Metrolinx/GO Georgetown Corridor Project

[unimaginative2]

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.

The RTP service levels calls for all day, 2-way Express Rail between Union Station and Brampton and all day, 2-way Regional Rail GO train service between Union Station and Georgetown. Express Rail is a high speed non-stop service with headways between trains as little as 5 minutes. Regional Rail trains stops at all stations with headways as little as 10 minutes.

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).

Each 10 car GO train can carry 1,500 seated passengers. The Express trains take about 47 minutes to travel between Union Station and Brampton. The Regional Rail trains take about 28 minutes. When the 2031 AM Peak Hour rider-ship and service level demands are translated into train numbers north of Weston, 7 Express Rail, 6 Regional Rail and 1 VIA trains are required operating in the southbound direction.. The Express Rail trains cannot share the same tracks as the Regional Rail trains, as they would overtake them. For this reason, the Express Trains and the Regional Rail trains need separate dedicated tracks.

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.

In the northbound direction (counter-peak flow), 4 Express Rail, 4 Regional Rail and 1 VIA train are required. It is also not possible to operate all these trains on one track as the Express trains would overtake the Regional Rail trains. For this reason, the Express Trains require one track and the Regional Rail and VIA trains require another track

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.

However, the RTP calls for the electrification of the Express Rail on the Georgetown Corridor within 15 years.

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.

• Regional Rail - Union Station to Brampton - 43 minutes + 2 minutes each for future Eglinton and a potential Woodbine stops);
• Express Rail southbound with Bramalea stop – 28 minute (20 minutes from Union Station to Bramalea + 8 minutes Bramalea to Brampton);
• VIA northbound – Union Station to Pearson - 39 minutes (37 minutes + 2 minutes
for Brampton Stop);
• VIA southbound – Union Station to 32 minutes.
• Electric Express Rail -24 minutes + 2 minutes for Bramalea stop
• Electric Regional Rail -38 minutes
• Conventional or Electric UPRL – Union Station to Pearson Junction and vice versa, with two intermediate stops at Bloor and Weston, 19 minutes.
• Operating margin between trains - minimum of 4 minutes based on signal wake simulations and using a performance factor of 75%.

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.

[Second_in_pie]

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.

A stop in Liberty Village would be great. I'm still not sure whether a King or Queen street stop would be better from a regional point of view though... Unfortunately, it doesn't make much sense to do both.

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.

I think this should definitely be in their plans. It would probably require a lot of tunneling, but then (as you said,) a regional transportation hub could be created at Pearson. This could interlink with the Finch LRT, Eglinton, Mississauga Transitway and (possibly/hopefully) a revived GO ALRT route. I would think that Metrolinx (who seems to absolutely love these transportation hubs,) would totally support this idea.



I agree though, in general things seem to be going quite well. Thanks for the update too!

[kettal]

1. SNC LAvalin has an exclusivity agreement which will prevent the airport from being serviced by GO transit. This probably means no hub there

2. Liberty village station would have pedestrian access from both King & Queen streets. a GO station is so large that the north end of the platform will be almopst at Queen while the south end at King.

[unimaginative2]

A stop in Liberty Village would be great. I'm still not sure whether a King or Queen street stop would be better from a regional point of view though... Unfortunately, it doesn't make much sense to do both.

That's a good point. I'm inclined to think Queen, with a walkway along the tracks down to King.

I think this should definitely be in their plans. It would probably require a lot of tunneling, but then (as you said,) a regional transportation hub could be created at Pearson. This could interlink with the Finch LRT, Eglinton, Mississauga Transitway and (possibly/hopefully) a revived GO ALRT route. I would think that Metrolinx (who seems to absolutely love these transportation hubs,) would totally support this idea.

Exactly! Any high-speed service would have to connect directly with the airport, so if you're going to build a tunnel for one, you may as well build it for all. It wouldn't even mean missing any stations on the existing route.

It's a shame that Metrolinx excised most of the more interesting and creative ideas from their regional plan. We're back to pretty much the laundry list of existing municipal projects, albeit tweaked a bit, that we had in MoveOntario 2020.

1. SNC LAvalin has an exclusivity agreement which will prevent the airport from being serviced by GO transit. This probably means no hub there

Good point, but a high-speed project will be (unfortunately) sufficiently long-term that it won't likely be an issue anymore. At any rate, Lavalin would almost certainly be involved in a high-speed project, so they would surely trade a loosened agreement for such a juicy project.

