GO/VIA Transit

[matt602]

Yeah, I totally agree that Hunter is the best option for increased service, it's just hard for me to see it happening because of CP's past resistance to the idea. As was suggested though, they wouldn't have made the announcement if they didn't have some sort of agreement or understanding already made with them to accommodate that service.

I gotta say it makes me pretty excited to imagine Hunter with all day hourly train service. It will once again be the bustling train station that it was so many decades ago.

[king10]

Thing is hunter is the end of the line. If they want to expand to centennial, grimsby, niagara its going to have to go through the new james st station.

[thistleclub]

Premier Wynne announces Go rail system to receive $13.5-billion boost
(The Globe & Mail Oliver Moore, Apr 17 2015)

The Ontario government has rolled out details on a huge expansion of GO rail service, a $13.5-billion investment that leaves little money for other transit projects around the region and falls short of earlier promises.

More frequent service with electricity-powered trains across much of the Toronto-area rail network was a Liberal campaign pledge last year, and will be funded in part by the sale of a stake in the utility Hydro One.

“We’re going to make massive improvements across the GO system,” Premier Kathleen Wynne said on Friday at a Barrie rail station, where she and Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca started to spell out what this will mean.

GO Transit service will start ramping up this year. At the end of five years, nearly 700 more trains will be running each week, an increase of about 40 per cent in capacity on weekdays, most at off-peak times. Weekend service will jump by more than 140 per cent.

Among the other details revealed on Friday was that it will take seven or eight years to electrify the GO corridors Toronto Mayor John Tory needs for his SmartTrack transit plan. During the municipal campaign last year he promised it would be running within seven years.

“We’re absolutely confident in the timeline,” Mr. Tory’s spokeswoman Amanda Galbraith said. “The mayor has always talked about a seven-year timeline … and where there’s a will there’s a way.”

According to Mr. Del Duca’s spokesman, the money the province will spend electrifying the GO corridors Mr. Tory wants to use for his plan constitutes its contribution to the proposal. The mayor will still need to get billions from Ottawa, and hopes to raise the city’s share of his $8-billion plan through transit-related development.

The price of $13.5-billion for GO expansion is higher than the figure put forward last summer by senior executives with Metrolinx, the regional transit agency that runs GO. At the time, Metrolinx chair Rob Prichard said it could be up to $12-billion and could drop.

With about $16-billion in total earmarked for transit investment across the Toronto region and Hamilton, the government’s big bet on suburban rail will leave only a few billion for other priorities.

Read it in full here.

[mishap]

GO should really make use of the Crosstown line in Toronto. Not everybody is going near Union. They could even structure the network so each Hamilton line (CN/ TH&B) serves a different line through Toronto (Lakeshore/ Crosstown).

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by king10

Thing is hunter is the end of the line. If they want to expand to centennial, grimsby, niagara its going to have to go through the new james st station.

In addition to the large increase at Hunter, James N. is getting 1/2 hour peak period directional service. This could easily be extended eastward, or a few trains could eventually be added during off-peak.

If regular Niagara service gets implemented it would obviously stop there too. It will be interesting to see the business case the Region of Niagara is going to present to the province, and whether GO's ridership figures forecast enough demand to make it workable and a better option than increased bus service (which would still be a fast way to get people to connect to GO trains in Burlington, especially during the off-peak)

[Mikey563]

I hope train from Hamilton to Niagara falls get built because it is very good for tourists

[thistleclub]

15-minute Hamilton GO train service up to 10 years away: province
(Hamilton Spectator, Teviah Moro, Apr 21 2015)

The age of GO trains every 15 minutes to Toronto from Hamilton is up to 10 years away.

"In ten years," city commuters can expect that frequency of service to Union Station from the city's Jackson Street GO Centre during peak periods in 10 years, a provincial spokesperson said Tuesday.

By that time, Hamiltonians will also have 30-minute service on the Lakeshore West line between the future James Street North station to Union, said Patrick Searle, spokesperson for Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca.

In off-peak times, the Lakeshore West line will offer "60 minute or better all-day, two-way service" between Jackson Street and Union, Searle noted.

It's not yet clear whether service from the Jackson Street hub and James North station, which is targeted to be in service for July's Pan Am Games, will increase during the 10 years.

Read it in full here.

[thistleclub]

Toronto-Niagara GO service will bypass Hamilton
(Hamilton Spectator, Molly Hayes, May 8 2015)

The James Street North GO station will be ready for the Pan Am Games but not a Toronto-to-Niagara summer service — something the NDP is calling a missed opportunity for Hamilton.

"Why has the government spent $44 million on a new Hamilton station only to send GO trains right through it without stopping?" asked Wayne Gates, MPP for Niagara Falls.

Paul Miller, MPP for Hamilton East-Stoney Creek, says the city deserves a summer GO train connection to Niagara and Toronto.

"Hamilton is Ontario's third-largest city, and a weekend rail connection would be a real boost for our tourism industry," he argues.

