SmartTrack (Proposed)

[Adjei]

You might call it SmartTrack Lite. Another thing you might call it is GO Train Plus. Provincial transit authorities are already planning more frequent service along the GO lines that radiate out from Union Station to the suburbs and exurbs of Toronto. The multibillion-dollar regional express rail plan is a key part of the government’s transit strategy. If the SmartTrack that emerges merely adds a few stations to that system, it will fall far short of the hype of the Tory election campaign.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...other-transit-disappointment/article28210547/

 

[TheTigerMaster]

For the Smart Track section, we seem to have the engineers on-board with 5 minute frequencies for one chunk of the system, which is an improvement from their 15 minute commitment.

That's not what the article said. Moore said City Planning was looking at frequencies better than 10 minutes all day, and approaching 5 min frequencies at peak. 7.5 min or better frequencies can reasonably be called approaching 5 min frequencies at peak.

And also remember that Moore said that these frequencies would only be available within part of proposed SmartTrack coverage area, which is also how it would work with RER.

Last documents from Metrolinx that I had seen showed a peak target for RER as 4 trains per hour for inner-local service, and 2 trains per hour for outer-long-distance for most corridors.

Is there something more up to date than this?
https://swanboatsteve.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/rer-rollout-by-line.pdf
https://swanboatsteve.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/rer-rollout-details.pdf

The pre-election Liberal promise of 15 minutes or better rapidly turned into a post-election Metrolinx commitment to 15 minutes at best; engineers have a tendency of bringing up problems that hack away at speculative promises.

I was looking at the SmartTrack Status update dated October 2015: http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2015/ex/bgrd/backgroundfile-84724.pdf

Page 2 says there will be two way, all day, 15 minute or better, on weekdays, evenings and weekends for:

• Lakeshore West between Burlington and Union
• Lakeshore East between Oshawa and Union
• Kitchener Line between Bramalea and Union
• Barrie Line between Auora and Union
• Stouffville Line between Unionville and Union

Because these corridors overlap, Toronto will see all day, 7.5 min or better service between St. Clair West and Main Station.

Adding up the frequencies of the service schedule in your first link, I got frequencies between 5 and 6 minutes between Spadina and Unilever, 7.5 min between St. Clair West and Main and 15 min between Kennedy and Mt. Dennis.

The only notable difference I'm seeing between RER and ST as described by Moore is the addition of 2 trains/hour between Kennedy and Mt. Dennis at peak hours, boosting peak hour frequencies there to 10 min (6 trains/hour), which is a small service modification. And remember, this modification might not even happen, as City Planning is merely exploring the idea.

So SmartTrack appears to be, at best, a small modification to the RER schedule, or at worst, identical to RER. Either way, it's not what voters were promised.

 

[rbt]

That's not what the article said. Moore said City Planning was looking at frequencies better than 10 minutes all day, and approaching 5 min frequencies at peak. 7.5 min or better frequencies can reasonably be called approaching 5 min frequencies at peak.

Fair enough. I am looking forward to the report being released so we can stop guessing at what a 3rd parties interpretation of leaked data really means.

I was looking at the SmartTrack Status update dated October 2015: http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2015/ex/bgrd/backgroundfile-84724.pdf

Page 2 says there will be two way, all day, 15 minute or better, on weekdays, evenings and weekends for:

• Lakeshore West between Burlington and Union
• Lakeshore East between Oshawa and Union
• Kitchener Line between Bramalea and Union
• Barrie Line between Auora and Union
• Stouffville Line between Unionville and Union

You'll forgive me if I prefer to information from Metrolinx for projects they are constructing, operating, and funding. Other than building permits, the city doesn't have any involvement or control over it.

I'm not trying to pump Tory (I'll happily vote for the other guy, if we get a reasonable option). But at this time the additional funding Tory has raised appears (pending the report) to be creating an actual improvement in service. Heck, just funding Eglinton West is worth while.

 

[innsertnamehere]

^technically Metrolinx doesn't need permits, they just do it to "be nice".

They are a provincial body and thus can overrule a municipality whenever they wish.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

You'll forgive me if I prefer to information from Metrolinx for projects they are constructing, operating, and funding. Other than building permits, the city doesn't have any involvement or control over it.

The document was hosted on a City of Toronto server, but was written by Metrolinx.

But regardless, the Metrolinx documents you linked to also result in the same headways, so this argument is not relevant.

 

[Dan416]

Even Steve Munro commented that deferring the portion of SmartTrack north of Kennedy was probably to not pull ridership from the SSE.

 

[mdrejhon]

The Weston sub to Pearson is reportedly already able to handle 5 minute head ways (0.6 mile blocks according to vegata_skyline) on same tracks, but the Union bottleneck prevents this in practice.

