GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

[ARG1]

The sections of the ION phase 1 that are on the right side of the road, were a bad choice. You have to go super slow to not be a danger to pedestrians, bikes, people driving out of driveways etc.

Thats something you do with a streetcar, not an LRT.

Honestly even the median sections ran at like 45km/h at most. To say it wasn't impressive is being generous.

 

[Wm Perkins Bull]

Waterloo Region has an obsession with roads changing names at intersections and it's definitely something that people who move here find to be extremely strange. A lot of it has to do with how the cities grew into each other and how the subdivisions were made so in this particular case Eagle St "ends" at Hespeler Rd and Pinebush Rd "starts" even though they're really the same road, one issue with calling the station Eagle would be people wouldn't necessarily know which end of Eagle St, is it the Preston end or the Hespeler end? This is why the stations are called Preston and then Pinebush. A similar issue arose with phase 1 when they were originally coming up with names as King was an idea that was floated but because of the line running along King it's arbitrary so they got rid of it. It's also why there is no Hespeler station since the LRT runs on Hespeler from Pinebush to the Delta.

The Delta is another strange example of this naming issue as you have Hespeler Rd turning into Water St and you also have Coronation Blvd turning into Dundas St all at the same intersection. However this is certainly not a problem solely in Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo both have some relatively major roads changing names constantly for example in Kitchener Lackner Blvd turns into Bingemans Center Dr which turns into Shirley Ave, which then turns into Wellington St, and then at both ends turn into local roads (Walter St, Glasgow St, Lackner Cres, and Idle Creek Dr), you also have Queen St turning into Queens Blvd, Park St turning into Jubilee Dr turning into Courtland Ave turning into Fairway Rd which eventually turns into Kossuth Rd. In Waterloo you have Columbia turning into Lexington, you also have Erbsville Rd turning into Ira Needles Blvd.

There's also a couple dozen other examples of this happening in KWC as well but on your smaller suburban local roads, for example Westforest Trail turns into Eastforest Trail which turns into Westheights Dr which then turns back into Westforest Trail. Commonwealth St turns into Abram Clemens Way, Donnenworth Dr turning into Amand Dr, and the list goes on.

Coronation Boulevard was named such in 1937 to celebrate the Coronation of His Majesty King George VI. It was chosen because in 1937 it was the first dual carriage highway in Ontario.

Honestly even the median sections ran at like 45km/h at most. To say it wasn't impressive is being generous.

Canada, delivering 19th century streetcar speeds in newly built streetcars in the 21st century, how depressing. If only Ontario had a man in charge of transportation with as much love for railways as Thomas McQuesten did for Highways.

 

[Bojaxs]

Or do both. Heck, running GO trains on the York Sub at the top of the city may eventually be a good thing too,

CN will never open it up to passenger trains. It goes right by their two busiest yards.

But damn! That would be a hell of Toronto bypass. Hamilton - Pickering, via North York.

 

[Willybru21]

There was a proposal all the way back in 1972 that suggested service on that CN line:

 

[micheal_can]

CN will never open it up to passenger trains. It goes right by their two busiest yards.

But damn! That would be a hell of Toronto bypass. Hamilton - Pickering, via North York.

There have been enough rail infrastructure changes with the GTA that while it may seem unrealistic, if it was ever something seen as a need, they would do something. I never thought I'd see a day where no freight ran by Union, but here we are.

 

[Bojaxs]

There was a proposal all the way back in 1972 that suggested service on that CN line:View attachment 543950

I was including the Halton sub between Aldershot and Georgetown.

Is there room for GO to construct parallel running track on the Halton sub between Aldershot and Georgetown? Quick access to the Kitchener line for people travelling from Niagara/Hamilton. Georgetown would probably become a bit of a hub.

 

[dowlingm]

There was a proposal all the way back in 1972 that suggested service on that CN line:

very different freight landscape in Toronto now. The York sub took the freight so the Lakeshore could be saturated with passenger service, and the downtown yards turned to condos and attractions.

 

[crs1026]

(polite request that posters read up so that we don't recycle through all the past discussion about the Bypass, which has been richly debated on UT over the past half dozen years)

- Paul

 

[Krypto98]

CN will never open it up to passenger trains. It goes right by their two busiest yards.

But damn! That would be a hell of Toronto bypass. Hamilton - Pickering, via North York.

Possibly 3 in the future with the Milton logistics hub. In short not happening .

 

[Metroscapes]

It's a worthy question, I emailed them to ask.

The response was 'we can't confirm if there's extra trains, but don't worry, we're always monitoring stuff and we've filed your suggestion in your system.'

K. Good luck I guess.

 

[Sunnyside]

There's a guy posting on the GO Transit Reddit who seems to have a good grasp of the working culture at Metrolinx. A disgruntled, former employee? He doesn't believe that the Milton line expansion will happen. Apparently MX doesn't want to play ball with CP over track rights.

View attachment 539847

Well it sounds like they knowingly could help fund the third track, if only to have that single track for GO. It sounds like that wouldn’t be an ownership over that single track though, and it seems GO is interested in dedicated track only. I imagine this is sorta what CP wants, sans such a generous operating guarantee. Of course, at that point the third track isn’t really useful for CP, except maybe for passing? This is where I’m not familiar enough with the corridor to say.

Now, if CP owns that adjacent land (this is what I don’t know), then they do have the upper hand- they can just sit on their ass, because they have no obligation to do otherwise. It’d be burning money.

I get the impression CP treats any direction from Metrolinx that doesn’t enrich them or diminishes their authority over the corridor as a threat to its operations there. Sounds like they want a means to expand for themselves if they choose, something a parallel Milton corridor threatens.

In any case, the agreement between CP and GO is going to be very interesting. I would not be surprised if some of that money is in there for CP just to appease them- dedicated infrastructure for GO, certainly, but perhaps new track for CP too. Would explain the $6 Billion tag.

 

[dowlingm]

I mean, CP probably see giving/selling ROW away for transit the way posters on here view giving rail away for trails

 

[SaugeenJunction]

Seeing this rumour on Twitter. The poster has a decent track record.

This would hopefully mean that 1) the rumoured big April service bump is happening 2) hopefully Kitchener Line (at least Bramalea-Union) service increases offset service losses at local stops 3) Mount Dennis station is opening before the crosstown.

 

[Willybru21]

While two service branches on the UP Express lines up with what’s planned in the far future, I’d still be wary of trusting a Twitter post; I think we should wait for an official announcement to see what the full plan is before jumping to any conclusions.

 

[Northern Light]

My traditional sources for Mx have been quiet as of late.

Perhaps @smallspy may have some insight on the above (April service plans for GO/UPX)