GO Transit: Construction Projects (Metrolinx, various)

[reaperexpress]

This is all nice, but until Metrolinx pays CN the 1 billion or so to get the space in Brampton GO they cannot expand service imo.

They absolutely can expand service. For an hourly service to Kitchener, the next train meet to the east of Georgetown would occur at Malton station, which also happens to be where the current hourly service meets. So outside of peak periods, GO only needs a single track through the largely 3-track CN corridor. The lack of 3rd track at Brampton station simply means that CN has a short segment of single-track operation if they happen to arrive while GO is occupying the second track.

The "plan" has changed so many times I have lost track of what lies ahead. But fundamentally, you are correct - the southmost track (South Main Line in CNspeak) could serve as a GO platform as well as a VIA platform. The "If" is whether CN would allow two trains to meet in a way that ties up one of their main lines every hour.

The odd thing that limits operations currently is that the GO platform track has an unsignalled segment. This forces the signals governing entry to the existing GO platform to display speed-restrictive indications even when the track is clear. After stopping, trains must maintain that low-speed creep until they reach the next signal. If that were corrected, GO speeds would improve. And if power switches were added, GO could have a two-track passing area in its existing station. That's not all that expensive an upgrade.

The flyover BCS suggested that a meeting point west of Georgetown station was needed. That makes sense to give a couple minutes' contingency, and it keeps the meets off CN's turf.

Until a flyover is built, the options for an hourly service west of Georgetown are: meet on the GO line and disrupt CN traffic twice per hour, or meet on the CN line while crossing CN traffic, which only disrupts CN once per hour.

Kitchener Expansion BCA 2021, page 19:

I would have thought that resolving the signalling through the platform would provide sufficient schedule padding for the meet to occur at the platform of Georgetown station. Guelph-Acton and Acton-Georgetown are both scheduled for 15 minutes, but Guelph-Acton is 21 km (84 km/h avg) while Acton-Georgetown is only 10 km (40 km/h avg). I figured that a big part of that discrepency is the current slowdown in Georgetown.

During peak periods there would also be an intermediate meet at Acton between the hourly counter-peak service and the extra peak-period services which improve the peak-period headway to 30 minutes. But I figure that a couple extra minutes of padding could be freed up for that additional meet by having those extra peak-direction runs skip Acton station - thereby cutting their travel time by 2 minutes.

It looks like it would be quite difficult to get a fourth track through Silver Junction, so unless they were referring to the future passing track at Acton station, a passing point west of Georgetown would presumably be a standalone passing siding, which would be disappointing since passing places between stations tend to produce more delay than passing tracks at stations where trains need to cross anyway. If the travel time is still too long then I'd prefer that they extend the double track east from Guelph Station. Surely adding a second span to that bridge is affordable - it should cost less than the current work they're doing to replace spans and crossbeams.

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

They absolutely can expand service. For an hourly service to Kitchener, the next train meet to the east of Georgetown would occur at Malton station, which also happens to be where the current hourly service meets. So outside of peak periods, GO only needs a single track through the largely 3-track CN corridor. The lack of 3rd track at Brampton station simply means that CN has a short segment of single-track operation if they happen to arrive while GO is occupying the second track.
View attachment 356008


Until a flyover is built, the options for an hourly service west of Georgetown are: meet on the GO line and disrupt CN traffic twice per hour, or meet on the CN line while crossing CN traffic, which only disrupts CN once per hour.

Kitchener Expansion BCA 2021, page 19:
View attachment 356009

I would have thought that resolving the signalling through the platform would provide sufficient schedule padding for the meet to occur at the platform of Georgetown station. Guelph-Acton and Acton-Georgetown are both scheduled for 15 minutes, but Guelph-Acton is 21 km (84 km/h avg) while Acton-Georgetown is only 10 km (40 km/h avg). I figured that a big part of that discrepency is the current slowdown in Georgetown.

During peak periods there would also be an intermediate meet at Acton between the hourly counter-peak service and the extra peak-period services which increase the peak-period headway to 30 minutes. But I figure that a couple extra minutes of padding could be freed up for that additional meet by having those extra peak-direction runs skip Acton station - thereby cutting their travel time by 2 minutes.

It looks like it would be quite difficult to get a fourth track through Silver Junction, so unless they were referring to the future passing track at Acton station, a passing point west of Georgetown would presumably be a standalone passing siding, which would be disappointing since passing places between stations tend to produce more delay than passing tracks at stations where trains need to cross anyway. If the travel time is still too long then I'd prefer that they extend the double track east from Guelph Station. Surely adding a second span to that bridge is affordable - it should cost less than the current work they're doing to replace spans and crossbeams.

