GO Transit: Construction Projects (Metrolinx, various)

[reaperexpress]

While riding the GO today, I noticed that there was a construction crew working on the UP platform at Mount Dennis. You’d have thought that with all the delays to Crosstown, it would be finished by now ! While some of the construction fencing is down, there were still plenty of toolboxes and piles of materials on hand.
It will be pretty, well, something if Crosstown finally opens but the GO/UP station isn’t ready.

The existing UP platforms have a 16 km/h speed limit for UP trains, presumably due to the low clearance between the permanently-affixed gap fillers and the platform. (There is no speed restriction for GO or Via rolling stock). It's possible they deliberately postponed installing the platform edges at Mount Dennis until the last possible moment, to avoid forcing UP trains to slow to 16 km/h at a station they don't stop at.

 

[ProjectEnd]

0 people on site…

 

[stevensontransit]

0 people on site…

View attachment 685395View attachment 685396

They’re just too lazy to getting the job done!

 

[Metroscapes]

They’re just too lazy to getting the job done!

They will do whatever work Metrolinx schedules and pays them for.

 

[crs1026]

0 people on site…

The suggestion of progress is just an illusion. Note the red flags on Track 1 (the new track is Track 0). Both tracks are missing north of the underpass, up to about Rogers Road. Supposedly to enable preliminary works for the St Clair Smarttrack station. The Kitchener line is down to two tracks at the moment.

My conspiracy theory is that there is some other item that is critical path and not immediately doable (my double conspiracy theory is that it is tied to the Crossways-TTC connection, which is progressing but has lots of work left to do), so the project has deferred all other parts as it's not the last minute yet. Or perhaps as suggested, funding has been yanked to cover some other overspend.

In any event, there is a basket of work that has to be completed before that new track has any real purpose
- Finish preliminary grading and lay trackage from Strachan up to Bloor
- Relocate a signals bungalow at Parkdale and/or grade and lay a new Barrie line track Strachan to Parkdale
- Complete the Randolph entrance to allow pedestrian access under the new track
- Add a turnout and control point at Black Creek to tie in the freight interchange to CPKC to the new track
- Restore the segment between St Clair and Rogers Road for Tracks 0 and 1

This whole project seems like a hobby farm that ML pokes at once in a while when spare change is available.

- Paul

 

[urbancog]

I used Bloor GO yesterday and also noted the lack of movement on the 4th KI track. There'd been some progress on the Randolph entrance structure - but no external cladding - so still weeks (at least) until completion, then the track can come through the station.

An isolated work zone - a green work zone in new MX parlance - has been created for work on the island platform for St Clair-Old Weston station, so I guess we won't see 2 north KI tracks back in service until that's complete.

 

[crs1026]

An isolated work zone - a green work zone in new MX parlance - has been created for work on the island platform for St Clair-Old Weston station, so I guess we won't see 2 north KI tracks back in service until that's complete.

I'm wondering whether, after the green zone on the east side is no longer needed and tracks 0-1 can be placed in service... will ML then take tracks 2-3 out of service to do similar work for a second St Clair platform.

If so, it will be many moons before that route is fully complete as a four track main line.

- Paul

 

[reaperexpress]

I'm wondering whether, after the green zone on the east side is no longer needed and tracks 0-1 can be placed in service... will ML then take tracks 2-3 out of service to do similar work for a second St Clair platform.

If so, it will be many moons before that route is fully complete as a four track main line.

- Paul

The St. Clair - Old Weston station is only intended to be served by local trains, so it only needs platforms on 2 of the 4 tracks. Last I heard was to use the 2 south/west tracks for local trains and the 2 north/east tracks as express, so the station only needs one island platform between the western pair of tracks

 

[WB62]

The St. Clair - Old Weston station is only intended to be served by local trains, so it only needs platforms on 2 of the 4 tracks. Last I heard was to use the 2 south/west tracks for local trains and the 2 north/east tracks as express, so the station only needs one island platform between the western pair of tracks

The previous plans had 2 to 3 physical platforms at St. Clair, I’m pretty sure the current plan is 2. Why would this station have needed 3 platforms in previous designs?

 

[reaperexpress]

The previous plans had 2 to 3 physical platforms at St. Clair, I’m pretty sure the current plan is 2. Why would this station have needed 3 platforms in previous designs?View attachment 685519View attachment 685518

Because Metrolinx is incapable of making decisions. They keep changing their mind about service levels and track configurations, so the infill stations along the Kitchener corridor had to be redesigned several times when they changed their minds about the track allocations. You'll also notice the platforms moving around at King-Liberty station from one design to the next.

And anyway, that second design confirms my statement that the station only needs to access the local pair of tracks - hence why they deleted the platform on the east side. The only difference between that drawing and my description is that the drawing uses side platforms instead of the centre platform I described. It's effectively the same thing.

 

[Bojaxs]

The St. Clair - Old Weston station is only intended to be served by local trains, so it only needs platforms on 2 of the 4 tracks. Last I heard was to use the 2 south/west tracks for local trains and the 2 north/east tracks as express, so the station only needs one island platform between the western pair of tracks

What constitutes a "local train"? One would argue that every GO train that uses the Kitchener line is a "local train".

 

[max]

What constitutes a "local train"? One would argue that every GO train that uses the Kitchener line is a "local train".

Express train:

Local train:

 

[Bojaxs]

Express train:
View attachment 685535

Local train:
View attachment 685536

I didn't even know the Kitchener line had express trains.

 

[ProjectEnd]

Because Metrolinx is incapable of making decisions. They keep changing their mind about service levels and track configurations, so the infill stations along the Kitchener corridor had to be redesigned several times when they changed their minds about the track allocations. You'll also notice the platforms moving around at King-Liberty station from one design to the next.

And anyway, that second design confirms my statement that the station only needs to access the local pair of tracks - hence why they deleted the platform on the east side. The only difference between that drawing and my description is that the drawing uses side platforms instead of the centre platform I described. It's effectively the same thing.

It's still so tragically funny that (not knowing any of the behind the scenes stuff, fair enough) Metrolinx brought in DB to tell them how to do things, then like absolute children decided that they had always known best and this entire [billion dollar?] affair wasn't worth it because we'd rather run things like provincial little commuter choo choo we always were. Surprised we're buying busted ass PHIs (gross) and not METRA-esque SD70s or something equally stupid. It's all so, so dumb.

 

[Amare]

If it were up to me i'd just outsource all provincial transit infrastructure projects to the Europeans or Japanese, because Ontario is soullessly lost and does know to do any of this properly.