GO Transit: Construction Projects (Metrolinx, various)

[Fervid Corona]

Bramalea GO South Parking Lot Entrance:

St Clair-Old Weston Station: Starting piling and some track work.

Approaching and after Bloor GO: not a ton of progress, some track and the flat railbed looks ready to go.

 

[Fervid Corona]

after Bloor GO (continued)

Approaching the Kitchener and Barrie GO lines split: Lots of equipment and staging.
Dundas St W Bridge:

Concreate Track Ties

 

[Fervid Corona]

And finally: After the split to near where the future(?) King-Liberty GO station will be:

Saw concreate prep around the ends of the bridges:

Does anyone know if all the work between Liberty village and the split is actually for new tracks or just for utility work?

 

[EnviroTO]

While the King Liberty station is postponed, it isn't cancelled. I would suspect they will ensure the corridor is set so that when the station does get built the corridor is ready with the space required for track shifts and the ultimate layout. With the future Barrie line schedules another track or two is expected here I think.

 

[cplchanb]

While the King Liberty station is postponed, it isn't cancelled. I would suspect they will ensure the corridor is set so that when the station does get built the corridor is ready with the space required for track shifts and the ultimate layout. With the future Barrie line schedules another track or two is expected here I think.

You might as well cancel it at this point..dont see them resuming work for 20 years at the rate theyre upgrading our lines

 

[dullturtle06]

https://www.thetrillium.ca/news/municipalities-transit-and-infrastructure/metrolinx-could-run-first-electric-go-trains-in-2036-leaked-document-12002512

Article from the trillium about Go fleet expansion.

2036 for the first electric train, but they want to procure EMU not electric locomotives. Plan is to run the desiel to end of life in 2040s.

 

[generalcanada]

crazy article.
not even that its so long from now, not even that they are going to do emu's and replace 60% of the bilevel fleet,
They dont even know whos going to build it LOL.

what the hell happened these last 4 years JFC.

 

[mildlyamusingusername]

EMUs are nice, but it’s insane the amount of time that was wasted just to come up with a relatively straightforward plan that even ChatGPT could’ve created

 

[cplchanb]

Thats be

EMUs are nice, but it’s insane the amount of time that was wasted just to come up with a relatively straightforward plan that even ChatGPT could’ve created

Thats because the 118 VPs at ML just dont care, and the minions that work under them are largely incompetent. Seriously a private company like Brightline needs to step up and take over this shitshow before most of us are dead. Seriously that will be the case of many people on this forum since they are projecting a 2040 target....

 

[hw621]

Thats be

Thats because the 118 VPs at ML just dont care, and the minions that work under them are largely incompetent. Seriously a private company like Brightline needs to step up and take over this shitshow before most of us are dead. Seriously that will be the case of many people on this forum since they are projecting a 2040 target....

Be careful. Last time I said something similar I was blasted by some people here...

 

[cplchanb]

Be careful. Last time I said something similar I was blasted by some people here...

those people are honestly part of the problem. they rather shrug their shoulders at the status quo and be that if it aint broke dont fix it until it absolutely cant crawl anymore crowd.

 

[hw621]

those people are honestly part of the problem. they rather shrug their shoulders at the status quo and be that if it aint broke dont fix it until it absolutely cant crawl anymore crowd.

Why would they care. Life is comfortable.

 

[goodcitywhenfinished]

https://www.thetrillium.ca/news/municipalities-transit-and-infrastructure/metrolinx-could-run-first-electric-go-trains-in-2036-leaked-document-12002512

Article from the trillium about Go fleet expansion.

2036 for the first electric train, but they want to procure EMU not electric locomotives. Plan is to run the desiel to end of life in 2040s.

Good! 2036 is quite far but EMUs are the way to build world class regional rail, not electric locos.

 

[PShells]

Good! 2036 is quite far but EMUs are the way to build world class regional rail, not electric locos.

I’m not holding my breath on 2036 given the pace of construction to get 2AWD diesel train service at a15-30 minute cadence.

There’s still so much utility relocation, bridge and grade separation, track to be laid (2nd, 3rd and 4th track), track to be moved to its final position, switches to be upgraded, layovers built for 6-car consists etc. type “early work” to be completed before looking at electrification. This “unsexy” work is being completed at a pace that suggests 2036 remains aspirational.

Am I naive in that once all the corridor work is done, pouring foundation for OCS and wiring it up is relatively straightforward? Does Hydro One need a huge lead time to build substations for each line?

I’m sure the entire network will have world class (/s) noise walls though.

 

[crs1026]

I’m not holding my breath on 2036 given the pace of construction to get 2AWD diesel train service at a15-30 minute cadence.

There’s still so much utility relocation, bridge and grade separation, track to be laid (2nd, 3rd and 4th track), track to be moved to its final position, switches to be upgraded, layovers built for 6-car consists etc. type “early work” to be completed before looking at electrification. This “unsexy” work is being completed at a pace that suggests 2036 remains aspirational.

Am I naive in that once all the corridor work is done, pouring foundation for OCS and wiring it up is relatively straightforward? Does Hydro One need a huge lead time to build substations for each line?

It's always worth revisiting the EA report for GO Electrification, to be reminded of what things have seen preparation or rough-in and what things have yet to even have started.

Yes, procurement of electrical supply and control equipment has very long lead times. However, the civil work needed for bridges etc to assure physical separation from high voltage OCS is also very long lead time (if bridges have to be raised or modified etc). And, while some of ML's station structures and signalling circuits have been grounded and isolated electrically, others have not. So yeah, there are gaps in execution that are holding things back.

Could electrification be expedited if someone gave it a major push and declared it the overriding priority? Probably.

Would the ML ridership actually be best served if ML were directed to make electrification the priority and drop everything else? Probably not.

As you note, just getting tracks built and 15-monute 2WAD advanced across all lines is still job one IMHO.

I’m sure the entire network will have world class (/s) noise walls though.

Metrolinx' new motto: What the public can't see, can't hurt us.

- Paul