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GO Transit: Construction Projects (Metrolinx, various)

mdrejhon said:
Not news to you.

But tons, and tons, and tons of uninformed people exist.

Comments sections in Hamilton news site sections.

People saying the Niagara trains would never stop, or won't be till 2019 when Stoney Creek GO finishes.

Remember, 20 years of promises to Hamilton residents about all-day train service, that are repeatedly broken.

People claiming expansions will never happens, and that West Harbour is a waste with sometimes only a few people using it (duh -- at only two trains at only 6:15 and 6:45 -- and a couple of incoming evening trains) -- and with over 100-200+ students with backpacks disembarking many Aldershot trains, and occasionally long lineups at the GO buses during surge moments.

People who are not happy with the Hamilton status quo and don't bother taking trains.

In fact, many Hamilton politicians aren't even aware of the various details, and remain skeptical.

I recently educated my city ward's elected councillor (and the one I voted for, too) about this GO stuff -- he now follows me on Twitter!
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Sure, uninformed people exist - even on this forum.

generally, if one is clicking on a particular thread on this board, one is either doing so to catch up on what is going on, adding more recent information to it, or trying to ask for clarification on a particular point. The people on here generally have a decent working knowledge of any of the given projects listed. The people on here are the people writing into the comment threads, correcting the misinformation.

But nothing that you had posted was actually news. All you've done is simply aggregated a number of pieces of info from elsewhere in this thread. And for what, to increase your post count?

Dan
Toronto, Ont.
 
I saw this sign outside of the Oakville GO parking garage today. I was wondering if anyone had any insight on it. Initially it sounds like Metrolinx will be installing a telecommunications tower. However, I know there are long-standing plans to build a "GO Transit Control Centre" office building on the property between the parking garage and Cornwall Road. I am going to email the contact that was listed on the sign, but if anyone else has more information it would be appreciated.
 

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alexanderglista said:
I saw this sign outside of the Oakville GO parking garage today. I was wondering if anyone had any insight on it. Initially it sounds like Metrolinx will be installing a telecommunications tower. However, I know there are long-standing plans to build a "GO Transit Control Centre" office building on the property between the parking garage and Cornwall Road. I am going to email the contact that was listed on the sign, but if anyone else has more information it would be appreciated.
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The new signalling system in place on most of the GO lines is a cell-band-based radio system called ATCS. As GO will be providing their own dispatching, they will also need to broadcast and receive from the various signal locations. I assume that this antenna will be for that.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.
 
mdrejhon said:
But nothing that you had posted was actually news. All you've done is simply aggregated a number of pieces of info from elsewhere in this thread. And for what, to increase your post count?
Click to expand...
Nope. Aggregation is extremely useful as city planners do not have time (like general public members) to spend hours on forums. Aggregated information for urban planners is quite useful research for them, to avoid having to dig for hours, distracting from a councillor's schedule.

My elected ward's city councillor complimented me on twitter for sharing an aggregated UrbanToronto post to him. And yes, I realize many people here like aggregated posts, while many others do not.

(BTW -- I have already begun to attend some of my ward's local community meetings such as Sherman Hub and Sherman In Motion (transportation issues -- cars, cycle, pedestrians, and soon Hamilton LRT). My impression is that these types of community meetings currently has more influence with the City of Hamilton, than the average Toronto community meetings does on City of Toronto. This is a recent phenomenon in today's era where community meetings actually hold great influence at such a crossroads in Hamilton direction. One of my goals is to help advocate things in way that Hamilton doesn't screw it up like they have done occasionally with other projects such as controversial moving the stadium location ...ugh, that drama...). :)

As a deaf guy who can't voice very well at community meetings or conventions, I am a very prolific online poster historically. I was the moderator of AVSFORUM, the Internet's biggest home theater forum, with over 7,000 posts, and I also run a discussion forum for computer hardware elsewhere. As a side effect of 20+ years of forum posting, I am very googleable and use my real name widely.

Now, back onto topic.
 
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smallspy said:
The new signalling system in place on most of the GO lines is a cell-band-based radio system called ATCS. As GO will be providing their own dispatching, they will also need to broadcast and receive from the various signal locations. I assume that this antenna will be for that.
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What's the range for ATCS? Do they also piggyback mobile carrier antennas on the same towers?

