News   Dec 05, 2025
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GO Transit Electrification | Metrolinx

Encouraging that there are signs that after enough de-scoping, MX may actually be able to break out of their analysis paralysis.

Reece suggests raising the tracks at Pearson to enable the BEMUs to replace UP Express. Why not raise the platforms? Isn't that what MX has been protecting for?
 
Well thank God! The use of battery trains are going to save GO a fortune in electrification costs and years of construction time. It's good to now that ML finally decided to listen to me.

How they also plan to implement the battery train recharging system is also superior. It is always better to have 10km here and 10km there of catenary than having every station have a overhead recharge. As frequency increases and they eventually move over , at least for the RER portion, to BEMU and more level boarding, the less time the trains will dwell at each station. By the time the train stops and lifts it's catenary to recharge, the train is already set to move on. There is actually little time for the train to recharge at each station in a meaningful way. Conversely, having, for example, a 10km catenary system on the Lakeshore East and then Lakeshore West means it cannot only recharge during that time but is also not draining the battery for that total 20km. Ideally there should only be one recharging station on each line and that is at terminus stations.
 
Reece suggests raising the tracks at Pearson to enable the BEMUs to replace UP Express. Why not raise the platforms? Isn't that what MX has been protecting for?
The platforms for the UPX are all 48" above the top of rail - also known as high-level platforms. GO platforms are considerably lower, only about 5" to 10" above the top of rail.

They are too high for BiLevels, but are the right height to have level boarding for most other rolling stock used in North America.

Dan
 
Reece suggests raising the tracks at Pearson to enable the BEMUs to replace UP Express. Why not raise the platforms? Isn't that what MX has been protecting for?
They should be more worried about the platform length than the platform height.

Though surely it's moot with the whole thing slated for redevelopment - they can build what they want when the Skywalk get's knocked down.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong but when the elevated portions of the UPX went up, didn't they install the place for the catenary to be easily put up? If that is so then a BEMU would be very easy to start up as it could recharge during the elevated section and at Pearson. This would negate having to put up a separate recharging at Union and greatly reduce the amount of charging time needed at Pearson which would allow higher frequencies.
 
So @ssiguy2 might be happy.

Reece Martin suggests that the USRC might not be electrified. Saving money from the train shed but also some bridges in the core. Battery trains.

This is his analysis of the recent Metrolinx board documents on Go Expansion.

It's worth noting that there's a big difference between including a small battery on an EMU to cover short unelectrified stretches like the USRC and yards, and using batteries to avoid electrifying railways.

EMU with small battery
- Only slightly heavier than normal EMU, with similar acceleration and similar energy consumption
- Only slightly more expensive to buy
- Mostly powered directly under wires (very efficient) or via slow charging under wires (somewhat efficient)

EMU that's mostly battery powered
- Very heavy, accelerates slowly, requires a lot of energy to accelerate
- Very expensive to buy
- Mostly powered by fast charging (very inefficient) or overnight slow charging (somewhat efficient)

In my opinion, including a small battery for short-distance off-wire movement makes a lot of sense, since it allows major cost savings by eliminating the need to fully electrify complex trackwork such as in yards and in the USRC, while still maintaining the performance of a normal EMU. Even some existing "EMU"s such as the British Rail Class 801 have small diesel generators to let them move around off-wire. Nowadays with our lighter and more affordable batteries that function could be just as easily provided by a small battery pack.
 
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