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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

MisterF said:
Because it increases the GO system as a whole in the consciousness of people in the GTA. The more improvements happen GTA-wide, the more improvements will be demanded. By the same token, cancelling transit upgrades will only reduce awareness of transit in people's minds and make other projects that much less likely. Resources are limited, sure, but there's no fixed amount of money for transit. What we invest goes up and down based on who's in charge and what the people vote for. It's the same way that Transit City, despite doing nothing for downtown, has resulted in the DRL getting back on the political radar.
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I don't think anyone was advocating "cancelling" anything (that is not what I read)...people were suggesting that in prioritizing how today's/tomorrow's limited resources are spent that large suburban municipalities (Markham and Brampton were suggested) should be higher up in the priority list for full service given their size/proximity to Toronto as compared to large, but more distant, cities like Hamilton and K-W.
 
TOareaFan said:
I don't think anyone was advocating "cancelling" anything (that is not what I read)...people were suggesting that in prioritizing how today's/tomorrow's limited resources are spent that large suburban municipalities (Markham and Brampton were suggested) should be higher up in the priority list for full service given their size/proximity to Toronto as compared to large, but more distant, cities like Hamilton and K-W.
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Yes, exactly. Brampton and Markham have over 800,000 people and residents pay plenty of taxes. It's not unreasonable to demand better service before adding extra runs to Hamilton or trains every half-hour to Oshawa. I will buy into the "increases GO system as a whole in the consciousness of people in the GTA" argument to a small extent, but overall transit expansion is very much a zero sum game in the GTA.
 
canarob said:
Yes, exactly. Brampton and Markham have over 800,000 people and residents pay plenty of taxes. It's not unreasonable to demand better service before adding extra runs to Hamilton or trains every half-hour to Oshawa. I will buy into the "increases GO system as a whole in the consciousness of people in the GTA" argument to a small extent, but overall transit expansion is very much a zero sum game in the GTA.
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And it should also not be minimized that Hamilton has the best GO bus service in the entire network. Express buses to/from Union every 20 minutes for most of every day, 7 days a week, the 407 service, and the bus connections to Aldershot and Burlington Station (and east to Niagara). Sure the bus connection has the dreaded "forced transfer" (OH NOES!) but for how many people does it mean they don't need to take the HSR down to the station, and that they can just show up at a local GO stop 5 minutes walk away, anytime of day, and within 10 minutes wait on average get on an express bus to Toronto that is far faster than any GO train anywhere. There are hundreds of thousands in the GTA that would love that level of service but have nothing close to it. Hamilton is not relatively underserved.
 
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canarob said:
Yes, exactly. Brampton and Markham have over 800,000 people and residents pay plenty of taxes. It's not unreasonable to demand better service before adding extra runs to Hamilton or trains every half-hour to Oshawa. I will buy into the "increases GO system as a whole in the consciousness of people in the GTA" argument to a small extent, but overall transit expansion is very much a zero sum game in the GTA.
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No, it's not a zero sum game at all. 10 years ago there was virtually nothing being invested in rapid transit in the GTA. Now there are billions of dollars being spent. And it looks to be self-reinforcing - something like One City would have been inconceivable a decade ago, but now a similar funding scheme would get a lot of support. When people get a taste of progress they want more. Nobody's saying "all the transit money has been spent, might as well stop fighting for a DRL". It's just the opposite - expansion in the rest of the city has made the DRL more likely than ever. And upgrades to the GO system have made places like Markham and Kitchener more vocal about getting improvements to their lines.

Anyway, I'm not disagreeing that there should be a coordinated program to improve the lines. But some lines are easier to upgrade than others, so the most useful corridors don't always get to the front of the line.

Hamilton is not relatively underserved.
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Well, that depends: relative to what? Realistically, the entire GTA is relatively underserved.
 
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I'd agree the focus should be on improving service on those areas that are closest to GO's focus area (ie. downtown) as they stand the most to gain from transit improvements. Rather than focusing instead on continuously extending out the service area.

Both are valid goals, but when we sit down to prioritize them I'd go with that.
 
OPEN ADVERTISEMENT - GEXR CTC AND CROSSING UPGRADE PROJECT

Companies interested in bidding on the proposed project must contact Kristine Storm, AVP Purchasing in writing at kristine.storm@railamerica.com no later than Tuesday the 9th of July, 2012 to be prequalified in order to obtain the instructions on how to acquire the Tender Documents electronically.


