GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

[LNahid2000]

Remember when GO ran buses from Brampton every three hours, making all stops to Malton? That was fun.

GO's excuse was to tell you to pay the subway fare, ride the subway for 30 minutes to Yorkdale or York Mills, and take a slow milk run instead. A more expensive, much slower ride.

I remember in 2008 I was once asked to work on a Sunday, and I told them I couldn't come in because the first GO bus on Sunday wouldn't get me downtown until after 11am, and I'd have to wait up to 3 hours to catch a bus home.

 

[TOareaFan]

No idea where this should go, but a major announcement is to take place somewhere in Brampton on Monday for X.

Know nothing on this at all as well what its for other than been told of an Brampton Event. Your guess is good as mine, but I do know California BYD is going to have their all Electric 60' articulated bus there, as it was at Mississauga City Hall today.

Here is what was announced.

http://globalnews.ca/news/2660112/premier-wynne-to-make-transit-announcement-in-brampton/

As near as I can tell, the province is gonna funnel money to Canadian Urban Transit Research and Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC) to further develop electric buses....and Brampton is gonna test run them (presumably for free).

 

[ShonTron]

I'll write a report for $500. I'll tell them about an electric bus technology that has been around for nearly 100 years:

(Image from Transit Toronto)

 

[Megaton327]

I'll write a report for $500. I'll tell them about an electric bus technology that has been around for nearly 100 years:

(Image from Transit Toronto)

That's different--we're not talking about trolley buses, this is about battery-electric self-powered/self-propelled buses with enough power to go a substantial difference. They would recharge using extremely-high-wattage DC fast charging at certain points for a few minutes at a time, e.g. stations/layovers, rather than using trolley poles/wires across the entire city.

 

[muller877]

That's different--we're not talking about trolley buses, this is about battery-electric self-powered/self-propelled buses with enough power to go a substantial difference. They would recharge using extremely-high-wattage DC fast charging at certain points for a few minutes at a time, e.g. stations/layovers, rather than using trolley poles/wires across the entire city.

Instead they are going to research a technology that is being mass-adopted already? BYD has produced about 6,000 electric busses already and won a US bid for 800 buses last year. They have a tech for in-route charging if you want or 8 hour batteries for other routes.

It's almost as bad as Toronto's "research" for LED lights.

For the both of them get over it. Other cities are mass executing on new tech. And there are lots of leasing/financing companies that will pay for the additional cost (they take the lowered opex for a certain number of years).

Busses have about a 8 year pay-back for electric charging. They can last 15-20 years so it's not a hard decision.

 

[dowlingm]

TTC were "leaders" in hybrid buses. Sometimes it's good to let others pioneer.

 

[drum118]

TTC were "leaders" in hybrid buses. Sometimes it's good to let others pioneer.

I though New York City was the leader since they were supposed to have higher numbers of them in the first place??

Look at Mississauga being the leader of the Orion VII and what happen to those first 14 off the line.

Both TTC and NYC have quickly change their tune on the Hybrid buses that they are either being rebuild as diesel, being sold off or scrap. Hybrid buses are still being built for environment reasons, but CNG is starting to take that market back again.

With all electric buses starting to hit the roads in small numbers at this time, the next 10 years will see a different picture that there is no need for Trolley Buses at all. Even streetcar will start to loose their pole and pans as they come up for replacement to the point one system is already converting their existing fleet to batteries that will lead to the removal of the overhead once full conversion is completed.

 

[mdrejhon]

Hmmm.... Wireless LRV/trams/streetcars in the next fleet replacement cycle... 2050s+

That will make PRIMOVE quite Primitive, with regenerative braking and only compact below-ground fast chargers at stations, and cheap Gigafactory battery packs resold to Bombardier/Siemens/etc. No electrical infrastructure above or below the tracks needed, just now an electrical distribution problem to stations, but could be a storage solution to slowly buffer up a fast charge surge to the vehicles. Then substations can be smaller or just feed off the surrounding grid.

One sometimes wonders if there is any way to accelerate avoiding installing overhead wire on the new LRTs.

Then again, lots of issues to solve, we may still end up needing the overhead for a century due to power distribution requirements to keep existing vehicle performance during an overlapped replacement cycle.