The summer service is offered on weekends between May and October, with trips running between Toronto and Niagara and Toronto and Barrie.

Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins said the new James North station will still be under construction when summer service launches.

Read it in full here.

[Beedok]

Even if they expect no one to get off, surely the Niagara regions should be upset they're being robbed of people potentially getting on.

[Hawrylyshyn]

Maybe it's just not stopping this year due to on going construction but will once the station is finished?

[drpgq]

From the above article:

"Metrolinx will announce the schedule of service — including extra service — next month."

So this refers to the Pan Am schedule but not the regular schedule?

[Jon Dalton]

I understand there could be issues with operating a station while under construction but the bit about infrastructure is puzzling.

Another problem, she says, is that "the infrastructure required to transfer from the rail corridor in Hamilton to the corridor used to get to Niagara will not be ready this summer in time for the Niagara service."

The rail corridor through Hamilton is the one used to get to Niagara. It's the CN main line that the train switches onto at the Bayview Junction that passes through the new GO station.

CN owns the rail corridor from around Burlington GO Station west around Hamilton Harbour and then east toward Niagara, while CP owns the corridor from the Desjardins Canal to Hamilton GO Centre, Aikins says.

Yes but the CP corridor has nothing to do with Niagara or West Harbour service. It is only used by GO trains that serve the Hunter St. station.

I don't know what infrastructure she is talking about. There are plans to eventually grade separate Hamilton Junction to increase speed and service capacity but as it stands trains are able to switch between tracks. They wouldn't be able to go to Niagara Falls at all if that weren't the case.

Maybe she is referring to the trackage east of the West Harbour station where trains will reconnect to the mainline after stopping. It makes sense that that wouldn't be done as right now they are focusing on the station as an end point for the Pan Am trains and the 2 a day that we're getting after that.

Still these are weak excuses for running trains right through our city. I went to the public meetings for the Niagara expansion service years ago and always suggested that they build a temporary platform so they could stop the Niagara weekend trains here right away and start building ridership - ticket sales could be handled out of the existing GO station. I've taken the VIA train across the country and saw the stations they use - some of them are literally nothing but a strip of asphalt and those trains have stairs that the conductors have to lower down when the train stops. But it's better than nothing.

You can't do anything in Hamilton.

[matt602]

I believe she's referring to the actual switch off the CN mainline at West Harbour. The trains won't just be stopping on platforms on the mainline, they need to switch off of it into the station.

Still doesn't make sense if the station is to be ready for the Pan-Am games, which would clearly require that infrastructure to function. Maybe the Pan-Am start isn't until after the start of Niagara train service, and they didn't want to start the service to Hamilton mid-season?

I agree though, it's all weak excuses and this project should have been substantially finished by this spring. The whole thing was started way too late, seeing as we knew about the Pan-Am games several years ago. So much infrastructure slapped together at the last minute.

[Dr Awesomesauce]

I'm being lazy - my apologies.

The map shows future stops in St Catharines and Niagara Falls - any talk of Niagara-on-the-Lake being on that route? That would be nice.

Actually, more stops at, say, Jordan Station would be tremendous but then you're looking at more of a clickety-clack scenario like the old radial line.

[Dr Awesomesauce]

Niagara-on-the-Lake is, roughly, a 20 km bike ride from the St Kitts' stop. Just imagining myself doing a little biking - very doable. I may have to leap out onto the tracks to get it to stop but, yeah, doable just the same...

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by Jon Dalton

Maybe she is referring to the trackage east of the West Harbour station where trains will reconnect to the mainline after stopping. It makes sense that that wouldn't be done as right now they are focusing on the station as an end point for the Pan Am trains and the 2 a day that we're getting after that.

Yes, I think that's what was meant in the article.

It's also possible they won't have more than one platform ready in time for the games. It's all they need to provide Pan Am service, along with the station building.

[king10]

This article in the spec talked about LRT funding and fast tracking the centennial GO station. Would probably mean more than 4 daily trips out of the james st station as well. The structure for the new rail bridge on centennial is coming along nicely.

And GO is still bulding the layover area for trains in Winona correct?

http://buff.ly/1HGG1LZ

[thistleclub]

As part of the LRT announcement (“I sense you were really just waiting for that") Premier Wynne just announced that the province will begin construction on a Centennial Parkway GO station in 2017.

[thistleclub]

Via Ontario Newsroom:

"The Premier also announced an additional expansion of transit service in Hamilton. The province will extend GO rail service on the Lakeshore West line from the West Harbour GO Station at James Street North to a new GO station at Centennial Parkway in eastern Hamilton. Construction is expected to begin in 2017, with completion in 2019."

[NortheastWind]

I was on Arrowsmith Road the other day and noticed that the auto wrecker Bodyline has vacated their property. I assume Metrolinx purchased the property for the Confederation Station, as per the plan found here: http://www.gotransit.com/public/en/i...Station%20.pdf