I wonder what (if anything) the recent announcement about GO train expansion means for RER.
There will be 84 more train trips each week on the Lakeshore East, Lakeshore West and Kitchener lines, and 65 extended trips on the Lakeshore West, Kitchener and Stouffville lines.
www.thestar.com
The recent announcement had some positive gains that demonstrate progress, but the big news is mostly what’s going on elsewhere.
The improvements on the Kitchener Line are the most significant because they seem to indicate a breakthrough, or at least a crack in the wall, in the previous impasse with CN over the use of its Halton line. That’s good news.... but ML still has to invest a great deal more in the CN line and its own line through Guelph to fulfil a basic RER footprint. The new service plan plus the completion of the fourth track to Bramalea (in progress) is just enough of a taste of better things that public pressure is likely irreversible. The big impact in my view is that from this point, few pols of any stripe will stand in the way of spending the money. We may have passed the tipping point of public support on this line. The big thing to watch for is a public announcement of agreement with CN and some sort of procurement for Halton expansion.
The Hamilton improvements also reflect CN cooperation, plus finally extracting some value from a rather substantial investment in a new station and track that was virtually a white elephant for several years now. The added peak trains will be well received, but that just makes it clearer that ML really doesn’t have a strategy or assets to serve Hamilton by 2WAD. To move forward from this point, there has to be a firm plan backed up by lots of money. I don’t see evidence of this. ML is buying time here.
The Niagara service is window dressing and short term pain relief. Improving Niagara service is a spend-or-get-off-the-pot proposition. ML and the province are still playing charades here.
The big picture status report on RER is in what wasn’t said. Stouffville improvements are mostly in the bag, ML mostly just needs time to finish work already underway. Barrie is in the bag, but ML is only just breaking ground on construction.There won’t be any good news on the Barrie line for several years, so expect lots of similar announcements that address expectations and construction impacts on neighbouring communities. Meanwhile, LSE has been quietly deferred. That’s reality sinking in.... the Liberals played up RER as one big package but couldn’t afford it as such. ML has quietly decided on its priorities and aligned them with the funding that the new government will provide. We can debate ML’s priorities - every community wants to be first in line - but someone has to be last. I deplore ML’s lack of transparency and political timidity, but I support their stepping up to make tough decisions.
So, we will have Barrie, Stouffville, and Kitchener on their way towards equalling LSE/LSW as diesel powered, full service lines. That’s a big accomplishment. As for the electrified, 15 minute vision....that’s waay down the road, no way we will have that by 2025 IMHO.
The reality for ML is that they will have to make small gains sound awesome, until they have done enough construction to enable the big gains that get us somewhere meaningful. The previous government entered “silly season” with its incessant puffery over little things.. This government does some of that, but the bigger gains are quietly happening.
- Paul