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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

What's the reason for the GO train being so slow between Confederation and West Harbour? Too many at grade crossings?

Between this and the Bayview junction, I agree with other posters sentiments that riders in the Stoney Creek area will probably continue to drive down to Aldershot & Burlington to avoid the slow speed restrictions for the GO the train in Hamilton.
 
innsertnamehere said:
Hamilton Centre GO is limited by the tunnel. Ironically the tunnel is actually built for two tracks - but has a curved ceiling which means it can't accommodate modern train heights with a 2-track configuration. I often wonder how much it would cost Metrolinx to "square off" the tunnel and enable a dedicated GO track into the station to enable regular all-day service to Hamilton Centre. It's certainly a far more centrally located and more useful station for the city.

The tunnel is less than 600 metres long - they could probably just close Hunter St for a year or two to dig it up, fix it, and rebuild the street.
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A long time ago the stories about it said something about foundations for large apartment towers abutting the tunnel would make for a difficult expansion/renovation. I think there have probably been far more difficult ones in Canada... would add to cost, but maybe there's a case for it if CP is amenable.

It is a shame and also that there is no good opportunity to extend service to the east. At least the GO service (and bus facility) put life back into the building -- the timing is murky to me now, but it sat empty for a few years after TH&B passenger services were ended and CP bought that railway, and I think there was fear we'd lose it to demolition.

Clarity -- Passenger services ended in 1981, and the building stopped being used by late-1990: http://www.trainweb.org/hamtransithist/hunter.html
 
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dowlingm said:
Which gives me pause when this forums discusses GO purchasing the Grimsby Sub
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I just went on Google maps to look at this bridge.
Google streetview has this dated in 2012, but I imagine the bridge is still the same. Still has the CN logo on it. Bridge definitely looks rough. Hopefully MX gives us a before and after.

www.google.com

Street View · Google Maps

Explore a place in a more immersive way in Google Maps.
www.google.com www.google.com
 
innsertnamehere said:
So a 17-18 minute travel time to West Harbour? That's pretty brutal. I thought I remembered it being planned to be more like 8-9 minutes. That's an average speed of like 30km/h between the stations!

That also means there is a 34-minute travel time from Confederation to Burlington GO station.. that only takes ~10 minutes to drive between (maybe 15-20 minutes in rush hour).

No wonder they only built 100 parking spaces.. nobody will be using it. If I lived in Stoney Creek would just keep driving to Burlington GO which has far higher service levels and is far faster, even with bad traffic on the skyway.

Hamilton Centre GO is limited by the tunnel. Ironically the tunnel is actually built for two tracks - but has a curved ceiling which means it can't accommodate modern train heights with a 2-track configuration. I often wonder how much it would cost Metrolinx to "square off" the tunnel and enable a dedicated GO track into the station to enable regular all-day service to Hamilton Centre. It's certainly a far more centrally located and more useful station for the city.

The tunnel is less than 600 metres long - they could probably just close Hunter St for a year or two to dig it up, fix it, and rebuild the street.
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My gut feeling is that Confederation is built for transit oriented development. It's 2km's of strip malls and car dealerships South of there, Eastgate Mall has a massive development planned, and Hamilton is creating some express buses along that corridor that extend deep into the escarpment neighborhoods to get people to Confederation (and the LRT) in minutes. Grimsby (god knows when that will happen) will probably be the archetypical park and ride commuter station.
 
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ownthesky said:
My gut feeling is that Confederation is built for transit oriented development. It's blocks and blocks of strip malls and car dealerships South of there and Hamilton is planning some express buses along that corridor deep into the escarpment neighborhoods to get people to Confederation (and the LRT) in minutes. Grimsby (god knows when that will happen) will probably be the archetypical park and ride commuter station.
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Except there is a smelly transfer station near Confederation - if the province wants that TOD to be successful in the near term they need to find a big chunk of what Hamilton needs to relocate the worst part of that https://bayobserver.ca/garbage-operations-at-kenora-transfer-station-could-be-relocated/
 
ownthesky said:
My gut feeling is that Confederation is built for transit oriented development. It's blocks and blocks of strip malls and car dealerships South of there and Hamilton is planning some express buses along that corridor deep into the escarpment neighborhoods to get people to Confederation (and the LRT) in minutes. Grimsby (god knows when that will happen) will probably be the archetypical park and ride commuter station.
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I feel it's the complete opposite. Confederation will be a park & ride with good bus connections/ infrastructure. Grimsby station is close to downtown. Too small for any sizeable parking lot.
 
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^There is already TOD zoning in place for Grimsby and it would take an act of God to prevent redevelopment at Confederation!
 
There were two inbound trains from Milton this afternoon and two outbound this evening. Same tomorrow
IMG_5250.jpeg
 
innsertnamehere said:
You aren't going from Niagara to Oakville though. You are just going from Centennial to Fairview - 10 kilometres.

I'm sure some will use Confederation to avoid it as the skyway is regularly congested with fairly variable travel times, but you would need a 10-minute trip to take over 30-minutes for it to actually be faster to use Confederation GO. And my experience is that the Skyway is very rarely that congested.

The skyway is most congested on weekends and not weekday rush hours - typically you would be looking at maybe 5-10 minutes of traffic on the skyway in the morning and 2-5 minutes in the afternoon coming home.
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Also, for early morning commuters there's the garage in Burlington which is attractive, especially in the winter. Having to clean piles of snow off your car when you are on the last leg of the trip home is not fun.
My father had to commute from west Hamilton to Toronto for years, and he would blow right past Aldershot on the 403 and skip to Burlington so he could get a spot in the garage and not deal with rain or snow when getting off the train. Now this is when he was in his 60's, and not in great shape physically, but he said even if they charged for parking in the garage he would still do it. I'm sure he isn't the only one who would bypass Confederation to get to Burlington because of that too. Oh and also, the fare from Burlington is actually cheaper.
 
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