The CityRail Concept: Real Regional Rail for the GTA

[M II A II R II K]

The CityRail Concept: Real Regional Rail for the GTA


Read More: http://transitfutures.blogspot.ca/2012/07/cityrail-concept-real-regional-rail-for.html


The introduction of genuine regional rail in the GTA would be the most revolutionary transit improvement in the region since the opening of the original subway in 1954. Toronto woefully underuses its comprehensive network of rail corridors connecting all of its suburbs with the central city and with each other. Right now, most corridors see about a dozen mammoth trains a day shuttling commuters from vast parking fields to downtown office buildings. Regional rail is an entirely different type of service in the same corridors, more akin to a subway or other rapid transit line than to locomotive-hauled GO bi-levels. There are several key characteristics that define regional rail: frequent service all day and every day; full fare integration and seamless connections with local transit; and electrified multiple unit trains that allow fast acceleration and frequent stops.

- Genuine regional rail will not occur as a result of piecemeal improvement of existing GO service. It must be developed through a comprehensive plan that guides all of the improvements required to achieve a desired standard of service: the CityRail concept. GO currently adds trains as demand requires and as freight railways permit. This is fine for a commuter service, but it’s not how rapid transit works. Imagine if the TTC cut back service on the subway to every half hour on Sundays because the trains weren’t running full. CityRail establishes the goal of real rapid transit service throughout the GTA and describes the necessary infrastructure improvements that will be required to achieve it. This clear final product makes the promotion of the concept much easier for transit agencies, both to the general public and to higher levels of government.


• CityRail would have trains at least every 15 minutes from morning until late night every day, including weekends, so that riders can go to a station without consulting a schedule and know that a train will arrive shortly. This allows the system to be used as a rapid transit backbone in both Toronto and the 905 suburban municipalities.

• CityRail services would have fully integrated fares with local transit service. Riders would transfer to and from CityRail as seamlessly as they currently do between TTC subways and buses. Fares would be the same for a given trip regardless of the mode chosen. Local transit routes would be routed into regional rail stations as they currently are to subway stations.

• CityRail trains would be operated with electric multiple units that produce no air emissions and accelerate far more rapidly than existing GO Trains, permitting frequent rapid-transit-style stops without longer travel times than GO services.

- The first phase of CityRail would involve the existing GO corridors. There are multiple additional corridors that could greatly benefit from CityRail service, including one to Bolton through Woodbridge, to North Pickering through Agincourt, and to Brampton through Meadowvale. The North Toronto corridor through Summerhill Station would also be very useful for passengers not destined to the downtown core. A potential enhancement of the CityRail concept would include short diversions from existing corridors to serve major destinations. For example, CityRail could leave the Milton line at Cooksville, run up Hurontario to Mississauga City Centre and from there west along the 403 to re-join the existing corridor. Pearson Airport could also benefit from a diversion of the Georgetown Line, which could be shared with other operators including VIA and a premium Airport Express service.

.....

 

[innsertnamehere]

as posted on the front page of Urban toronto on friday..

 

[gweed123]

The phasing that GO has proposed for their electrification in my mind makes a lot of sense (Lakeshore + Georgetown in Ph 1).

Ideally though I'd like to see the Stouffville line added to that, as I think that would do wonders for Markham and Scarborough. The Georgetown line is obvious because of the ARL, but I think Stouffville often gets overlooked.

While the Milton and Richmond Hill lines would be nice to have, I realistically don't think they will happen, at least not for a while. In order for the Milton line to happen, a freight bypass needs to be built so that the Milton line is no longer CP's mainline. The Richmond Hill line is going to need a bunch of reroutings (specifically around Don Mills) in order to make it viable as anything more than just a York Region shuttle into Toronto. Because as it stands right now, it's not going to have connections to any of the 3 E-W subway lines in Toronto, with Sheppard being the only place where it even might work. In order to connect at Eglinton, a rerouting around Don Mills would be needed, and a B-D connection isn't happening no matter what alignment is chosen (short of a tunnel diversion under Castle Frank or Broadview).

And the Barrie line, while it may have some good connections, is pretty much just as express version of the University-Spadina subway. It also doesn't hit very many high potential ridership areas that the Georgetown line doesn't already hit, at least until York Region. Hourly or half-hourly service up to Newmarket or Barrie should be sufficient for that line.

The other line that is dependent on a freight bypass being built is the Midtown. That line could be incredibly useful as sort of crosstown express line, with some pretty decent rapid transit connections (Kipling, Dupont, Summerhill, Eglinton, Agincourt). Again, a nice to have, but not feasible with the amount of freight traffic that line currently carries.

For the time being, GO should focus on running a Brampton-Markham line, and a Lakeshore line.

PS: I think that GO REX is a better marketing name than CityRail, but that's just me .

 

[TheTigerMaster]

PS: I think that GO REX is a better marketing name than CityRail, but that's just me .

I don't like GO REX. People won't understand what it stands for and the first thing I think of when I hear it are T-Rex's. CityRail sounds more "official" and the name makes it clear what it is.

But the name is just a minor detail. The actual plan is far more important.

 

[M II A II R II K]

Or for the non-express routes they can call it GO Local.

 

[doady]

I don't like GO REX. People won't understand what it stands for and the first thing I think of when I hear it are T-Rex's. CityRail sounds more "official" and the name makes it clear what it is.

No it doesn't. "CityRail" is very vague. It can suggest anything from subways, to light rail (including streetcar), to peak-only commuter rail. In a city with many different types of rail transit, "CityRail" is a dumb name to use, even worse than "Light Rail Transit".

