GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

[ShonTron]

QEW and Fifty Road? That station should be called Winona and would serve more Grimsby residents than City of Hamilton residents.

At least it will bring rapid transit to Stoney Creek Furniture! (thereby reinforcing my thesis that having large, well-known furniture stores is the key to getting heavy-rail transit, like IKEA North York, IKEA Vaughan; Mississauga shall rue the day they lost the Dundas IKEA).

Centennial Parkway and/or Fruitland Road would be more suited to stations, IMO. After that, the next logical stop is central Grimsby.

 

[Rainforest]

The biggest issue is none of those things but rather grade separation with the east west CN, as already done on the Stouffville and Bradford lines. Some passing tracks might suffice to enhance service in areas where double-width bridges and alignment already exist, like around Old Cummer but the geography north of Eglinton is challenging and tunnelling likely to be prohibitive in actual cost and without electrification unlikely to be legal. There are also some single track bridges that would be tough to twin economically.

But if the line remains partly single-tracked, can it be practical to run bi-directional service on 10 min or 15 min headways?

I suspect that uni-directional service on such short headways is impossible, simply because there will be no space at Union to store all those trains that came from the north but had no track to go back.

If the service frequency is limited to 30 min or so, it will still be useful for some commuters, but have no noticeable effect on the Yonge subway load.

 

[Kiwi]

GO Transit service to QEW and Fifty Road will be the furthest GO Transit will go until GO Trains extend to Niagara Falls.

GO Bus now stops at Nash/Barton but it's likely they go to Eastgate Square until a new station is built at Centennial Parkway and QEW.

So it's likely they'll be three new GO Stations in Hamilton, James St North, Centennial Parkway/QEW and Fifty Road/QEW.

 

[catcher_of_cats]

If GO uses its model of station spacing on the Lakeshore Line, stations every 6km, then it is possible to get a Fruitland Station as well, since it is 5km from Centennial and 5km from Fifty. The current Grimsby VIA Station is 7km from a potential Fifty Road Station.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

Even though it'd surely see rather sparse ridership, I'd find a station with decent service at QEW & Fifty very useful......but a Grimsby stop would be much better.

 

[khris]

QEW and Fifty Road? That station should be called Winona and would serve more Grimsby residents than City of Hamilton residents.

At least it will bring rapid transit to Stoney Creek Furniture! (thereby reinforcing my thesis that having large, well-known furniture stores is the key to getting heavy-rail transit, like IKEA North York, IKEA Vaughan; Mississauga shall rue the day they lost the Dundas IKEA).

Centennial Parkway and/or Fruitland Road would be more suited to stations, IMO. After that, the next logical stop is central Grimsby.

Mississauga had an IKEA? When?

 

[Kiwi]

"Council also agreed to convert two existing industrial sites -- the former Waxman scrap yard on Centennial Parkway and a plot at Fifty Road and the QEW -- to commercial."

 

[adma]

Mississauga had an IKEA? When?

Was it sometime in the 80s, in the Dundas/Dixie zone? Though that was back when Ikea was still a more or less Brick-scaled operation; with the c1990 opening of the Sheppard/Leslie outlet, the megabox era began (and I think it was then or so that the Mississauga outlet closed)

 

[TOareaFan]

I just discovered this thread and have enjoyed the read.

Growing up in Brampton and starting my career in the financial services sector downtown 25 years ago, I used to be a very vocal advocate of improved service on the Georgetown line. Somewhere in a box in my dusty basement I have files and files of old correspondence between myself and GO that could best be described as excuses for why the service is/was so limited.

I was thinking about one recently (when the Barrie service was introduced) between myself and the GM of GO.....I had suggested something along the lines that if the track improvements were too expensive to expand, both, the Georgetown and Milton lines that perhaps the cash could just be spent on the Milton line, create all day two way service on that line but have every other off peak train go north to Brampton instead of West to Milton (the lines split just north of Britania)....irrespective of how viable or naive the idea was, it was his response that stuck in my mind......it was his position that this constituted a "new service" and that GO would never introduce new services until all of their existing lines had full service.....so the Barrie service brought back memories of that letter.

Anyway, about 10 years ago I totally abandoned GO and decided that consecutive governments had sent me a pretty clear message.....that is, no matter how big the population base got on the NW corridor, they would really prefer if I drove to work! So I did/do. Shame, really, because I quite enjoy the train.