To pull off 5 minute same-track head ways on multiple lines, all the way into Union, they would need to resignal USRC (planned) and do more reliable and the reportedly higher speed crossovers (25mph capable if I read right, even if that cannot be station entry speed, still need decelerating to current speed on entering crowded platform), to increase train turnover rate through that one [bleep] of a bottleneck.

I was reading about the needs, that after resignalling, and shorter electric dwells no longer locked to a timetable, then is certainly possible to massively increase the rate of trains to an extent, but it will be like peak period outside peak hours, and a double intense peak during peak.

That will be a major engineering challenge without additional track, but they can pull off 5 minute head ways on four-merged-to-two lines (LSE+LSW already runs darn near 5 minutes today during the central peak, and they can merge Kitchener-Stoufville into one through line).

Eliminate schedule and just ram the trains through, safely via tiny block signalling, subway style, short dwells too, untimetabled during peak. Then it seems they can probably pull it off after the planned USRC resignalling, probably. 5 minutes on four or five lines (technically two or three, given merged "through" lines ala LSE+LSW). Without needing the tunnel yet.

 

[Rainforest]

So that's how they're saving the SSE, by deferring the SmartTrack section north of Kennedy. Clever.

Good point. That could be one reason to defer that section.

The other possible reason is that they do not want to start construction in the Uxbridge sub corridor right next to the running SRT, and prefer to wait until it is replaced by Line 2 extension and shut down.

 

[Rainforest]

Oh I agree it'll be much faster, I just find it amusing....you extend Line 2 but people will STILL get off at Kennedy.

It is amuzing but there is nothing wrong with it.

A typical downtown-bound commuter from Scarborough will save one transfer. Today, it is bus --> SRT --> Line 2 --> Line 1. In the new configuration, it will be bus or LRT --> Line 2 --> SmartTrack.

 

[Rainforest]

Why is there a need for Smart Track branding? I guess it's for Tory to save face. Just integrate it with GO RER and stop all this Smart Track nonsense. Is the Eglinton extension also going to be called Smart Track?

Tory's political ambitions are certainly in the picture here, but at least they are compatible with the public interests.

As long as that thing runs and takes the passengers where they want to go, the choice of branding isn't very important.

 

[Rainforest]

GO RER proposed two way, all day 15 min or better frequencies on the Lakeshore West, Lakeshore East, Kitchener and Stouffville lines. Recall that Lakeshore West and Kitchener services overlap approximately north of St. Clair West and Stouffville and Lakeshore East overlap approximately east of Main Street. That means that between St. Clair West and Main stations, RER frequencies would be 7.5 min or better, two way and all day. This is exactly as described in Moore's article (frequencies between 10 and 5 min).

Lakeshore West splits from all other westbound lines well before St. Clair West. In fact, that happens between Union and Exhibition Stn.

Furthermore, Moore explicitly said that these enhanced frequencies would be available only on part of the SmartTrack route. Based on the way these GO routes are routed, that means that the enhanced frequencies would be available only between Main Street and a hypothetical St. Clair West Station; everywhere else (aka, Mt. Dennis Station and Kennedy Station) only get 15 min frequencies.

If SmartTrack achieves that 5 min frequency at all (which is not guaranteed since some sections of the rail corridor are very tight), I am pretty sure that both Mt. Dennis and Kennedy will see 5 min frequency. Short-turning part of the service before reaching those interchanges just does not make sense, as such trains will not be filled enough to justify their trips.

 

[Adjei]

Tory's political ambitions are certainly in the picture here, but at least they are compatible with the public interests.

As long as that thing runs and takes the passengers where they want to go, the choice of branding isn't very important.

We don't need any more transit branding causing confusion. Besides what sort of name is Smart Track. It sounds like something some preschool kids would come up with.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

If SmartTrack achieves that 5 min frequency at all (which is not guaranteed since some sections of the rail corridor are very tight), I am pretty sure that both Mt. Dennis and Kennedy will see 5 min frequency. Short-turning part of the service before reaching those interchanges just does not make sense, as such trains will not be filled enough to justify their trips.

Moore's report explicitly said that 5 min frequencies won't be available on all parts of ST phase 1. At the very least, this means Mt. Dennis or Kennedy stations will have about 10 min frequencies.

 

[Rainforest]

We don't need any more transit branding causing confusion. Besides what sort of name is Smart Track. It sounds like something some preschool kids would come up with.

I can't say I "need" it, but it does not hurt me, either.

 

[Rainforest]

Moore's report explicitly said that 5 min frequencies won't be available on all parts of ST phase 1. At the very least, this means Mt. Dennis or Kennedy stations will have about 10 min frequencies.

I understand that, but still doubt that the actual thing will have 10 min at Mt. Dennis or Kennedy stations, and 5 min closer to Union.

If they can't maintain 5 min between those major interchanges, then they can as well run every 10 min for the whole length.