jamincan
Active Member
It looks like a bus route uses it.I had to look that one up. It doesn't appear to do much, I'm surprised that it's not already closed.
It looks like a bus route uses it.I had to look that one up. It doesn't appear to do much, I'm surprised that it's not already closed.
Kitchener
Scarboro St
I wish that was the case, but the Finch Avenue East crossing will remain at-grade due to the cancellation/deferment of the Finch-Kennedy GO Station. Until then, none of the RER lines within the 15 min portions will be fully grade-separated. The thing is, can Metrolinx grade-separate the intersection without the GO station?
There was a grade separation at Centennial pre-2015 - they simply replaced it. It was an old substandard one like you see elsewhere closer to downtown Hamilton.That's a good question. I suppose it would be possible, given that's basically what they did at Confederation GO (Centennial Pkwy was grade-separated back in 2015ish, and the rail portion of the GO station still isn't anywhere close to operational).
The plans for Finch Station may be more tightly integrated with the street itself though (bus layovers on the street as opposed to an off-street bus loop, etc), so that may impact things. It may reach a point where the cost of roughing in/future-proofing all of those design elements may approach the cost of just building the station at the same time.
There was a grade separation at Centennial pre-2015 - they simply replaced it. It was an old substandard one like you see elsewhere closer to downtown Hamilton.
I have considered this idea in the past, and it would certainly look satisfying on the map. But like @Northern Light said, it is extremely unlikely that the cost could be justfied. The main reason is that Newmarket and Aurora themselves make up such a large portion of the line's ridership. If it were a line which served many intercity trains continuing onward to major cities beyond Barrie, then it might be worth having a dedicated intercity line bypassing the commuter centres. But it's not worth it just for Barrie, Collingwood and Orillia.
Unfortunately I don't have time at the moment to do any back-of-the envelope calculations to ballpark the time savings it would bring.
A much more practical improvement for Bradford, Barrie and points north would be to run limited-stops services on the line. Given that trains currently run the line in 1h40 making all station stops, express trains could easily run the line in less than 1h30. Once the line is double-tracked from Union to Aurora as planned, it will become possible to have multiple stopping patterns for the all-day service, with express trains from Barrie and local services from Aurora.
Yup, no worries. This is how it looked before (isn't historic streetview amazing?). Centennial used to be a provincial highway back in the day, I believe the initial grade separation was constructed in the 1920's when they build the mountain access as well.I wasn't aware of that. The first time I had ever driven through there is when they were building the current one, and they had an at-grade road going around the one side. I suppose my point still stands though, in that it is feasible to build/rebuild a grade separation immediately adjacent to a location where you intend to build a station.
Thank you.
I live right at Downsview Park GO/Sheppard West Station and would love to take the train up to Barrie sometimes. But it's 1 hour and 20 minute trip from Downsview alone. For that travel time I'm hoping in my car instead as I could probably get there in 45-50 minutes.
But you're right I guess once double tracking happens it may decrease travel time.
Metrolinx really needs to have a hyper focus on cutting down travel time on both bus and train service. This then maybe give people like me an incentive to actually take the service.
Looks like you're right. According to this response, the Finch Grade-Separation will still take place as part of the early works.That's a good question. I suppose it would be possible, given that's basically what they did at Confederation GO (Centennial Pkwy was grade-separated back in 2015ish, and the rail portion of the GO station still isn't anywhere close to operational).
The plans for Finch Station may be more tightly integrated with the street itself though (bus layovers on the street as opposed to an off-street bus loop, etc), so that may impact things. It may reach a point where the cost of roughing in/future-proofing all of those design elements may approach the cost of just building the station at the same time.
By the time go expansion is done, autonomy will be fully solved in cars.70MPH is 110Kmph. So if you take into account that there is traffic you are about the same with station stops. It's a lot more productive to take the train because you can work while on the train but you cant while you are driving, even with Autopilot.