Interesting to see so many people with so many good ideas advocating improved service on a variety of different lines.

As for the Georgetown line (which I very ocassionally still do use), the frustration is twofold.....improvements would serve me better (so 1fold is that selfish/self-serving kind) but I also think it is the line with the greatest potential (ie. I don't think expansion should just be based on how many people currently use the line but how many new riders it could generate).

Anyone who has crawled on the 410 or 427 in rush hour can easily conclude that a fairly significant portion of Brampton's >450k population are heading to work in Toronto......those are potential riders!

There are also a couple of spots along the line that could probably support a station (Black Creek and Eglinton comes to mind as does the Woodbine Station mentioned earlier) which could add riders.

One of the reasons, I believe, that the ridership numbers on the Milton line are so much higher than the Georgetown line is that the supporting "off peak" service is so much superior on the Milton line. The train buses from Union serve that line so much better it is not even funny. This winter I took my daughter to a concert at the ACC. I drove her and her friend down and I just hung out downtown during the show. During the show a major blizzard rolled in so I thought I might just take them home on the GO Bus and take the train to work the next day. When I checked the departure board at Union I was stunned to find out that 6 of the next 10 departures (covering roughly a 90 minute period) were headed to Milton......0 out of those 10 departures where headed to Brampton. Until there is full train service (like the Lakeshore line has) GO has to at least provide solid off-peak service or people will not rely on the service.

One of the great frustrations of living in the GTA is hearing GO ads telling me to "take the train" to certain events (the EX, the car race, etc) and realizing that those ads were really only aimed at the massive populations of Oakville and Pickering. If I ever wanted to go the Molson Indy (which I never did) I would still have to drive or, worse still, sit in a bus stuck in the same traffic that I was trying to avoid only to find out that the bus would go right past the event I was headed to!!! For that reason, I have always thought a stop/station at King & Atlantic in Liberty Village would make a lot of sense. Not only is this a growing employment area, it really has become an extension of the Exhibition grounds. A Liberty Village/Exhibition North station would allow people on, both, the Milton and Georgetown lines to attend events at the EX or Ontario Place and leave the cars at home. Anyone who has attended a TFC match can assure you that there are lots of people in this city who have figured out quite nicely that the Exhibition GO station provides a ready access point connecting the EX to Liberty Village.

So, I ask, have any/some/all of these stations been discussed or planned? I see from reading here that the off peak Brampton to Union bus service is being improved (on weekends anyway).

 

[unimaginative2]

Correct. REX or Express Rail is the current working name for a concept that will see GO Train service operate every 10 to 15 minutes or better, with stations every 4-5 KM apart. There is also the possibility of having these trains branch off the main line to serve major nearby destinations such as Square One.

I'm thrilled with the REX concept, but this is one plan I'd like to see amended. There's absolutely no reason to serve Square One with a branch. It would make much more sense to re-route the main line up there. Square One/MCC is by far the biggest destination and trip generator in all of Peel, and it would make no sense for it to receive only a fraction of the service on the corridor. The Milton line has enormous potential, and it would make no sense to split a 15 minute service into two much less useful 30-minute frequency services with one bound for Square One and the other to points west. A diverted route would allow the line to be used as a kind of rapid transit route within Mississauga. For example, people could conveniently ride from their homes in Milton or Erin Mills to jobs at MCC. The diversion would only require two minor station relocations at Cooksville (perhaps to Hurontario and Burnhamthorpe) and Erindale.

The western extension to rejoin the existing route would be very easy to build, as there's an established transit corridor along the 403.

 

[RedRocket191]

Under most REX plans I've seen we're looking at service every 10 minutes to Square One. Cooksville to Milton would be served by commuter rail, which is trains every 30 minutes or better on this corridor. I guess the plan was to use the BRT corridor to offer a fast connection to Streetsville and Meadowvale in the interim.

As a second phase we should advocate for what you're calling for, either word for word or by upgrading Cooksville to Milton + moving Erindale + 407 corridor becomes REX too (resulting in a triangle of REX in Mississauga).

We don't necessarily have to move Cooksville. We could build a REX station underground around Fairview to cover this area.

