GO/VIA Transit

[thistleclub]

Originally Posted by matt602

Pretty depressing to look at how this went from "trains every 15 minutes, all-day, every day" 7 years ago to "4 trains a day with more in a few years. maybe."

can't put much stock in those election promises...

The 15-minute pledge is revived in an abundantly qualified pre-election promise statement (that, thanks to the line ownership criteria, may or may not include Hamilton).

Relief line, 15-minute electric GO top priorities for new transit fund
(Toronto Star, Tess Kalinowski, Apr 14 2014)

Electrified 15-minute GO service and a relief subway line are the top priorities for the Toronto area’s half of a new $29 billion in dedicated transit funds announced by Premier Kathleen Wynne.

“Over 10 years, we aim to phase in electric train service every 15 minutes on all GO lines we own,” Wynne said in a sold-out speech before 500 people at the Toronto Region Board of Trade on Monday.

The GO expansion would move the most people for the least cost. “It would do for the region what subways did for Toronto,” Wynne said.

Both projects are among 10 transit improvements that the provincial agency Metrolinx identified as its “second wave” of priorities over the next 15 years. The entire package, which also includes bus rapid transit in Durham Region and LRT in Mississauga, is expected to cost about $34 billion, according to a Metrolinx spokesperson….

Metrolinx owns about 68 per cent of the track on which it operates, including most of the Lakeshore, Barrie, Stouffville and Richmond Hill lines.

[thistleclub]

Ontario Liberals vow electrified GO trains that will run every 15 minutes
(Toronto Star, Richard J. Brennan, Apr 17 2014)

Within a decade commuters will be travelling on GO trains powered by electricity and they will only have to wait 15 minutes for one to show up, Transportation Minister Glen Murray says.

Inside a train maintenance centre in Etobicoke on Thursday, Murray, along with Premier Kathleen Wynne, promised a regional express system in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton and area and beyond that will dramatically cut existing commute times....

“This trains running all days in both directions every 15 minutes. This competes now with the standards set in Paris, London in the United Kingdom and gives us 15-minute rapid rail service all across every corner of the GTHA (Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area),” Murray told reporters.

“This will double the ridership of GO over the next decade,” he said.

GO released a $4-million study in 2011 that put the cost of electrifying the Georgetown and Lakeshore lines at about $1.8 billion. Metrolinx anticipates that GO’s ridership of about 65 million trips a year will have doubled by 2031....

Wynne said it is a priority for her government to improve transit into Toronto’s downtown core.


Read it in full here.

[drpgq]

So if they only electrify those lands they own, how are they going to service Hamilton? I guess they'll have a lot of excess diesel engines, so they could continue with the planned six trips each way with them.

[Innsertnamehere]

^that was apparently a slip of a statement by Wynne. Murray has been very, very clear on Twitter that it is coming to Hamilton, Barrie, Oshawa, even Niagara. Hes essentially saying that the lines they don't own they will buy.

I too am interested in seeing what they want to do with the old engines however, considering they seem to want to "RER" every line they own for its entire length. I hope they use them to run far flung express trips from Brantford and Kingston or something.

[thistleclub]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

^that was apparently a slip of a statement by Wynne. Murray has been very, very clear on Twitter that it is coming to Hamilton, Barrie, Oshawa, even Niagara. Hes essentially saying that the lines they don't own they will buy.

Minister Murray has indicated that the 15-minute all-day service would apply to "All tracks we own or lease" so that's clarity of a sort (though Murray himself has a history of later-corrected statements).

[Jon Dalton]

They've been studying electrification for years but this is a more ambitious timeline than previously laid out for this type of service on all GO lines. Apart from Lakeshore and the airport, there was no timeline previously. If they manage to squeak through the May budget, I hope they can lock in the funding to prevent a future PC government from axing it before its done. Or even before it starts.

[thistleclub]

The budget is the immediate hurdle but The Big Move will be up for legally mandated review by 2016 so anything beyond that window is largely hypothetical.

Although he has played up the weight of Metrolinx decisions, Murray has indicated that the 100% LRT funding pledge was not a Liberal promise but rather “a commitment made by Rob MacIsaac, Chair of MLX at the time.” Such commitments are much more valuable when the players remain unchanged when it’s time to cash in your IOU. Murray is the sixth Minister of Transportation since Metrolinx was founded, and every election (or retirement of a sitting minister) opens the door to another cabinet shuffle.

