GO Transit: Construction Projects (Metrolinx, various)

[Northern Light]

I thought the Ontario government recently cancelled King-Liberty station.

No.

@kotsy gave the gist above...

But to clarify, the province stuck its hand out for more money from the City to fund the so-called 'smart track' stations.

There wasn't a specific threat attached, it was an ask.

The City has formally taken the position that a deal is a deal and there is no more money.

They then noted that if the province chose not to make up any shortfall, they prioritized certain stations over others.

The ball is now back with the province who can decide whether to eat the shortfall or not.

As I noted recently in some thread or another, preparatory works for the station continue while the province mulls it over.

 

[Northern Light]

None of the big banks own either their new office towers or their old ones. They're pretty much all owned by pension funds who rent them to the banks.

Correct. But just to add to that for everyone:

TD Centre: Owner - Cadillac Fairview (Ontario Teacher's Pension Fund)
160 Front: Owners Same as above.

CIBC Square: Owners: Ivanhoe Cambridge (The Quebec Pension Plan)

Commerce Court: Quadreal (BC provincial workers pension, BCIMC)

First Canadian Place: Owner Manulife Insurance

Royal Bank Plaza is an exception to the institution ownership, it used to be owned by Oxford but is currently owned by: Amancio Ortega (the billionaire who owns Zara)

as is

Scotia Plaza: Owner Kingsett

 

[sixrings]

Correct. But just to add to that for everyone:

TD Centre: Owner - Cadillac Fairview (Ontario Teacher's Pension Fund)
160 Front: Owners Same as above.

CIBC Square: Owners: Ivanhoe Cambridge (The Quebec Pension Plan)

Commerce Court: Quadreal (BC provincial workers pension, BCIMC)

First Canadian Place: Owner Manulife Insurance

Royal Bank Plaza is an exception to the institution ownership, it used to be owned by Oxford but is currently owned by: Amancio Ortega (the billionaire who owns Zara)

as is

Scotia Plaza: Owner Kingsett

Ok. But it’s the same thing. There is a vested interest in getting people back in the office. Even if it means we need added transit and it means more cars on the road.

 

[nfitz]

No.

@kotsy gave the gist above...

But to clarify, the province stuck its hand out for more money from the City to fund the so-called 'smart track' stations.

There wasn't a specific threat attached, it was an ask.

The City has formally taken the position that a deal is a deal and there is no more money.

They then noted that if the province chose not to make up any shortfall, they prioritized certain stations over others.

The ball is now back with the province who can decide whether to eat the shortfall or not.

As I noted recently in some thread or another, preparatory works for the station continue while the province mulls it over.

Well that's a bit more optimistic than I thought!

 

[PShells]

I read the Metrolinx Board meetings to get information on upcoming construction work. I checked today to see if any materials have been published for the February meeting.

Board Meetings

Meetings of the Metrolinx Board of Directors.

www.metrolinx.com

The update on the website suggests there will be no February meeting this year. The next meeting is scheduled for June.

 

[ProjectEnd]

Correct. But just to add to that for everyone:

TD Centre: Owner - Cadillac Fairview (Ontario Teacher's Pension Fund)
160 Front: Owners Same as above.

CIBC Square: Owners: Ivanhoe Cambridge (The Quebec Pension Plan)

Commerce Court: Quadreal (BC provincial workers pension, BCIMC)

First Canadian Place: Owner Manulife Insurance

Royal Bank Plaza is an exception to the institution ownership, it used to be owned by Oxford but is currently owned by: Amancio Ortega (the billionaire who owns Zara)

as is

Scotia Plaza: Owner Kingsett

AIMCo owns 50% of Scotia with KS.

 

[evandyk]

I believe TD does actually own part of the new tower at 160 Front.

TD Bank leases 33 floors, buys 30% stake in CF’s 160 Front St. W.

TD Bank Group is taking a 30 per cent ownership stake in 160 Front Street West and will occupy 840,000 square feet over 33 floors of the downtown Toronto office building. Cadillac Fairview will own 50 per cent of the

renx.ca

 

[Allandale25]

I read the Metrolinx Board meetings to get information on upcoming construction work. I checked today to see if any materials have been published for the February meeting.

Board Meetings

Meetings of the Metrolinx Board of Directors.

www.metrolinx.com

The update on the website suggests there will be no February meeting this year. The next meeting is scheduled for June.

Probably because of the Provincial election.

 

[nfitz]

Probably because of the Provincial election.

Absolutely because of the provincial election. We see this everytime.

 

[drum118]

Absolutely because of the provincial election. We see this everytime.

It happen to the public online meeting this month for the Hurontario LRT. Have seen meetings cancel only for this election, but all elections as it deem favoring someone.

 

[canarob]

Workers doing something at the famous missing West Highland Creek bridge on the Stouffville line today. The mystery continues.

 

[PShells]

If you've passed another train between Kennedy and Agincourt, that means that they have completed the track shifts in that section and have completely activated the second track. Which is what the work over the past two weekends was to do.

Dan

Update from December:

It appears as if the second track between Agincourt and Kennedy has not been activated for passing. I am suggesting this based on the second track remaining covered in snow as of this morning. The southbound train track shifts from the west to east tracks near the former Ellesmere SRT station.

 

[crs1026]

Maybe I’m the last to notice, but I stumbled on the developer’s Woodbine GO documentation, just passing this on in case others are interested. There is always the possibility that stuff disappears, so someone may consider archiving it
.

New GO Station Coming to Woodbine Racetrack - Woodbine Racetrack

Woodbine Entertainment Group (WEG) and Metrolinx have partnered to construct a new GO station in Toronto. Click here to learn more.

woodbine.com

- Paul

 

[urbancog]

This nudged me to look at the timetable on their Woodbine Community Plan site (woodbinecommunityplan.com). I don't think this has been updated since the site was created. Still baffles me that they need 4 years to build a relatively simple, above ground, station.

Hopefully they can phase the construction to bring the southern platform and a bridge on stream before the rest of the station to enable closure of Etobicoke North and commissioning of the 401/409 tunnels.

 

[crs1026]

View attachment 631698
This nudged me to look at the timetable on their Woodbine Community Plan site (woodbinecommunityplan.com). I don't think this has been updated since the site was created. Still baffles me that they need 4 years to build a relatively simple, above ground, station.

Hopefully they can phase the construction to bring the southern platform and a bridge on stream before the rest of the station to enable closure of Etobicoke North and commissioning of the 401/409 tunnels.

This timeline gives a lot of room to ask what is going on.

If this was the original plan for the station timing, then the announcement by Ministers Yurek and Surman in 2019 was a farce.

If this was the original plan for ML to open the station, then the whole ML work plan to build the tunnels (and related work to create a fourth track on the Weston Sub) created a decade of financing charges on close to $90M in tunnel construction (plus possibly other things) that could have been deferred..... also a farce.

- Paul