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Metrolinx is beginning work on some smaller, easily implementable projects to improve GO service ahead of the looming major upgrades to bring 15 minute electrified GO service to the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.
GO Transit has been working on a new Hamilton GO Transit station for a while now, which is expected to allow for all day service to reach the city. The existing station is not capable of supporting all day service due to the small rail tunnel leading up to it which is only wide enough for a single track, while all day service requires 2 tracks. The new James North station, located 15 blocks north of the existing station on James Street, will also allow for an eventual extension of regular GO Train service into the Niagara region, if funding should materialize. The construction also includes a new train yard to store GO trains in Stoney Creek to support the increased service to Hamilton. The station is expected to be open for service in time for the Pan Am Games, although construction will continue into 2016 before the $44 million dollar station reaches completion.
GO Transit is also expanding rail service to Kitchener. It recently purchased a major part of the corridor from Georgetown to Kitchener, and is adding a rail yard in Kitchener to double the amount of trains leaving Kitchener to 4 from the current 2. The purchase of the track gives GO nearly complete control of the corridor, and is set to make the expansion of service in the future much easier. (A corridor capacity issue remains to be solved where the service passes through Brampton.) This work also coincides with the finishing up of GO Transit's largest ever project further south on the line, the Georgetown South upgrade.
On the Barrie line, Metrolinx is proceeding with construction of a new "passing track" from York University station to Rutherford Station. Although Metrolinx rarely reveals service plans until just before the service begins, the 6km track addition will likely allow for some sort of off-peak service on the Barrie line. The track will give GO trains roughly a 5 minute window to pass each other. Metrolinx also issued an engineering and design services RFP for the full expansion of the corridor, including an additional stop at St. Clair Avenue and the separation of the Davenport Diamond rail-to-rail crossing in The Junction. Design services for the line's expansion is expected to cost around $50 million dollars.
The biggest news to come out lately for GO Transit's early works on the GO RER program was the addition of 5km of track to the Stouffville Line. The line already has a roughly 1.5km long "passing track", running to the south of the 407, although it is considered too short for any truly useful purposes. The construction of an additional 5km of passing track will allow GO transit to introduce all day train service to the line. Construction of the additional track, which will upon completion run from Unionville to Agincourt stations, is expected to begin in the spring, with the full double tracking of the line from Kennedy to Unionville to begin in 2016. Upon completion of the initial passing track, GO will be able to provide hourly off-peak services on the line to Mount Joy station, and upon completion of the full double tracking, capable of 30 minute service to Unionville and hourly to Mount Joy. Eventually, GO plans to electrify the line and provide 15 minute service, however details on that portion of the project are still forthcoming.
GO Transit is also going to be moving forward with the multiple environmental assessments required for the full build-out of 15 minute electrified GO service. Initial estimates put the cost of the project in the $12 billion dollar range, and the work GO Transit is currently undertaking is expected to be just a small part of the huge expansion of GO service that will occur in the coming years.
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