Orangeville-Brampton Railway (OBRY)

[Allandale25]

About 10 CN workers at the Halton Sub-OBRY diamond today. Couldn't stay long to see what they were doing or ask. No heavy equipment but they had some of their pickup trucks. Almost looks like a pile of new ties but didn't get a good look.

 

[ShonTron]

About 10 CN workers at the Halton Sub-OBRY diamond today. Couldn't stay long to see what they were doing or ask. No heavy equipment but they had some of their pickup trucks. Almost looks like a pile of new ties but didn't get a good look.

I passed through the area yesterday. The diamond remains intact, but there's debris of some sort piled on the OBRY north of the diamond.

The railway crossing signals at Inglewood (both crossings of McLaughlin Road) are intact as well.

 

[ShonTron]

I passed through Brampton again today. Some of the crossings are lightly paved over (Vodden Road, Rosedale Avenue) and the Railroad Street crossbucks are finally gone. But the diamond (and the signals protecting it) is still intact.

 

[SaugeenJunction]

Looks like Ontario Liberal candidate Bonnie Crombie is in on putting GO on the OBRY, as well as supporting the Bolton Line. From here.

GO Train service would be expanded to London, Peterborough, Orangeville, and Caledon, specifically, Crombie pledges.

 

[Northern Light]

Looks like Ontario Liberal candidate Bonnie Crombie is in on putting GO on the OBRY, as well as supporting the Bolton Line. From here.

The cost and time involved in that range of commitments is enormous; I would be way past skeptical on near or even medium term delivery and everything else has the hallmarks of how the Liberals advanced GO Expansion or mooted HSR to Windsor. Spend some $$ on planning, business cases or EAs, claim progress while spending zero on construction, rolling stock and operation.

Peterborough either has to wait for HFR/HSR which means the mid 2030s, or the province has to pay to upgrade the applicable track ahead of any commitment from Ottawa, which as a pretty much total rebuild is time and $$ intensive.

Orangeville requires buying the corridor, an EA, re-laying track and much more, not a quick project.

Bolton at least has operating rail and mainline so it could move faster, assuming CP's cooperation.

Only London among those is do-able inside one term of government barring extraordinary measures.

I will head over to her website to see when her detailed commitments are out and if they timelines and costs attached. *

* Edit to add, her platform is live on her site (linked below), it does not feature timelines or costs.

Overall Platform:

Policy Opportunities - Bonnie Crombie

Policy Opportunities I look at what has happened to our province under Doug Ford and the Conservatives – and it makes me worried. Ontario needs a Premier who has their […]

bonnieforleader.ca

Section referencing GO as per the above:

Make Life More Affordable - Bonnie Crombie

A Blueprint to Grow a Resilient, Prosperous, and Inclusive Economy While traveling through Ontario, I often ask people if they feel better off after five years living under Doug Ford […]

bonnieforleader.ca

From the above:

 

[Towered]

Somebody tell Bonnie that the Orangeville track was just removed

 

[robmausser]

Somebody tell Bonnie that the Orangeville track was just removed

To support GO trains they would have to replace the track anyways though.

Technically simple, but politically it might be problematic.

 

[Sunnyside]

One would think merely committing to the Milton line would be the bare minimum for Crombie…

 

[Bojaxs]

One would think merely committing to the Milton line would be the bare minimum for Crombie…

Yeah, she's an advocate for the freight "missing link" line. Removing CP trains off the Milton line requires a freight bypass route that goes around the western portion of the GTA. But to open up the Bolton line requires CP constructing a bypass route that goes around the entire GTA, because in opening up the Bolton line you would also be opening up the Midtown corridor. It wouldn't make sense for CP to give up the Bolton track (which heads directly to their intermodal yard), while still holding onto the Midtown corridor.

 

[SaugeenJunction]

To support GO trains they would have to replace the track anyways though.

Technically simple, but politically it might be problematic.

Thank you. This whole “they’ve pulled up some crossings and track, it won’t work” approach is the epitome of shortsightedness and doom and gloom attitudes.

Rebuilding a heavy rail corridor is wayyy easier and cheaper than building an LRT or subway. If the linear corridor land is there, rebuilding it is doable.

 

[ssiguy2]

Please God not another stupid GO train expansion to London. If they just resurrect the recently panned GO service with a couple more trains, Londoners will lovingly embrace it as much as the last one. If she knew what London actually needed, the trains would be for London commuters and head into London as opposed to into Toronto and entice VIA to do the heavy lifting for the inner-city travel between London & Toronto of which there is a LOT.

The 3 counties that make up the London commuter shed {Middlesex, Oxford, Elgin} have a combined population of 750,000 and the number of those commuters moving around that region and into London itself is probably one hundred to one compared to the number heading to Toronto. This is what happens when you have a Toronto politician making transit policy for cities outside of Toronto.

 

[ShonTron]

Thank you. This whole “they’ve pulled up some crossings and track, it won’t work” approach is the epitome of shortsightedness and doom and gloom attitudes.

Hey. I know we disagreed on this on Twitter as well. I don’t like being doom and gloom, but even if OBBY was still operating, the corridor was in no shape to handle GO trains at a speed that would come close to the existing buses on Highway 10. Unlike Brantford, Bolton, and London, there’s almost no public or political support for GO trains, especially in Orangeville itself. It’s very different than GO rebuilding the derelict yet still intact Newmarket Sub to Barrie.

I am very skeptical of Bonnie Crombie still, and it sounds like there was very little thought into saying “a GO train to Orangeville!”

 

[Sunnyside]

Thank you. This whole “they’ve pulled up some crossings and track, it won’t work” approach is the epitome of shortsightedness and doom and gloom attitudes.

Rebuilding a heavy rail corridor is wayyy easier and cheaper than building an LRT or subway. If the linear corridor land is there, rebuilding it is doable.

Problem is we don’t do this, despite the ample opportunities to do so. The precedent set is that once the rails are out, it becomes much harder to put them back. I’d love for that to change, but we’ll see…

Part of me does wonder if it’s simply easier to put more GO tracks into highway ROWs. If the role of a OBRY rebuild is to serve Brampton-> Sauga, then it doesn’t have to take the pre-existing alignment if it isn’t very good.

 

[JasonParis]

I don't like Bonnie per se, but I can see her being good on finally improving the Milton line. I think getting a train to Bolton is in the realm of possibilities too and an easier win than some of the others, although not actually easy either.

 

[lenaitch]

Problem is we don’t do this, despite the ample opportunities to do so. The precedent set is that once the rails are out, it becomes much harder to put them back. I’d love for that to change, but we’ll see…

Part of me does wonder if it’s simply easier to put more GO tracks into highway ROWs. If the role of a OBRY rebuild is to serve Brampton-> Sauga, then it doesn’t have to take the pre-existing alignment if it isn’t very good.

I do wish people would give up on this. Unless both are designed concurrently, grade and curve requirements are totally different.

In this case, there is no way to feasibly run rail up Hwy 10, even if the space existed in the ROW. Gaining altitude up the moraine, roads can do it much more abruptly. That's why rail lines of full of reverse curves, horseshoe curves, etc. unless a lot of bridging is employed.