Didn't know this, thanks.

So why all this hand wringing over Bramalea/Brampton and track space then?

 

[drum118]

To deal with the issue at Silver Junction from my point of view, there needs to be 3/4 track bridge over the Credit River and a fly-under before Mount Pleasant going east. The corridor can support 4 tracks easy. The bridge over the Credit River used to be one and became 2 in early 2000 after the EA was approved to add a 2nd track. During the building of the 2nd track bridge, the piers were expanded to support 3 bridges with the 2nd been place on those expanded piers. It the pier on the south side still can be expanded to support a 4th bridge. I can go back to my comments on the EA where I call for 4 tracks not only on this corridor, but all corridors where CN/CP run as well a 5th where it could be place a 3 where there no CN/CP interference.

All it takes to fix Sliver Junction and other locations issues is the will and money, but well worth it at the end of the day.

With VIA Rail closing its Georgetown Station and using GO Georgetown station, that resolved an issues since early 2000 when the line became 2 tracks in place of one. With Metrolinx building a new yard east of Georgetown and having more trains store at the various west points, it cut down on the need for the current Georgetown Station and yard to allow the building of an true GO Station with VIA rail using it.

 

[drum118]

Oct 16
There is 146 photos up on site and an example which photos should be posted over others that may differ from others people.

With the old station gone, you can get a full view of the new station now.

 

[reaperexpress]

Didn't know this, thanks.

So why all this hand wringing over Bramalea/Brampton and track space then?

Because although we can add some new service with the existing infrastructure, we do need to do something about the bottleneck through Brampton station in order to reach the level of service most of us envision for the corridor. I recall from others here that there are indeed plans to add a third track through the station as part of an upcoming reconstruction, but I don't have a source on hand for that.

 

[Allandale25]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1449902669682941955

 

[EnviroTO]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1449902669682941955

You can take that track and double it.

 

[Garuda]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1449902669682941955

Pretty exciting. Just two more spans to go.

Which will also create the most headache when they shut down the busy intersection the next 2 weekends.

 

[cplchanb]

Oct 16
There is 146 photos up on site and an example which photos should be posted over others that may differ from others people.

With the old station gone, you can get a full view of the new station now.

I really hope that future stations that are upgraded or built will actually integrate the platform as part of the station itself.
Currently we are still stuck on early 20th century standards with a singular building and then a random platform to the side as an afterthought.
Not to mention for the rider it would be much more convenient in terms of access to plaforms and being shielded from the elements.
If ML is going to do all day service and turn GO into a modern regional express rail, they need to also get with the times and provide the proper
infrastructure.

 

[drum118]

I really hope that future stations that are upgraded or built will actually integrate the platform as part of the station itself.
Currently we are still stuck on early 20th century standards with a singular building and then a random platform to the side as an afterthought.
Not to mention for the rider it would be much more convenient in terms of access to plaforms and being shielded from the elements.
If ML is going to do all day service and turn GO into a modern regional express rail, they need to also get with the times and provide the proper
infrastructure.

When they rebuilt the Burlington station, was surprise they didn't built the station with a platform that would allow riders to wait inside until the train to keep warm in the winter months.. It can still be done. Agincourt been built that way. Via Rail Oakville station was done this way when rebuilt.

A number can't be due to location and Bramalea is one of them with CN Mainline in the way..

It cost a lot more to cover the tracks and platforms, but worth it in the end as you wouldn't need a snow melting system for platforms or worry about snow on the platforms.

 

[Allandale25]

Why lengthy partial road closure has kept everyone moving during Bloor bridge reconstructionWhy lengthy partial road closure has kept everyone moving during Bloor bridge reconstruction - Railway Track and Structures

Rebuilding a bridge that spans over one of Toronto’s busiest roads is challenging.

www.rtands.com

 

[EnviroTO]

Why lengthy partial road closure has kept everyone moving during Bloor bridge reconstructionWhy lengthy partial road closure has kept everyone moving during Bloor bridge reconstruction - Railway Track and Structures

Rebuilding a bridge that spans over one of Toronto’s busiest roads is challenging.

www.rtands.com

The similarities between that article and the one in the Metrolinx Blog are uncanny. It is almost like content was ripped off a legitimate website and reposted on a site with advertisements.

 

[smallspy]

The similarities between that article and the one in the Metrolinx Blog are uncanny. It is almost like content was ripped off a legitimate website and reposted on a site with advertisements.

If you take a look at the byline for each, you'll see that there's a reason for that.

Dan

 

[Allandale25]

^ apologies I didn't notice when posting so may have already been posted (and by me)

 

[drum118]

See images of pedestrian bridge night lift at Rutherford GO​