As well, the MacIsaac commitment was made while Metrolinx was still a relatively independent player – prior to the 2009 merger with GO, which saw the agency brought under the control of the MTO and rendered politically impotent. Their main function now, aside from changing the colour of buses and putting ad wraps on trains, is to serve as a political fig leaf, sending up trial balloons that the government can disavow if they prove unpopular. Hence Murray can advise elsewhere that “MLX has made a decision. I don't imagine that will change, but it is their decision.”

With its expertise and consultative role devalued and its independence purely notional, Metrolinx now serves no real practical end that could not be realized by the MTO itself. The agency’s independence is overridden or invoked based on politically convenience, as when an election is happening and the public may be swayed by tinsel or if eventually that tinsel is taken away and the public is inclined to dispense wrath. Then the Minister’s interest is purely academic and it’s down to Metrolinx and the City to agree on the best course of action,” with Metrolinx phasing investments “based on Big Move priority & net benefits,” though of course much depends upon how you choose to define “net benefits.”

On a provincial level, Hamilton’s employment and population growth 2011-2041 is expected to be some of the most underwhelming in the GTHA (eg. in terms of number of jobs added, Hamilton’s stats are roughly half that of Halton or Peel, and a third that of York). The Premier seems to be putting all her chips on regional express rail servicing traffic in and out of Toronto, so my guess would be that ARL/DRL/RER15 will be the core priorities for the foreseeable future, and not necessarily in that order. The affinity isn’t exactly a shock: Wynne was the Minister of Transportation during the 2011 election that backburnered Hamilton LRT in favour of all-day GO.

For his part, the Minister (who can’t hashtag #RER15Min often enough) is arguably positioning all-day GO as a strategic stopgap/substitute for LRT, or perhaps explaining how the the A-Line’s handicap might have unexpectedly improved. Talk is once again of rapid transit or the semantic soft soap of LRT/BRT partnership. Here is the plan (*details subject to change).

[thomax]

James Street North GO Station construction update from April 21...

Source

Should the James North GO Station get it's own thread for construction updates? The Confederation GO Station has it's own.

[SteelTown]

Yes, you are free to make a separate thread for the GO Station. But we have to keep it about construction and not about GO Transit in general.

[Beedok]

Not that it'll work 100% of course.

[thomax]

New thread for the James Street North GO Station construction updates:

James Street North GO Station | ? | 3 fl | Under Construction

[thistleclub]

Via Budget 2014, Building Modern Infrastructure:

The government recognizes continued expansion towards two-way, all-day GO Transit rail service as a priority. GO Transit improvements on all corridors would include additional track, grade separations, improved signalling, station improvements and additional fleet, which are all building blocks towards two-way, all-day service. In addition, analysis is underway on a proposal to electrify the GO rail system to deliver service at intervals as frequent as 15 minutes.

The Province has asked Metrolinx to begin work immediately to examine opportunities to move GO service towards a regional express rail, providing fast and frequent electrified service on all corridors at intervals as frequent as 15 minutes. This would represent a game-changer in how people move about the region, and enhance ridership and efficiency on GO Transit and other projects that connect to the network as well.

[thistleclub]

Things could get interesting as of Monday.

Some commuters will be more inconvenienced than others, but all Hamilton GO Bus users will have to go through the Hunter Street station. Four morning trains, four evening trains to/from Hunter and rely on Burlington Transit connections from Fairview and Aldershot.

[movingtohamilton]

Originally Posted by thistleclub

Things could get interesting as of Monday...

I'm a frequent user of GO services, and I'm extremely annoyed at GO for keeping this under wraps for too long. This is not the first time that a negotiations are going right to the last possible moment. IIRC the same scenario played out 2 years ago.

I really don't want to start ranting, but....

[thomax]

[LINK] Draft James Street North Mobility Hub Study (PDF, 24 MB)

@cityofhamilton - "We want feedback on the draft James St N Mobility Hub study. Submit an email by July 4 - hamilton.ca, New GO Station at James Street North"


Source

[Dr Awesomesauce]

That looks hot except for the buses. We need something sexier in that image, like, I dunno, LRT maybe?

[interr0bangr]

Is the glass building on the left a GO building or just a pie-in-the-sky artist rendering?

[matt602]

Pretty sure it's pie in the sky. The old beer store (now a kitchen fixtures store) is there, across from This Ain't Hollywood.