 

[M II A II R II K]

It could also be called Toronto Overground.

Or maybe TransToronto which as a double meaning since it's transit, and serves beyond Toronto's borders as well.

 

[innsertnamehere]

I don't think anything with the name Toronto should be used if it is to serve the suburbs as well.

On the agency side of things, what do you think of setting ups sort of 21st century of the metro government? It could work exactly as it did before 1998, but the individual regions would be the sub-governments rather than the actual municipalities. It could handle transit, (under a new rebuilt TTC, which would have 3 "departments", "TTC local" (subways, busses, LRTs), "TTC express" (the express rail illustrated in this thread), and "TTC GO" (the traditional GO trains and busses). It could also handle emergency services, and more if desired. It would include Toronto, York, durham, peel, and Halton.

 

[M II A II R II K]

Is this even a legitimate plan or is it something some random person made up on their PC.

 

[gweed123]

I've updated my GO REX map to reflect a more realistic plan.

There are 2 GO REX lines: Lakeshore and Brampton-Markham. Both of these lines have a "local" sub-line that runs exclusively inside Toronto (or to the next station just outside). Toronto will require higher frequencies, especially during rush hour, so having a dedicated Toronto route overlapping the full GO route will make it seem like less of a 905-centric service.

The local lines are lines running the current GO fleet, but hopefully running 1hr or 30 min all-day service.

The "Exurban Shuttles" are traditional GO trains that run between the end of the GO REX service and the exurban community.

I know the Mississauga situation isn't ideal, but when you have the freight traffic situation, there's only so much that can be done. If that freight line can by bypassed, then it can easily become a full GO REX line. But until that happens, hourly or 30 min service is about the best we can hope for. Ditto for any type of Midtown line.

I decided to end the Bolton service at Black Creek instead of Union because most likely those trains won't be that full, and they would be taking up valuable room at Union. By stopping it at Black Creek, those passengers will have an easy transfer onto a REX line to get downtown.

I had to load it onto my website because it would be too small to see anything if I uploaded it through UT: http://www2.andrew.thejohnsonclan.ca/GO_REX_v2.jpg

 

[TheTigerMaster]

No it doesn't. "CityRail" is very vague. It can suggest anything from subways, to light rail (including streetcar), to peak-only commuter rail. In a city with many different types of rail transit, "CityRail" is a dumb name to use, even worse than "Light Rail Transit".

GO Rex is even more vague. What does the Rex even mean and how does it relate to transit? And the last thing I thought about when I first heard the name GO Rex was GO transit. At least with City Rail its clear that it's some kind of rail transit. Franky, Go Rex sounds like something a character from a childrens cartoon would say. I could easily imagine Dora the Explorer yelling "Go Rex go!" at a T-rex on the show.

But I will admit that GO Rex is a much more interesting name. CityRail is kinda boring.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

I don't think anything with the name Toronto should be used if it is to serve the suburbs as well.

Why not? Last time I checked we lived in the Greater Toronto Area. A name such as Greater Toronto Transit, or any other name that mentions the GTA, should be perfectly fine to people living in Vaughan, Richmond Hill, Brampton etc...

On the agency side of things, what do you think of setting ups sort of 21st century of the metro government? It could work exactly as it did before 1998, but the individual regions would be the sub-governments rather than the actual municipalities. It could handle transit, (under a new rebuilt TTC, which would have 3 "departments", "TTC local" (subways, busses, LRTs), "TTC express" (the express rail illustrated in this thread), and "TTC GO" (the traditional GO trains and busses). It could also handle emergency services, and more if desired. It would include Toronto, York, durham, peel, and Halton.

I don't think a new Metro Toronto government including Toronto, York, Durham, Peel and Halton is appropriate at this time. Maybe in 20 years when Toronto's the municipalities in the regions are developed further. Right now I think that our cities are too different from each other to work well under a new Metro Toronto government.

However I do believe that there needs to be a single agency (preferably the TTC since it is more experienced and has the most customers) overseeing transit in Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Vaughan, Richmond Hill, Markham, Pickering and potentially Ajax. These municipalities are already closely tied to Toronto and as the TTC begins to extend subways into Vaughan, Richmond Hill and Mississauga (and maybe Pickering) in the next 20 years it won't really make sense to have several different agencies overseeing transit for them.

 

[gweed123]

GO Rex is even more vague. What does the Rex even mean and how does it relate to transit?

"Regional Express". And it's a marketing name, same as Viva or Züm, which only have vague references to being transit-related. But as the ridership stats of both of those systems shows: marketing works. Even if the new service is only marginally better than the service that it replaces, because it is marketed differently, ridership shows a good bump.

 

[dunkalunk]

If we're going to be labelling the services we ought to be naming them under names that can be understood by an outsider to the network:

GO Local: frequent EMUs with infill stations (2-4 km spacing, 15 minutes)
GO Regional: Similar to today's commuter network (4-10 km spacing, 30 minutes)
GO Express: Intercity Service to replace what is lost by VIA (if GO expands it's mandate to run more intercity-type service throughout Southern Ontario) (10km+ spacing)

VIA would still have it's bread and butter Toronto-Ottawa and Toronto-Montreal routes and would become the defacto High Speed Rail operator once a federal government actually decides to invest money in high-speed rail and not bury a delayed and half-completed report.

 

[innsertnamehere]

I honestly think HSR will come when/if the NDP come into government.