Niagara At Large is posting the following media release, dated April 15, on the province’s decision to make Go Train service to Niagara “permanent” during the summer’s month for our readers information.
Weekend GO Train service to Niagara Falls will once again make it easier for residents and tourists to visit the region this summer.
The Summer GO Train to Niagara is quickly becoming an annual tradition – marking the start of summer. This year, the Ontario government is pleased to announce permanent Summer Go Train service in Niagara.
“I am pleased that Summer GO Train service is now permanent”, said St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley. “An annual Summer Go Train service provides our region with a new tool to attract visitors to award-winning wineries, restaurants, and celebrated tourist attractions”
Weekend GO train service between Toronto and Niagara Falls will be available:
· Victoria Day long weekend
· Between June 24 and September 5 and
· Thanksgiving Day long weekend.
Trains will stop at Union, Exhibition, Port Credit, Oakville, Burlington, St. Catharines and Niagara Falls. Passengers will also be able to take their bikes with them on the train. Each GO Train will be equipped with specially designed rail cars for passengers’ bicycles.
Ontario cabinet minister and St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley
· “Seeing the unmistakable ‘green and white’ GO trains rolling through Niagara once again this summer is certainly exciting news for all Niagara residents”, said Regional Chair Gary Burroughs. “The GO Train will have bike decals on the windows.
GO Transit moves 57 million riders a year.service provides an immense economic benefit to our region by bringing in thousands of visitors each year, destined to take in Niagara’s world-renowned, spectacular tourist sites and attractions and we look forward to sharing with them, all that Niagara has to offer”.
“We’re pleased to welcome Go Train back to St. Catharines,” said St. Catharines Mayor Brian McMullan. “We see the tremendous value in this service as it helps us to connect tourists to The Garden City and the region. It has also been well-received by our residents as another affordable transportation option.”
Improving transit is part of the Open Ontario plan to create jobs and opportunities across the province.
QUICK FACTS
· Ontario has invested over $4.7 billion in GO Transit since 2003
· The trip from Union Station to Niagara Falls will take about two hours, each way.
. Each bike coach can carry 18 bikes and will have bike decals on the windows.
. GO Transit moves 57 million riders a year.
Visit Go Transit at http://www.gotransit.com for more information on services and schedules available.
(Visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to readers in our greater Niagara region and beyond.)
Niagara At Large 
Wonder why the GO Train isn’t using the TH&B line through Welland, then directly to the casino in Niagara Falls? (Look at Niagara Navigator :
http://navigator.yourniagara.ca/navigator/# )
St.Kitts already has the GO Bus system to connect with Niagara Falls.
Perhaps this explains why so many Niagara South people want a Mid-Peninsula Highway Corridor – we can’t even get GO Transit when it’s the most logical route!
Do you think it’s another example of Niagara North forgetting Niagara South? (And they want to form one big City of Niagara t o continue to overpower the rest of us – ha!)
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If you are a senior citizen the round trip to Toronto is under $20 dollars from Niagara Falls a real good deal, this is a service that should have been done a long time ago, Kim Craitor and Bradley pushed hard for this logical solution to getting cars off the QEW. I used it last summer and with more advertizing this will take off.
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Why is this service only available in the summer? With all the housing being built in the Niagara area (especially in the Town of Fort Erie) and with the cost of gas being so high, it would be good to have Go service available all year long for commuters.
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Hmmm. Would it be better for the GO Train to get to Fort Erie via Welland?
(Are there any rail lines between Niagara falls & Fort Erie?)
Or would it be better to extend the GO Bus to Fort Erie from Niagara Falls?
(It runs year-round now.)
-w-
OTOH, while GO service is a grrreat! way to avoid building new highways, why not use our Fuel Taxes to subsidise the Coach Canada busses -which pay some of the TAXES that pay for the subsidies!- instead of driving them out of business….
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The GO system is quite impressive: dependable and consistent. I can’t say as much for other bus services.
It’s time now for Fast Trains, European style. (TGV etc.)
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A. Coach Canada (Megabus) is really good – if you’re nice to the driver, she’ll even drop you at your door, if it’s along/near her route!
And of course, it serves places in Niagara that neither GO Bus nor GO Train will ever serve because of low population density – Welland, Port Colborne, Fort Erie, etc.
B. Fast Trains have existed along the Quebec-Windosr corridor since 1967, serving only a few high-population cities. They seem to compete mainly with planes. (This is the same with TGV in Europe, Japan and USA – it won’t help us in Niagara.)
Of course, trains & busses will be much more successful when the price of gasoline rises to $4/litre as it is in Europe. That way, most of us would use cars less and turn to mass transit more. (At $1.35/litre, we pay about 1/3 of their price now – what’s your prediction…?)
BTW, if driving to Toronto, do you drive or transit now? I generally drive, but transit ~ 1/8 times, depending on the purpose of my trip & how many are in the car.
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My fiancee takes GO every work day from Grimsby to Mississauga and back. It takes a while, but the trains are on time for the most part. Months ago, she was taking Coach Canada and Greyhound from St.Catharines to Mississauga, and it was extraordinarily unrealiable. Bus drivers regularly said there was a delay at the border (i.e almost EVERY time)
Currently I’m commuting every day, Grimsby to Welland, and it’s costing me a fortune, even though I drive a small Honda Civic. That being said, I still hope fuel prices go up so that we’re forced to transition to alternate energies. I hope fuel costs $4.00 a liter sooner than later.
I would think the Train a Grande Vitesse in France is much faster than our “fast train”, but I can look it up. Apparently, the U.S is going to Spain for fast train technology/manufacture. Don’t know why they don’t make it themselves.
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Apparently they’re “talking” about High Speed rail along Quebec Windsor corridor, but all they currently have is Via, and it’s not so fast.
The French TGV has apparently posted a test speed at 372.2 mph, while an average might be about 173.6 mph. That’s fast,and they’ve had it for years. We’re not even close.
The Chinese may have an even faster one, not sure.
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Check out the article, “Trainwreck: Canada’s High-Speed Rail Failure”(April 24). We’re the only country in the G-8 without at least ONE High Speed Rail train. The Greens will/would develop them. Too many attack jets and not enough of the important stuff.
France and Japan have HSR trains that have reached 575 kph.
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Spain is the latest country in the European Union to inaugurate fast trains, Shanghai China now has a Mag-Lev train to their airport, made in Germany, Germany has just given the chinese a licence to produce them there. North America is so far behind the rest of the world in train technology and use ,it is criminal and sad. Bombardier has the expertize but we don’t support are own industries. The Greens fully supprt T.G.V train travel, in a country as vast as ours it makes a lot of sense.
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Building, operating, and maintaining High Speed Rail would likely produce good paying, enduring, high tech jobs. Excellent point,George: Why aren’t we supporting Bombardier to get this done? We could becme the North American leaders in H.S.R.
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I do not use the GO Bus to go to Toronto, too many transfers, too long … I find too many transfers too exhausting.
I prefer the services of Coach Canada which takes one straight to Toronto and there is a washroom on the bus. But GO Bus, which is funded by the taxpayers, has taken some business away from Coach Canada, which now has cut its services … how that helps the commuter, I don’t know.
GO Train in the summer weekends only does not meet any of my needs; I don’t have the time to go anywhere on a tour. I need to get to work, period.
I want full-year, all week train service, at least up to St. Catharines, then at least I will be able to use it as I will not have to keep getting out, waiting and then boarding another conveyance.
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