[SteelTown]

Work on GO station being stepped up

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/47...ng-stepped-up/

A Metrolinx official says work on the new $44-million GO station on James Street North will accelerate this summer so it will be ready to open in 2015.

Randal Dreise did not mention the construction delay that hampered the opening of the city's new $145-million stadium this month, but it was probably on everyone else's mind at a public meeting on the final design of the commuter station Tuesday night.

Dreise, the station's project manager, said work is progressing on schedule but heavy machinery will soon be arriving to help speed up construction.

The exact opening date for the station has not yet been determined, but Dreise said work will continue after the opening, such as some platform work and putting in place public art.

About 50 people attended the meeting at the Workers Arts and Heritage Centre, which is in between Bay Street North and MacNab Street North and overlooks the station's construction site.

Dreise said the station will include Hamilton touches, such as planters fitted with Corten steel, limestone in the plaza, spaces for food trucks and open spaces to connect it with the popular Art Crawl on James Street North.

The glass building will be eight metres above the tracks and just east of the MacNab Street bridge. The plaza will be off James Street and a kiss-and-ride stop at track level.

"It's kind of a unique station building itself," said Dreise. "The station is going to be on the (MacNab Street) bridge."

Some in attendance liked what they saw of the final design.

"It's very architectural and has an industrial touch to it," said Stella Lehto, who lives on Ray Street and will use the station to travel to Toronto. "I think it's first class."

Mayoral candidate Brian McHattie was disappointed, saying it looked "pretty generic."

"I don't see anything that gives it character, not withstanding the steel and the marble in the plaza," he said. "Public art might help."

Other details:

• There are no plans for Via Rail and Amtrak trains to stop at the station.

• It will be the stop for people attending the Pan Am soccer games. Getting them to the stadium is still being finalized.

• It will open with rush-hour morning and evening service. All-day GO service is still in negotiations with CN Rail.

• Platforms will stretch from MacNab Street to almost Tiffany Street.

• There will be 300 parking spaces, 32 bike shelters, 10 bike-share spots, two elevators and four bus bays.

• 150 trees and 500 shrubs will be planted.

• The public art will be paid for by $50,000 from Metrolinx and $50,000 from the City of Hamilton.

[GlassCity]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

Work on GO station being stepped up

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/47...ng-stepped-up/

A Metrolinx official says work on the new $44-million GO station on James Street North will accelerate this summer so it will be ready to open in 2015.

Randal Dreise did not mention the construction delay that hampered the opening of the city's new $145-million stadium this month, but it was probably on everyone else's mind at a public meeting on the final design of the commuter station Tuesday night.

Dreise, the station's project manager, said work is progressing on schedule but heavy machinery will soon be arriving to help speed up construction.

The exact opening date for the station has not yet been determined, but Dreise said work will continue after the opening, such as some platform work and putting in place public art.

About 50 people attended the meeting at the Workers Arts and Heritage Centre, which is in between Bay Street North and MacNab Street North and overlooks the station's construction site.

Dreise said the station will include Hamilton touches, such as planters fitted with Corten steel, limestone in the plaza, spaces for food trucks and open spaces to connect it with the popular Art Crawl on James Street North.

The glass building will be eight metres above the tracks and just east of the MacNab Street bridge. The plaza will be off James Street and a kiss-and-ride stop at track level.

"It's kind of a unique station building itself," said Dreise. "The station is going to be on the (MacNab Street) bridge."

Some in attendance liked what they saw of the final design.

"It's very architectural and has an industrial touch to it," said Stella Lehto, who lives on Ray Street and will use the station to travel to Toronto. "I think it's first class."

Mayoral candidate Brian McHattie was disappointed, saying it looked "pretty generic."

"I don't see anything that gives it character, not withstanding the steel and the marble in the plaza," he said. "Public art might help."

Other details:

• There are no plans for Via Rail and Amtrak trains to stop at the station.

• It will be the stop for people attending the Pan Am soccer games. Getting them to the stadium is still being finalized.

• It will open with rush-hour morning and evening service. All-day GO service is still in negotiations with CN Rail.

• Platforms will stretch from MacNab Street to almost Tiffany Street.

• There will be 300 parking spaces, 32 bike shelters, 10 bike-share spots, two elevators and four bus bays.

• 150 trees and 500 shrubs will be planted.

• The public art will be paid for by $50,000 from Metrolinx and $50,000 from the City of Hamilton.

So what will happen to Hamilton GO Centre once this station opens?