 

[Kiwi]

GO Transit Unveils Bike Racks for GO Buses

Date: Thursday, June 26, 2008
Time: 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Location: Hamilton GO Station, 36 Hunter St. E., Hamilton (between King William and James)

MPP Sophia Aggelonitis will attend and speak at a media conference at the Hamilton GO Centre in Hamilton. The event will involve a photo op showing the new bike racks on GO buses.

 

[unimaginative2]

Under most REX plans I've seen we're looking at service every 10 minutes to Square One. Cooksville to Milton would be served by commuter rail, which is trains every 30 minutes or better on this corridor. I guess the plan was to use the BRT corridor to offer a fast connection to Streetsville and Meadowvale in the interim.

As a second phase we should advocate for what you're calling for, either word for word or by upgrading Cooksville to Milton + moving Erindale + 407 corridor becomes REX too (resulting in a triangle of REX in Mississauga).

We don't necessarily have to move Cooksville. We could build a REX station underground around Fairview to cover this area.

All this makes sense, but why wait for some possible future phase decades down the line, all the while building superfluous parallel routes? It just makes total sense to just divert the line through Square One in the first place, provide urban services to areas west of Hurontario right away, and facilitate trips to and from Square One from other parts of Mississauga.

There's no real point in building a complex underground station where Cooksville is located now. A station around Hurontario and Elm/Burnhamrthorpe would directly serve a much-more-intensively developed area, and the existing Cooksville station site would be barely two stops away on a Hurontario LRT. With greater speeds provided by electrification, you could even add another stop around Dundas and Cawthra to provide even more coverage.

 

[interchange42]

Transmitted by CNW Group on : June 25, 2008 14:00

GO Transit will use new streamlined environmental assessment process to study upcoming projects


TORONTO, June 25, 2008 /CNW/ - GO Transit is pleased that the Ontario
government has approved a revised, streamlined six-month environmental
assessment (EA) process for transit projects in the Greater Toronto Area. GO
plans to submit several upcoming improvement projects for study under the new
process.
"We recognize the important role GO plays in preserving our environment,"
said GO Transit Chairman Peter Smith. "The Ontario government wants GO to
expand, and this streamlined EA process is a strong signal that they are
cutting out red tape to make it happen."
The first project GO will submit under the revised EA process is the
proposed expansion of rail service on the Milton line. The study will explore
introducing all-day, two-way GO Train service to meet demand.
GO will also submit its proposed Lakeshore East train service extension
to Bowmanville for assessment under the new process. GO Trains currently run
as far east as Oshawa, with GO Buses offering connections east to Bowmanville.
With the six-month EA process for transit projects, GO will be able to
more promptly improve and expand transit options for commuters across the GTA
and Hamilton.
"We would like to express our thanks to Environment Minister John
Gerretsen and to Transportation Minister Jim Bradley for making this happen.
GO Transit is always looking for ways to improve service for our customers,
and this shorter EA process will really help," said Smith.

GO Transit is the Province of Ontario's interregional public transit
system linking Toronto with the surrounding regions of the Greater Toronto
Area (GTA). GO carries more than 50 million passengers a year in an extensive
network of train and bus services that spans over 8,000 square kilometres.

 

[bar1967]

on the same topic

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/449305

Shortened assessments will speed Milton GO line
TheStar.com - GTA - Shortened assessments will speed Milton GO line

June 25, 2008
Tess Kalinowski
Staff reporter

The province's new expedited, six-month environmental assessment process means commuters on GO Transit's Milton line should have all-day, two-way service in about three years — an improvement that would have sped Ontario Transportation Minister Jim Bradley's progress today.

Bradley was held up in traffic on Highway 401 on his way to the Streetsville GO station in Mississauga, where he was touting the new environmental assessment rules to the media.

The delay of about 20 minutes meant Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion had to make her brief trackside remarks and exit just as the minister was arriving.

"It's time we shortened the (environmental assessment) procedure, cut out the red tape and get on with it," McCallion told reporters and the GO and government officials.

Extending the Lakeshore GO line east from Oshawa to Bowmanville is also expected to take about three years.

The new environmental assessment process means, "We can predict when we will be through to the end. You can't predict the results but you can predict it's going to run its course," said GO Transit Board Chair Peter Smith.

"Prior to this it could take many years for these projects to begin," said Bradley.

The six-month process includes 120 days for public consultation on positive or negative environmental impacts, a 30-day comment period and 35 days for the provincial environment minister to consider public requests for review of the project.