2. Liberty village station would have pedestrian access from both King & Queen streets. a GO station is so large that the north end of the platform will be almopst at Queen while the south end at King.

Sort of. A station at Queen would stretch about halfway to King.

The other reason they're panicking about a Liberty Village station is that it would be built on a curve. It's hardly the sharpest curve around, and with the existing low platforms, people have to watch their step anyway.

Speaking of platforms, will GO ever start looking into building high-platform stations for level boarding?

[EnviroTO]

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.

You can also see in Table 5.2.2-1 that they have reduced maximum speed due to their steep gradient changes at the West Toronto Diamond and around Weston. With a plan to reduce gradient change rates and with improvements to track condition they could have speeds of 95mph (153km/h) from Queen to Brampton (maybe more) but with current GO projects will be restricted to 70mph (112km/h) at West Toronto Diamond Underpass and 75mph (120km/h) at Weston. As I have said all along this is not being built in a way which could support high speed rail... quite the opposite as their projects are creating areas of reduced maximum speeds. The reality is that the tracks must go under more streets to support higher speeds in the corridor. If a track speed of 110mph had been set as a design condition for the entire project the plans would look very different.

[unimaginative2]

You're absolutely right. You should really look at that charette document and take it apart, since you've obviously put a lot of thought into this.

[AnarchoSocialist]

That is a very well thought analysis of the project Enviro. And I would tend to agree with you on most of the points you raise.

I do think there are some shortcomings, but, even then, there is a positive side to them, at least from my perspective. That the airport rail spur is only a single track is not all that bad. Really, a rail spur is far from the ideal solution. As you said the whole line should head right through the airport with a station that drops you off right at the terminal and is there for all rail services to use. Having said that, the project would not be cheap, and if it is not going to be done right, then at least a cost efficient rail spur that will serve its purpose in the interim is an alright solution for the meantime.

Same goes with the lack of accommodation for high speed rail. One, I don't really blame Metrolinx for not addressing it when there is not even a plan of any sort in place. Second, yes it would be great if all the work could be done at once, but when the time comes for high speed service (and probably for a proper station at Pearson at the same time), I don't think it will be much of a setback or add too much to the overall cost of the project.

Overall Metrolinx has come a long way and the thinking behind rail service in the GTA has changed quite a bit in just a few short years. I have never really expected for views to just one day radically shift from GO as an elitist commuter service to that you might find in European rail authorities. It will take time. But, at least the changes are happening, to the point where I don't really worry too much about it anymore. Views and plans are changing and in a few more years time I suspect that most major rail agencies in Canada will be putting together very solid, and progressive plans.

[Coruscanti Cognoscente]

Rerouting Georgetown through Pearson is at about the same level of practicality as rerouting Milton through MCC: it should happen, but doing so would be expensive. In Milton's case, Erindale would probably have to be moved, and I don't see that happening any time soon since they're building a parking garage there soon. Would Malton station have to be moved if Georgetown were to be rerouted?

[Prometheus The Supremo]

imagine if you will, tunneled tracks branching off the georgetown corridor, connecting to a station underneath the airport and then meeting up the with georgetown corridor again. electrified and switches in place so you have the selection of which trains to send to the airport (as long as they're not using diesel of course). no silly spur line that has to conform to roadways and buildings & be a reduced speed section because of that. it would be a nice gradual curve. you can have special GO trains that are airport trains and if you don't want to go to the airport, you can always take the next train that doesn't go to the airport. heck, even blue22 (express trains) could use it.



doesn't that sound sexy? such connectivity.

[Second_in_pie]

^^ Yep, that does sound sexy. What I'd do is just re route the entire line tunneled to the airport. Just after Etobicoke North Station, it could start turning south towards Pearson, then go back north and continue on the current route at Bramlea. Just like the Milton line rerouting, it unfortunately makes just a bit too much sense for it to actually happen.

[vegeta_skyline]

I'd say its more about dollars and cents - its more than the government is willing to divvy up.
You just gotta love our governments, shortsighted and cheap.

[EnviroTO]

I never expected this project to divert the corridor to Pearson and electrify the line. That should be the ultimate solution but as long as money isn't being spent on things that will preclude that from happening in the future I don't have a problem. However, in some places the corridor isn't wide enough that there will be a second chance to do it right later without throwing far more money at the problem in the future than would be required now to leave options open. Once you have filled the entire ROW with tracks and have laid out a schedule where a track cannot be taken out of service without cancelling trains you have put yourself in a position where any future solution is far more expensive.

