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Caption: GO 3710 blasts off out of Guelph crossing the recently refurbished Macdonnell St Bridge (Allan's bridge as it is known to locals). Honestly, the look of the bridge has not changed all that much, just looks newer. Of course, this pair is everyone's favourite subject of late.. the amazing thing about this train? Departs London at 0518 and it's used by a few hundred people every day between London and Stratford! Why is this train so popular despite it's 4 hour runtime? Well, the main reason, is it arrives before VIA 70, 45 minutes earlier. Secondly, you don't need a reservation for this train. It's true public transit, you can walk on anytime and you never need to question if the train is sold out or not. (VIA Rail often sells out.. of course, no longer runs at commuting time) This my friends shows that public transit truly works. I'm quite amazed how well GO is doing on the Kitchener line.
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I thought this bridge looks familiar.
http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=46559
Awesome pic Steve! Great Angle
Steve, very nice picture, and a pair of F59’s to boot ! Most interesting information on ridership on the early morning departure from London – amazed that it is way more than a dozen. When CN ran London-Toronto passenger service, you could even purchase a cash ticket on board, and on heavy traffic days, extra coaches were always added. VIA is not really interested in serving the travelling public conveniently what with sold out trains , having to reserve a seat on line way in advance and hardly ever adding extra cars when demand requires, and no “commuter” runs between London & Toronto. With sold out trains, you would think VIA would add more trains, not reduce them. Time for GO to run a 10-car train between London-Toronto with all stops (including new ones at Dorchester, Ingersoll, Lynden Jct , & Dundas (passengers to Hamilton and Niagara peninsula can change to connecting trains at Aldershot). If one thing the current early morning departure GO train from London is showing, often people don’t mind a longer ride if your community is being served, if you can simply board the train and pay by a Presto card on the platform, when arriving times are convenient. As you said, public transit truly works, John
Cool angle. How is it that I was out the same morning shooting this?
I like how you got 6167 in the background too.
Wow, the 6167 was like looking for Waldo.
Its very easy to bash VIA Rail for not providing better service between London and Toronto via the “back way” but VIA really does not have enough equipment to provide this service at the moment. Hopefully that will change once the newer trains come online. There is also a big different between Federal funding and Provincial. The Feds don’t seem too interested in helping VIA as much as our local government helps Metrolinx. I do remember the “old days” before I became a locomotive engineer and was working as a conductor on those VIA passenger trains. Railwayguy is correct, we used to sell tickets (cash fares) to anyone who wanted to buy a ticket with cash. Those days are long gone it seems. I am not a huge fan of airline like reservations on the VIA trains, but it seems to be the norm. Even in Europe, depending on the train, you buy tickets with seats assigned. Although, it seems no one ever sits in the seats they purchase if the train is not full
Who wants to start a GoFundMe Fjre Up 6167? Ha! Ha!
I like this a lot.
Didn’t even see 6167 peeking out in the background, wonderful ! Was that planned ? Makes the picture even better, “the old and the new “ ( or maybe not too new), both having rolled over this same beautiful bridge, but decades apart. Don’t take the VIA comments in my earlier comments the wrong way, am a great VIA supporter – just returned from a trip to the magnificent city of Quebec with all grand children, children, spouses travelling to/from VIA, everyone loved the train, wheelchair service and train boarding assistance for us less mobile seniors was superb, and a very helpful VIA phone agent arranged for us (10) to sit together with at least one table (for games) ! Just wish the federal government would take much, much more interest in expanding VIA, creating new routes, and greatly increasing funding – even the US is doing that not to mention Europe, Asia, etc. What is so nice about this picture is that whether by VIA or GO, can travel over the bridge. Thanks for posting
Thanks gang. I didn’t expect this to get this much traction. (ha ha!).
Was it on purpose? *sips a drink*.. sure.. *sips another drink*