 

[TOareaFan]

Watch out for Tuesday April 26. Blue Jays and Raptors are both home that evening. If the Jays are close to a sellout, could be up to 80,000 people hitting the streets around 10-10:30 extra time not withstanding.

I don't think you ever had to worry about that (a Tuesday night in April against the White Sox was never gonna be a sell out) but the NBA insisting on tipping off game 5 at 6 pm means the Raptors' crowd will be heading home long before the 25k (or so) who attend the Jays game will need to head out.

 

[ssiguy2]

Primove has proven itself quite competent and is used extensively in more historic part of a city where the overhead wires create visual pollution. The problem is that they have never been tried on a northern city where ice and snow is a norm.

 

[drum118]

Give another 10-15 years, Primove will be history.

To get this thread back on topic, how long to we think batteries will make an inroad on trains over 150 km/hr to the point overhead can be remove??

How will they be recharge on long runs??

I have been on ICE battery trains and very slow going.

 

[jcam]

So RER will electrify within the City....I imagine that batteries will in the shorter term just be a way of phasing out the diesels...meaning that trains going to the reaches of the system can charge sufficiently while under the catenary that they can travel to the end. Maybe they're hybrid diesel locomotives, with the batteries only providing some of that power outside of the catenary zone.

 

[mdrejhon]

To get this thread back on topic, how long to we think batteries will make an inroad on trains over 150 km/hr to the point overhead can be remove??

150kph is no problem for lipo batteries.
Put enough of them in a locomotive, they definitely can provide the power nowadays.

The problem is capacity. It's not going to survive all the way to the end of the commuter route, without a fairly lengthy charge or very long dwells (because of the massive battery). You'll need very efficient regenerative braking as well as power buffering at the chargers, and fast chargers for whoppingly huge batteries put a very big surge load on the electrical grid -- imagine several times the average power of an electric train, in order to fast-charge one. That's going to be one of the bigger engineering challenges they presumably will work on.

 

[salsa]

Introducing, the new Brantford GO bus.

 

[interchange42]

Let's expand on that with this:

News Release

Ontario Expanding GO Bus Service to Brantford
April 27, 2016

Connection to GO Transit Network Will Boost Economy and Improve Quality of Life
Ontario is expanding GO Transit bus service to Brantford to connect the city to the GO Transit network, giving commuters more transit options and reducing congestion.

Premier Kathleen Wynne was at Brantford Transit today to make the announcement. Beginning this September, Metrolinx will introduce GO bus service between downtown Brantford and Aldershot GO Station in Burlington, stopping at McMaster University along the way. GO buses will run every hour during weekday peak periods and every two hours during weekday off-peak periods and on weekends. In total, there will be 26 trips every weekday and 18 trips on both Saturday and Sunday.

Ontario is making the largest investment in public infrastructure in the province's history -- about $160 billion over 12 years. This is supporting 110,000 jobs every year across the province, with projects such as roads, bridges, transit systems, schools and hospitals. In 2015, the province announced support for more than 325 projects that will keep people and goods moving, connect communities and improve quality of life.

Expanding transit options is part of the government's economic plan to build Ontario up and deliver on its number-one priority to grow the economy and create jobs. The four-part plan includes investing in talent and skills, including helping more people get and create the jobs of the future by expanding access to high-quality college and university education. The plan is making the largest investment in public infrastructure in Ontario's history and investing in a low-carbon economy driven by innovative, high-growth, export-oriented businesses. The plan is also helping working Ontarians achieve a more secure retirement.


QUICK FACTS​

• • Since 2003, Ontario has extended GO’s rail network by nearly 90 kilometres, opened 14 new GO stations, rebuilt four existing stations and added more than 31,000 new parking spots across the system.
  • GO Bus service to Brantford is projected to attract 1,000 weekly passenger trips.
  • The estimated cost to operate the new bus service is about $1.3 million.
  • A recent report by the Broadbent Institute and the Centre for Spatial Economics found that, on average, investing a dollar in public infrastructure in Canada raises GDP by $1.43 in the short term and up to $3.83 in the long term.