attract customers.

GO began making two trips each weekday between London’s Via Station and Union Station in downtown Toronto on October 18. Since each trip takes four hours and Via Rail offers faster options, some experts early on predicted that the pilot would not attract enough passengers to justify their investment. The two-year pilot is expected to cost about $ 2.6 million a year.

According to figures provided to Star by Metrolinx, the Ontario Crown corporation that operates GO, the average ticket sales in the first week of operation was approximately 31 passengers per trip. For the week of October 25, sales increased to about 43 customers per train, but by the week of November 15 they had fallen to about 32 customers per trip.

At those levels, passenger volumes are not enough to fill a single TTC bus, much less a high-capacity GO train. A single GO trainer can seat 162 people, and Metrolinx is running the London pilot with six-car trains.

Metrolinx spokeswoman Anne Marie Aikins said it is too early to draw any conclusions about the viability of the service.

“It can take many months to analyze the results and probably more, given that we are still emerging from the pandemic,” he said.

Passenger numbers through the GO rail network are still suffering from the impacts of COVID-19, and weekday passenger volumes remain at around 25 percent of pre-pandemic levels.

Aikins said the London pilot has already proven a success in terms of “increasing transit access for communities in southwestern Ontario.”

In addition to London and Toronto, trains stop at Stratford, St. Marys, and stations on GO’s Kitchener Line, which Metrolinx says is important because it improves transit access to smaller communities in southwestern Ontario that have been affected by cuts to other rail and bus services.

“We know this is one of the fastest growing regions in the province and this (pilot) supports the transportation needs of today and tomorrow,” Aikins said.

According to the pilot’s schedule, a GO train leaves London every weekday at 5:20 am and arrives in Union at 9:13 am The return train leaves Union at 4:19 pm and arrives in London at 8:17 pm

Via Rail already operates six daily trains between London and Toronto, and because most of them take a more direct route than GO, they have travel times as short as 2 hours and 10 minutes. Via Londres-Toronto rates can be as low as $ 37, which is only slightly more than the $ 30 they charge for GO.

The journey can also be faster by car. In good traffic conditions, a driver leaving London around 5.30am. M. You could get to Toronto before 8:30 a.m. M.

Shoshanna Saxe, Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Infrastructure and assistant professor in the department of civil and mineral engineering at the University of Toronto, said passenger numbers indicate that the GO pilot in London, as currently operated, ” it’s not attractive enough for a large number of people. “

“It is very difficult to attract people to traffic when it is slower than driving,” he said.

But Saxe said the low number of passengers in its early stages is not an indication that Metrolinx should abandon the pilot. Instead, the agency should look at ways to improve it, such as operating more frequent and faster trains.

“We know that there is a huge unmet demand for well-designed public transportation in the region,” he said. “We do not want to build things that do not work or that do not serve people, but we must be much more ambitious.”

The pilot also has the support of local elected leaders. London Mayor Ed Holder said in a statement that “the fact that the GO railway now extends to London is a success in itself.”

Holder said he was confident that Metrolinx and the Ontario government will build on what they have done so far. “They didn’t make an investment of this magnitude only to see it fail,” he said.

Ben Spurr is a Toronto reporter who covers transportation. Contact him by email at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter: @BenSpurr

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

The conversations are the opinions of our readers and are subject to the Code of conduct. The Star does not endorse these views.



Reference-www.thestar.com

Leave a Comment