Mississauga Commuters Getting New GO Train Trips

If you take the Milton GO train to downtown Toronto for work, school or play, it looks like you’re getting some options in terms of time.  

With much fanfare, the Ontario government announced that they are putting in additional trips along the Milton line. Starting September 6, 2016, Metrolinx is adding the following two GO train trips between Milton and Toronto that will stop at all stations along the Milton GO line: 

• A new trip from Milton GO departing at 5:59 a.m. each weekday, making all stops to Union Station and arriving at 7:00 a.m.

• A new trip from Union Station departing at 5:55 p.m. each weekday, making all stops to Milton GO and arriving at 6:54 p.m.

The rest of the press release states some facts about the current Milton line as well as mentioning how they will try to address Milton’s unique transit needs as a commuting community, which Milton definitely is. It was very Milton focused, but I would like to point out how this affects Mississauga commuters.

They are overall good improvements. As a former GO train rider who takes off from the Cooksville GO station, I like the fact that people who have to work early downtown do not have to wait until 6:40 am to take the GO train, or hop on a GO bus because they can’t wait that long. Also, having a train run from Union back through the Milton line at 5:55 pm is good for people who missed the 5:40 pm and don’t want to wait until 6:20 pm to take the next train.

My only issue at this point is that they have not managed to expand the number of trips between a certain time frame. All the additional trips that have been added have to be between somewhere around 3:30 pm and 7:00 pm. It’s not considered all-day, two way GO if you can’t move beyond a certain time and offer trips later in the evening. I know that if people miss that last train at 7 pm, hopping on the first GO bus back through the Milton line is a nightmare because the first two or three buses are often over capacity. And while they’ve managed to add extra trips in the morning beyond the allocated time, by which I mean earlier, at some point the ridership capacity won’t be enough to justify adding another train earlier than 5:55 am.

Not everyone is standing together and singing Kumbaya. Mississauga councillor Pat Saito, who recently clashed with Mayor Crombie on the Meadowvale Mosque and whether she was qualified to sit on the new energy board, went on her Facebook page to denounce today’s announcement as another photo op and that all day two way service was promised as far back as 1991. Saito is not a happy camper indeed.

All in all, good news for commuters overall in terms of expanding options. But if all day, two way GO is necessary, CN rail will have to sell Metrolinx the tracks in order to facilitate that transformation, or there’s the Missing Link idea I touted earlier this week. But at least the file is moving along in a progressive way that’s getting concrete results for commuters.

Here’s a story on the announcement this morning: 

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