unimaginative2
Senior Member
Since I should be doing other things, I'm slowly wading through the GO Georgetown corridor EA report. Some of the stuff is very interesting, some great, some eyebrow-raising. Here are some quotations from the report and my comments.
Very interesting. I love those headways, though I'm a little unclear on the Express Rail. Is it actually completely non-stop between Union and Brampton? Will it be continuing to other locations like Guelph and Kitchener? I would think that the local service should have the closer headways if it's actually just a non-stop shuttle between Union and Brampton. If it's a real regional express service, that's great news. I might add one or two more stops on the express service (Bramalea, Bloor with a better connection, a Pearson station).
Here it starts to get a little weird. I'm just going to assume that they have those timings backwards. Otherwise, why would the non-stop Express service that would overtake the Regional service take 19 minutes longer. Attention to detail, people!
They're talking about peak hour here, in which case that's pretty impressive, although 7 per hour is hardly every five minutes. But they mention 10-car 1,500 person GO trains. Surely they're looking at different rolling stock.
Okay, so what we're actually talking about here is service every fifteen minutes. Could be worse.
The problem I have here is that they talk about "ridership projections demand 4 trains per hour in 2031." They have no idea how many people will actually be riding those trains in 2031, and it's a dependent variable. Ridership will go up--at times dramatically--if frequencies are increased. They should be setting a service standard for regional rail that should be met at all times, like any other rapid transit project. If that's going to be 15 minutes, that's fine, but it shouldn't be dependent on some ridership projection.
Wait a minute here...I certainly hope they aren't going to try to electrify half of the tracks on the line. This is doubly crazy because it's the local all-stops service that would benefit from electrification the most, because the major improvement is to acceleration times. Upon closer reading, they don't seem to be suggesting that, but it's not the most lucid writing.
Those travel times look decent. They should definitely be making provision for a Liberty Village stop, even if it might be difficult. If this is to be a real regional rail service, they need more than one station in the urban core. With integrated fares, it would likely be very popular. This sounds more like GO's traditional antipathy to serving the 416.
I hope that UP can get rid of that ridiculous stop in Weston after a year or two of operation.
Those operating margins are also very generous. Why don't we buy a real signalling system from real regional rail operators that can operate at 2 minute headways or less? Then they wouldn't have to run a VIA train on the regional rail tracks like they're planning now.
Looking at some of the space time diagrams, I see that VIA is expected to gain six minutes on the express train from Brampton to Union. Why? They're both non-stop or almost non-stop.
It's fascinating that they aren't even completely replacing the Humber River bridge. It's apparently possible to widen the bridge from one to four tracks.
Apparently the spur to the airport, however, is only going to be built as a single track. It doesn't even look like it'll be easy to add a track in the future. Ultimately, I'd like to see the whole corridor diverted through the airport. It has enormous potential as a transportation hub for the western GTA. It could be done as part of a high-speed project.
All of Appendix I, which appears to be the detailed drawings for the project, is giving me a file damaged message. They should probably be having a look at that.
They seem to have considered Enviro's plan for a longer depression of the tracks through the Weston area that would include CP in the Weston design charette, but they don't seem to have approved it. I'll have to read more to find out their rationale.
The Czech Republic has a detailed national master plan of all the infrastructure they want to build over the next decades. Everything from railway lines to airports to subways to canals to nuclear power plants. Everything that is built has to be designed in such a way that it won't preclude construction of the master plan projects. Since this corridor would be the route for any Quebec-Windsor high speed rail line, I wish they would have made at least some mention of provisions for its construction.
On the whole, I like what I'm seeing. It's not perfect and they've left a fair bit out, but on the whole they're definitely on the right track (heh heh. pun). I'm especially happy that they've actually got real regional express and local regional service planned, and that UP is going to share its tracks with the express service.
Very interesting. I love those headways, though I'm a little unclear on the Express Rail. Is it actually completely non-stop between Union and Brampton? Will it be continuing to other locations like Guelph and Kitchener? I would think that the local service should have the closer headways if it's actually just a non-stop shuttle between Union and Brampton. If it's a real regional express service, that's great news. I might add one or two more stops on the express service (Bramalea, Bloor with a better connection, a Pearson station).
Here it starts to get a little weird. I'm just going to assume that they have those timings backwards. Otherwise, why would the non-stop Express service that would overtake the Regional service take 19 minutes longer. Attention to detail, people!
They're talking about peak hour here, in which case that's pretty impressive, although 7 per hour is hardly every five minutes. But they mention 10-car 1,500 person GO trains. Surely they're looking at different rolling stock.
Okay, so what we're actually talking about here is service every fifteen minutes. Could be worse.
The problem I have here is that they talk about "ridership projections demand 4 trains per hour in 2031." They have no idea how many people will actually be riding those trains in 2031, and it's a dependent variable. Ridership will go up--at times dramatically--if frequencies are increased. They should be setting a service standard for regional rail that should be met at all times, like any other rapid transit project. If that's going to be 15 minutes, that's fine, but it shouldn't be dependent on some ridership projection.
Wait a minute here...I certainly hope they aren't going to try to electrify half of the tracks on the line. This is doubly crazy because it's the local all-stops service that would benefit from electrification the most, because the major improvement is to acceleration times. Upon closer reading, they don't seem to be suggesting that, but it's not the most lucid writing.
Those travel times look decent. They should definitely be making provision for a Liberty Village stop, even if it might be difficult. If this is to be a real regional rail service, they need more than one station in the urban core. With integrated fares, it would likely be very popular. This sounds more like GO's traditional antipathy to serving the 416.
I hope that UP can get rid of that ridiculous stop in Weston after a year or two of operation.
Those operating margins are also very generous. Why don't we buy a real signalling system from real regional rail operators that can operate at 2 minute headways or less? Then they wouldn't have to run a VIA train on the regional rail tracks like they're planning now.
Looking at some of the space time diagrams, I see that VIA is expected to gain six minutes on the express train from Brampton to Union. Why? They're both non-stop or almost non-stop.
It's fascinating that they aren't even completely replacing the Humber River bridge. It's apparently possible to widen the bridge from one to four tracks.
Apparently the spur to the airport, however, is only going to be built as a single track. It doesn't even look like it'll be easy to add a track in the future. Ultimately, I'd like to see the whole corridor diverted through the airport. It has enormous potential as a transportation hub for the western GTA. It could be done as part of a high-speed project.
All of Appendix I, which appears to be the detailed drawings for the project, is giving me a file damaged message. They should probably be having a look at that.
They seem to have considered Enviro's plan for a longer depression of the tracks through the Weston area that would include CP in the Weston design charette, but they don't seem to have approved it. I'll have to read more to find out their rationale.
The Czech Republic has a detailed national master plan of all the infrastructure they want to build over the next decades. Everything from railway lines to airports to subways to canals to nuclear power plants. Everything that is built has to be designed in such a way that it won't preclude construction of the master plan projects. Since this corridor would be the route for any Quebec-Windsor high speed rail line, I wish they would have made at least some mention of provisions for its construction.
On the whole, I like what I'm seeing. It's not perfect and they've left a fair bit out, but on the whole they're definitely on the right track (heh heh. pun). I'm especially happy that they've actually got real regional express and local regional service planned, and that UP is going to share its tracks with the express service.
