smallspy
Senior Member
Everything that is old is new again.
Brantford almost had train service in the late 1980s - GO even built a service design and schedules for it. But ultimately it didn't go through due to funding pressures.
Dan
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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)
- Thread starter drum118
- Start date
Brantford almost had train service in the late 1980s - GO even built a service design and schedules for it. But ultimately it didn't go through due to funding pressures.
Dan
Willybru21
Active Member
Had no idea about this, is there any documents we can read about it?
Fritter
Active Member
I could be mistaken, but I thought the service did exist briefly before the Bob Rae cuts. There was GO service to Barrie, Guelph and Brantford that was cut by the NDP government of the time.
Willybru21
Active Member
Definitely not to Brantford, you might be thinking of Bradford but that was never cut in the first place
Metroscapes
Active Member
I think the GO Transit Rail Services wikipedia article has a pretty complete history of the network.
SaugeenJunction
Senior Member
Brantford GO... kinda not really (VIA was borrowing GO equipment).
toraerach
Active Member
I'd be curious to see how much ridership a station in Dundas would generate—assuming a location large enough for the inevitable parking lot/structure could be found. I also wonder about the tourism potential of weekend service to a Paris station.
Metroscapes
Active Member
There used to be a Dundas station, though I wonder if there'd be concerns with stopping on a significant grade and a curve in today's age. It's too bad there isn't somewhere closer to McMaster.
SkylineHorizons
Active Member
Whats that old adage again? If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, it basically is a duck.
ShonTron
Moderator
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The Dundas station site is right up against the Niagara Escarpment and conservation lands. The station that stood there just had a simple platform, a station building and a small parking lot with a paved area just large enough for a bus to turn around in.
The curvature is not the problem it would have been in the past – CCTV systems are used at Newmarket and Acton where there are significant curves in the platforms – but there’s little chance of a modern GO station at Dundas, as it would require a modern bus loop and parking, even if parking was kept to a minimum. The exit to Highway 8 was also substandard, on a tight curve.
just east of the creek
Active Member
Dundas is a selection of hard choices for an intown Station, seeing, as others have noted, so much of the line in the immediate Dundas areas is hard up against the escarpment, and the surrounding areas are housing. . You also have Spencers Creek at at one end and Borer's Creek at the other end providing significant additional challenges on and above the escarpment itself, as they cut deep valleys into the landscape. You might have to look westerly - out towards Weirs Lane, or easterly, towards Hopkins Corners and York Road (but there you are into Conservation Lands as well) . I think the only way to make use of the old Dundas station is to run some escalators (Billy Bishop style) down from the station to some point along Woodley Lane, but that would mean purchasing some or all of the Dundas Valley Golf and Curling Club. And curlers are a tough crowd.
innsertnamehere
Superstar
Dundas could work if it was accessed via a pedestrian bridge down to a station in the valley - perhaps expropriate this factory, build a 3-4 level parking garage, and connect it directly via pedestrian bridge over Hwy 8 to a pedestrian platform access tunnel.
It would no doubt be tight and have an impact on some of the escarpment slope though.
It would no doubt be tight and have an impact on some of the escarpment slope though.
smallspy
Senior Member
Very little publicly available, unfortunately. A couple of us have some access to the personal files of a former director at GO, which is where these were located.
Dan
Willybru21
Active Member
We’re there any other proposed extensions that you can talk about?
dowlingm
Senior Member
Six Nations appears 8 times in the document, mostly about the Polytechnic, and Haudenosaunee (Development Institute) not at all. Ah well, I’m sure it will turn out fine.