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GO Transit: Construction Projects (Metrolinx, various)

Willybru21 said:
Aurora will have a similar layout to Unionville with 3 platforms, 2 though and one stub.
Click to expand...
I'm having a difficult time finding any renderings of what Aurora GO will look like after construction is completed. The most information I could find was a posted in a blog for the Mayor of Aurora. But this post dated back to February 2020. Knowing MX, how relevant is this information? Is there still a plan to grade separate Wellington st? There was no signs of any work being done at the grade crossing.

mrakas.ca

Wellington St Grade Separation Proposal

This Monday Metrolinx will be having an Open-house, drop-in format at the Aurora Community Centre starting at 6:30pm until 8pm. This open house will focus on the proposed grade separation at…
mrakas.ca mrakas.ca
 
Bojaxs said:
I'm having a difficult time finding any renderings of what Aurora GO will look like after construction is completed. The most information I could find was a posted in a blog for the Mayor of Aurora. But this post dated back to February 2020. Knowing MX, how relevant is this information? Is there still a plan to grade separate Wellington st? There was no signs of any work being done at the grade crossing.

mrakas.ca

Wellington St Grade Separation Proposal

This Monday Metrolinx will be having an Open-house, drop-in format at the Aurora Community Centre starting at 6:30pm until 8pm. This open house will focus on the proposed grade separation at…
mrakas.ca mrakas.ca
Click to expand...
As far as I know there is no renderings of Aurora, unfortunately. The diagrams you see in the blog post are very similar to what the final product will be
 
The Agenda for the Nov. 28th meeting of the Mx Board is out.

This is the GO/UP Capital Projects Report:

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* Safety omitted *

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Bojaxs said:
Aurora GO;

Is the plan to have the double track come to an abrupt end at Aurora GO? Or are they going to tie it into the single track somewhere north of Aurora GO?
Click to expand...
No. The double-track would continue north of Centre St. and then end at a switch.

Willybru21 said:
Aurora will have a similar layout to Unionville with 3 platforms, 2 though and one stub.
Click to expand...
My understanding is that plan has been superseded, and there will only be two tracks with two side platforms at Aurora for the immediate future.

They have protected for an additional pocket track should the need arise, however.

Dan
 
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(Ritual rant about ML's activity reports not being a proper form of Board oversight over scope control, work completion against schedule and target completion date, or cost performance - please take as read)

Two very interesting tidbits in this report -

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Classic example of ML speak with lots of wiggle room inserted to enable excuse making and disclaimers down the road (PS - an important theme to be concerned about, but expressed in a very bureaucratic way )

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This one will actually delight UTers - "Traction power facility design" roughly translates to "transformers and switchgear for electrification". It''s still only design, and they are saying 60% completion in early 2025....and then there is more design work leading to procurement..... and switchgear procurement is not speedy....but it hints that ML and/or Onxpress are actually working towards electrification....and LSE/LSW may be first on the the hit list.

It will take another cup of coffee to digest the financial chart, but it's pretty clear that ML has budget for a lot of things, so the continuing worry I have about things silently getting dropped will not show up in these high level numbers.

- Paul
 
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I don't understand why route 36 runs in the afternoon to take people from North York to Brampton but not from Brampton to North York? Also the 32 from York Mills runs in the morning but not in the afternoon.

It would be useful to have this service instead of having to transfer to Blue at Richmond Hill
 
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This statement about "delivered with value in mind" also stood out to me since it reeks of "value-engineering", which despite its name is usually just cost cutting at the expense of the benefits that the project originally promised when its funding was approved. For example, they could scale back infrastructure improvements such that all they can run is local service every 15 minutes all day (technically meeting the bare minimum promise of GO Expansion), and conveniently forget about the previous plan of having all-day express trains and service far more frequent than every 15 minutes. Which would be a shame because the GO Expansion program was approved on the basis that it would produce game-changing improvements in speed and frequency (around which the Province planned its future land use development patterns), not just marginal improvements.

An optimistic interpretation could be that they're just talking about the contract structure, but Metrolinx's track record doesn't give us much reason to be optimistic.

1732284661790-png.614039

Great to see that filling the gap in double-tracking between Rutherford and Maple (inclusive) is "the next stage of work". As noted, that change could bring some modest service improvements off-peak by enabling the trains headed all the way to Barrie every 3 hours to run express in addition to the hourly local service to Aurora. Currently the Barrie services are extensions of certain hourly local trips, which necessitates time-consuming deadhead moves between King City and Aurora.

The wording of "unlocking more frequent service" indicates that Metrolinx is conveniently forgetting its promise to the Davenport community not to increase the number of diesel trains through the neighbourhood. Electrification on Barrie doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon, as noted in the later paragraphs the first electrified line will be Lakeshore.
 
Dundas Street Rail Bridge

Upcoming Road Closure
Dundas will be closed below the rail bridge between West and Logan for Ontario Line work beginning Friday, December 13th at 8 p.m. until 6 a.m. on Monday, December 16th.

Work will take place 24 hours during this time.

Traffic details:
  • No pedestrians or vehicles will have access under the Dundas St Bridge
  • Local traffic will be maintained on Dundas St E between Broadview to Logan
  • Traffic will be diverted both ways through Broadview, Queen St E, Logan and Carlaw
  • Cyclists will be diverted both ways through Boulton, Degrassi, First, Gerrard and Logan
What to expect:
  • 24 hour work is expected, but more disruptive work has been scheduled for the daytime to minimize overnight disruption
  • Construction and traffic control signage will be on site to advise
  • Toronto Police and Traffic Control staff will be on site 24/7 to assist
  • Noise, dust, and vibration control measures will be in place during this work
This closure was initially scheduled to take place from Friday, November 29th to Monday, December 2nd but was rescheduled by Metrolinx

Read Metrolinx's updated construction notice for details.

