Delays reported on first day of expanded GO train service

A GO Train passes along a stretch of tracks alongside the Don Valley Parkway in Toronto on Friday, April 5, 2013. (CTV Toronto/Maurice Cacho)

On the first day of a new service schedule which sees four GO trains leaving Kitchener in the mornings, almost all of the trains were running behind schedule by the time they pulled into Union Station.

Tuesday marked the start of some major service changes for GO Transit service in our area.

Buses are now running between Cambridge and the GO station in Milton, while Brantford now has regular service to and from the Aldershot GO station all day long.

Kitchener and Guelph, meanwhile, are seeing twice as many GO train trips as they had in the past – with four trains now leaving for Toronto in the mornings, and four making the return trip at night.

The first of those trains leaves Kitchener at 5:24 a.m. On Tuesday, GO Transit notified riders that it was delayed 13 minutes due to an operational problem.

“Operational problem” was also the only reason given for a delay affecting the 6:04 a.m. train leaving Kitchener, which arrived at Union Station 25 minutes behind schedule.

No delays were reported for the third train, which left Kitchener at 6:47 a.m. and Guelph at 7:11 a.m.

The fourth train left Kitchener on time at 7:10 a.m., but made an emergency stop near Mount Pleasant and was delayed for 14 minutes.

Delays also affected the Kitchener-bound trains during the afternoon.

The 4:50 p.m. train was delayed 12 minutes at Georgetown while waiting for permission to continue on, while the 5:20 p.m. and 5:50 p.m. trains were delayed 18 and 13 minutes respectively at the same spot, while waiting for other trains to clear the tracks.

As of 7:20 p.m., no delays affecting the 6:50 p.m. trip from Toronto had been reported.