1.0 OVERVIEW
1.1 Object
You are invited to submit a Tender for work that will include the supply of all labor, material, equipment and superintendence to undertake the following projects on the Goderich-Exeter Railway Company Ltd’s Guelph Subdivision in the Province of Ontario:
1.1.1 CTC: Design, Supply, Install, Test and Commission of a Centralized Traffic Control (CTC) system consisting of 5 sidings, two interface points with CN, one interface point with CP’s Bucke Diamond, intermediate signals and CTC repeaters on the GEXR Guelph Subdivision between Mile 30.00 and Mile 119.12.
1.1.2 CROSSING UPGRADES: Design, Supply, Install or Modify/Upgrade, test and commission Automatic Warning Device systems.
The extent of the required Work, the details, and the conditions under which the Work shall be performed, are outlined in the Section 2 entitled Scope of Work & Special Provisions and Section 3 entitled Signal Technical Specifications contained in these Tender documents.
1.2 Completion of the work
Work shall be completed by Friday, May 2, 2014 and as such, tender prices and schedules shall be prepared guided by this date, working back to a proposed start date in order to attain this completion target.
1.3 Closing Date
Tenders must be received no later than 1400 hrs (2:00 p.m. - Eastern Standard Time) on Monday, August 20, 2012.
1.3 Mandatory Requirements
- Bid Bonds
- Consent of Surety for Performance Bond and Labour & material Payment Bond
- Undertaking for Insurance
 
royalrivers said:
1.1.1 CTC: Design, Supply, Install, Test and Commission of a Centralized Traffic Control (CTC) system consisting of 5 sidings, two interface points with CN, one interface point with CP’s Bucke Diamond, intermediate signals and CTC repeaters on the GEXR Guelph Subdivision between Mile 30.00 and Mile 119.12.
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This would impact Via more than GO wouldn't it? According to NiagaraRails this runs basically from Acton to London via Guelph and Kitchener.

Either way, it's good news.
 
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rbt said:
This would impact Via more than GO wouldn't it? According to NiagaraRails this runs basically from Acton to London.

Either way, it's good news.
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Both GO and VIA are down to the same number of trains per day on this route soon enough. The Guelph sub goes from the west side of Georgetown (just past the station) through London.

I was under the impression that this would never happen, but it's good to see progress. Would be made even better by track upgrades, but that's another thing. Start small.
 
It depends how VIA operational funding goes, as to whether it affects VIA or GO more. The VIA website says this project is to allow three extra round trips per day, but after cutting one of the three current trips it's not looking likely that they'll be adding more anytime soon.

The track upgrade is from Silver Junction in Georgetown (where the CN mainline from Burlington Meets the Guelph subdivision) to London.

Either way, this is definitely good news. The ride from Guelph (and beyond) to Georgetown is terrible on the non-ctc track, hopefully with this and some upgraded passing sidings they can cut the trip time down a bunch.
 
The two CN interfaces are at Silver (just west of Georgetown) and at London. The CP diamond is also in London. So my guess is that this is for the entire corridor, unless CN is doing the work on the eastern most section to optimize the handling with the CTC Halton Sub.
 
RandomBusGuy said:
The ride from Guelph (and beyond) to Georgetown is terrible on the non-ctc track, hopefully with this and some upgraded passing sidings they can cut the trip time down a bunch.
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The trip between London and Georgetown is terrible. It shouldn't take 30 minutes to go from KW to Guelph.
 
timio said:
I was under the impression that this would never happen, but it's good to see progress. Would be made even better by track upgrades, but that's another thing. Start small.
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VIA rail(i.e. the Feds) and GO/metrolinx have an agreement in place in regards to improvements on this subdivision. VIA will be taking care of and paying for the upgrade to CTC in the same light as they've recently done so for the Alexandria, Brockville & sections of the Chatham subdivisions (meanwhile GO has done the same for their own Uxbridge & Newmarket subdivisions).
While GO will be taking care of the track improvements (presumably only for the sections they operate on).

Once completed all tracks which carry high speed passenger service in Ontario will be signalized, a meaningful step forward for rail service in this province.
 
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