Queen Street Rail Bridge

Access Road Construction
Metrolinx was scheduled to begin access road construction at the Queen Street East Bridge this week.

Work will be ongoing for approximately four weeks and take place Monday to Friday between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Two new access roads will be built at the Queen Street East bridge to allow for construction equipment and materials to be brought in and out of the rail corridor safely.

The north access road will be built at De Grassi and Queen. The south access road will be built at Strange and Queen. Once the new access roads are constructed, the access roads at McGee and Jimmie Simpson Recreation Centre will be closed.

Construction activities will include excavation, concrete breaking, grading, paving and clearing of vegetation and trees.

Construction noise and vibration can be expected. Read Metrolinx's construction notice for more details.

Logan Avenue Rail Bridge

Upcoming Weekend Road Closures
Work is ongoing to rebuild the Logan Avenue Rail Bridge to accommodate future Ontario Line trains.

Construction activities include concrete pouring, formwork and rebar installation.

Once the new abutments are complete, the new bridge girders will be lifted into place and installed.

This will require Logan to be closed between Dundas and Gerrard over the following two weekends:
  • Friday, December 6th at 9 p.m. until Monday, December 9th at 5 a.m.
  • Friday, December 13th at 9 p.m. until Monday, December 16th at 5 a.m.
Access for local residents will be maintained. View this Metrolinx closure map for more details. Check back regularly as these dates are subject to change.

Work will take place on a 24-hour basis during the closure. Mitigation measures will be in place.

Metrolinx expects reconstruction work on the Logan Avenue Rail Bridge to continue for approximately another three months.

Rail Corridor Construction

Tree Removals on North/West Side of the Rail Corridor
As early as Monday November 11th, Metrolinx will be begin removing trees, within the rail corridor only, on the north/west side of the rail corridor between Carlaw and Eastern.

Metrolinx applied for but has not received permission to remove city trees in this area. More details on replanting, mitigation of future construction work and other issues are required before permits are granted.

The city will not be able to fully turn down these requests due to the Building Transit Faster Act, which would allow the province to force the city to issue permits.

Upcoming Overnight Rail Corridor Work: Nov 23rd to Dec 7th
Metrolinx is conducting overnight Ontario Line construction in the rail corridor that can't be conducted during the day safely when trains are operating.

This phase of overnight rail corridor work will begin on Saturday, November 23rd. This work includes retaining wall construction (see below), track work and more along the rail corridor.

Overnight rail corridor work hours are Monday to Sunday from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.

This phase is expected to finish by Saturday, December 7th. Additional phases of overnight work will follow.

Read Metrolinx's updated construction notice for more details.

These dates may change. Check back regularly for the most up-to-date information. Visit my website for details on additional Ontario Line work happening in Ward 14.
 
reaperexpress said:
This statement about "delivered with value in mind" also stood out to me since it reeks of "value-engineering", which despite its name is usually just cost cutting at the expense of the benefits that the project originally promised when its funding was approved. For example, they could scale back infrastructure improvements such that all they can run is local service every 15 minutes all day (technically meeting the bare minimum promise of GO Expansion), and conveniently forget about the previous plan of having all-day express trains and service far more frequent than every 15 minutes. Which would be a shame because the GO Expansion program was approved on the basis that it would produce game-changing improvements in speed and frequency (around which the Province planned its future land use development patterns), not just marginal improvements.
Click to expand...
No doubt MX is heading down the "value-engineering" path. The reversal on the Scarborough junction improvements, constructing at grade crossings instead of following through with the grade separation projects on the Stouffville line, and the recent purchase of second hand, F59's from Metrolink is a clear sign that MX has been directed to deliver higher frequent trains at the lowest costs possible. Hence why I don't believe electrification will happen as soon as everyone hopes. Similar to level boarding, they'll probably future proof every station for eventual electrification, but not have any set dates for when they'll actually follow through with it. They probably got the quote to electrify a single line and didn't like what they saw. I'm sure MX and the Ontario government doesn't want to subject riders to anymore construction in order to electrify a line, and just want to get the Stouffville, and Barrie lines double tracking completed and operating.
 
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What's a locomotive lifespan? 30+ years?

Surely there's enough diesels already around for operations 15 years from now, given the amount of electrification they are talking about. I can see a lot of reasons to buy used engines. What's the downside, other than being Tier 2.
 
T3G said:
I don't view buying back the F59s as value engineering. That's just good sense in my book. Why pay full price for a new loco when you can buy a much cheaper one and refurbish it and still attain your planned end goal?
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I agree that the purchase itself isn't value engineering, but it could be a symptom of value engineering on the electrification plans. It's definitely related to delays in actually getting a service electrified, and might possibly be related to a reduction in the planned extent of electrification within the forseeable future.

nfitz said:
What's a locomotive lifespan? 30+ years?

Surely there's enough diesels already around for operations 15 years from now, given the amount of electrification they are talking about. I can see a lot of reasons to buy used engines. What's the downside, other than being Tier 2.
Click to expand...
It depends whether they've cut back the scope of electrification over the next 15 years. The original plan was to eventually electrify 260 km of Metrolinx-owned track (almost all of it), and we know that the Kitchener-Georgetown segment has been put on indefinite hold due to NIMBYs in Guelph. It's possible more has also been put on hold or delayed such that those diesel locos would still be needed for another 15+ years. Of course the more optimistic view would be that they're figuring they can sell them to another railway when electrification comes on line. (Maybe trade Exo for their ALP-45 dual mode electric locos?)
 
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