I ask since I have always observed my cell reception is rather nasty through the corridor near Mimico and Long Branch (ugh...)
 
mdrejhon said:
What's the range for ATCS? Do they also piggyback mobile carrier antennas on the same towers?
Click to expand...

Mostly, they have dedicated base towers (til now, owned by the railways) which are used for both ATCS and the VHF train radios. There is one at Aldershot, another in Milton, Streetsville, etc. There will continue to be a need for these base towers as the link for communication with the actual CTC hardware in the field. One tower in Oakville wouldn't be able to talk directly to all the field equipment.

One hopes that GO has a sensible arrangement to either buy the existing towers (where the lines now are owned by GO) or to share the towers with the railroads (where both need radio coverage). I sure hope GO doesn't go out and build its own towers, duplicating the coverage that already exists, but who knows. GO also has a UHF radio system that is used by both train and bus. I don't know where its towers are, but it is a large system covering the entire GO territory, so there must be many towers. (There is one by the Christie Plant at Mimico, it's quite separate from the VHF/ATCS towers).

What will be needed in Oakville is a central node - likely microwave - to link to these base towers. Some of the radio traffic will be with the Oakville control center, instead of with the CN dispatching center at MacMillan Yard or the CP center in Calgary. GO trains will still need to talk to the CP dispatcher, on the Milton line, and to the CN dispatcher on territory that CN owns. And CN and CP will continue to need the existing ATCS to control the lines they own. It's complicated :)

It will be interesting to see if GO moves its operations off the existing CP and CN VHF road channels. The CN road channel in particular is waaaay overcrowded - it amazes me that Transport Canada hasn't stepped in already, also surprises me that the unions tolerate the current conditions. There is arguably a huge safety issue with so many trains and foremen all talking over each other on the same channel.

As for your cell phone, no that isn't a conflict with ATCS. I won't ask you what cell carrier you use :)

- Paul
 
In addition to service boost on the Kitchener line being announced, I found the following quote in the article from the Star:

The province also announced that it will begin rebuilding the Oshawa GO station, a joint project with Via Rail, this fall for completion in mid-2017. The existing building will remain in use during construction and then demolished once the new station is working.

About 7,850 riders use the Oshawa station, accounting for about 16 per cent of GO’s ridership.

The $12 million cost of the overhaul is being shared between GO and Via.
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Does anyone know what the heck this is about? My understanding was that Once Lakeshore East was extended to Bowmanville, new stations in Oshawa would take over and the existing Oshawa station would be demolished (since the bridge over the 401 is west of it). I have no idea what this "rebuild" project is about.
 
DonValleyRainbow said:
Does anyone know what the heck this is about? My understanding was that Once Lakeshore East was extended to Bowmanville, new stations in Oshawa would take over and the existing Oshawa station would be demolished (since the bridge over the 401 is west of it). I have no idea what this "rebuild" project is about.
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This is an interesting development, if The Star is accurate.
-- Is this a possible TheStar re-interpretation of the brand new planned location of Oshawa station?
-- Will the rebuild also shift the location of the station westwards to "protect" for the future Bowmanville extension? Does anyone know?
-- If the new station is in the exactly same location, is it possible to read into this as a tacit acknowledgement that negotiations with CN found a far cheaper alternate way to extend to Bowmanville, even if not as appealing a route?

TheStar does sometimes mis-interprets sources. For example, TheStar thought the Stoufville would also become hourly too, not just Mt. Pleasant.
 
Given it's a joint project with VIA, it's pretty clear that it's a rebuild at the existing location, as VIA would have nothing to do with a site further north. The minister's press secretary was very clear that it's a rebuild on the current location. https://twitter.com/Patrick4ONT/status/634030916264960000

Not sure why there'd be speculation that it's not the same location, given the clear announcement.

Presumably the extension to Bowmanville north of the 401 is either dead, or so far in the future that it's as good as dead.
 
Or they're branching off east of the existing Oshawa station. Might be a good time to watch for property acquisition or demolition around there.
 
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