At the West Toronto Diamond there will still be enough room to put in an extra track to allow underpass construction at St.Clair and Dupont in the future. At Weston it will be much more expensive to put the rail corridor under Lawrence in the future due to space restrictions. They could have left the door open to high speed rail by raising Lawrence to grade and having the corridor pass under Lawrence and Denison.

I am generally supportive of the project as a whole and while I see the spur line to the airport as sub-optimal the fact that it will be built by a third party without tax payer dollars I don't care as much.

If high-speed is built in the future to run west of Toronto the optimal routing would be in the Georgetown corridor from downtown to just west of Etobicoke North station where it enters a tunnel to get to the airport (roughly under Vulcan and Elmbank) with a station at the northwesterly end of the T1 parking garage. From there regional rail would take a tunnel to the north end of the airport to reconnect to the corridor near Drew and Kimbel while the high-speed rail would exit the airport around Derry and Dixie to access the hydro corridor taking it quickly to open fields.

[unimaginative2]

I'd say its more about dollars and cents - its more than the government is willing to divvy up.
You just gotta love our governments, shortsighted and cheap.

I don't think that's what it is. The government is spending billions upon billions on transit right now. Ths issue is that they aren't doing a single think that hasn't been talked about for years and that hasn't been on various municipal wish lists. I had high hopes for the comprehensive Metrolinx planning process, but the final plan discarded all of the more innovative ideas of the discussion papers and stuck with the laundry list of municipal projects that we had with MoveOntario2020. We're still in a situation where one municipality has LRT, one has busway, another has subway simply because that's what the local municipality was planning to build.

If high-speed is built in the future to run west of Toronto the optimal routing would be in the Georgetown corridor from downtown to just west of Etobicoke North station where it enters a tunnel to get to the airport (roughly under Vulcan and Elmbank) with a station at the northwesterly end of the T1 parking garage. From there regional rail would take a tunnel to the north end of the airport to reconnect to the corridor near Drew and Kimbel while the high-speed rail would exit the airport around Derry and Dixie to access the hydro corridor taking it quickly to open fields.

That's pretty much what I would have in mind. The diversion was actually studied a few years back. The plan is buried in the reports somewhere. It was more or less as you describe, returning to the Georgetown corridor around Drew and Kimbel.

I don't know whether it would make more sense to build the high-speed line along the existing Georgetown corridor or along a new alignment. It would require much more detailed study. The Weston/Halton/Guelph sub is certainly straight and well-suited to a high-speed line, but the path through Brampton is quite crowded and might limit speeds.

I'd build the station in between T1 and T3, perhaps with the centre in the area between Pier D and the access roadway. It's a shame this couldn't have been done (or at least a shell built, like at Mirabel and Dulles) during construction of the new T1. It will now be quite a bit more challenging.

[Second_in_pie]

I'd build the station in between T1 and T3, perhaps with the centre in the area between Pier D and the access roadway. It's a shame this couldn't have been done (or at least a shell built, like at Mirabel and Dulles) during construction of the new T1. It will now be quite a bit more challenging.

I might do this, or acquire a parking lot (possibly the one that's at the terminus of the people mover, or another parking lot that the people mover could be extended to. Here you could build a BIG transit hub, that could connect with busses (including Go Busses using the 401,) Subways, LRTs, Regional Rail and Blue22. It would then have two primary purposes, the first being to serve Pearson, and the second being a transportation hub.

On another Georgetown-related note, a stop that I'm rather surprised is missing is a stop at Eglinton and Black Creek Drive. Especially when Georgetown becomes more Regional Rail/Metro like, it could attract a lot of people coming off the 400 down Black Creek Drive to take Go for the last leg of their trip (whether they're going to Pearson or Downtown,) not to mention connecting with Eglinton.

[EnviroTO]

On another Georgetown-related note, a stop that I'm rather surprised is missing is a stop at Eglinton and Black Creek Drive. Especially when Georgetown becomes more Regional Rail/Metro like, it could attract a lot of people coming off the 400 down Black Creek Drive to take Go for the last leg of their trip (whether they're going to Pearson or Downtown,) not to mention connecting with Eglinton.

It is already planned, is in the Georgetown EA, and tracks will be spaced out appropriately to allow for it to be built easily. It has been waiting for the Eglinton line to be built.