Toronto Union Pearson Express | ?m | ?s | Metrolinx | MMM Group Limited

Allandale25 said:
For anyone new here or was too young at the time, can you remind us the elements that were cut back in the GTS scope? I think I know but rather than guess I think you got the best memory for this.
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There were reductions in the amount of trackage built and in signalling. Ten years later, there are signal bridges and signal masts that still aren't in use. Lots of dummy signal heads erected but never turned on. Signalling for the CP Milton line was never cut over to the new signalling system.

A certain amount of the fencing and sound walls were deferred and funded separately in the years after the project was declared complete.

- Paul
 
crs1026 said:
There were reductions in the amount of trackage built and in signalling. Ten years later, there are signal bridges and signal masts that still aren't in use. Lots of dummy signal heads erected but never turned on. Signalling for the CP Milton line was never cut over to the new signalling system.

A certain amount of the fencing and sound walls were deferred and funded separately in the years after the project was declared complete.

- Paul
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Could one also argue the Bloor-Dundas tunnel connection, the Weston 4th platform, and the 401-409 tunnels should have been part of the original GTS scope?
 
Allandale25 said:
Could one also argue the Bloor-Dundas tunnel connection, the Weston 4th platform, and the 401-409 tunnels should have been part of the original GTS scope?
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I went back to a document that was slipped to me back while GTS was being built... it showed the Newmarket Sub beginning at Strachan Ave (ie extended from the current junction at Parkdale), a "Midday Service and Layover Facility" where the Resources Road site now exists, and provision for four tracks under the 401 (without explaining how they would fit, as the existing underpass only barely managed three). I would say that any planning for the fourth track at 401 definitely fell out of GTS and ended up as a later standalone project.

There was also a very detailed plan for an EMU maintenance facility at Resources Road. The whole premise of electrified UPX seems to have disappeared in that era.

The Airway and Wice (originally named Woodbine) junctions were built for one additional track over what was built, I understand that the wiring was built in at that time. There are as yet unused signals all through that territory, although some sections of that fourth track were labelled "future". Fourth track at Weston was labelled "future" but Mount Dennis (then just called "Eglinton LRT" was to have four full tracks and platforms.

I would say that the fourth track was a nice-to-have that likely lost favour as budgets shrunk. The futureproofing of that track was respected, but more might have been built if the major construction setbacks (eg water conditions at West Toronto, the 2013 ice storm, and the CTA order to not work at night) hadn't thrown the cost out of whack.

- Paul
 

Confidential Metrolinx report reveals why UP Express had to be suddenly shut down for a day in March​

From https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/confidential-metrolinx-report-reveals-why-up-express-had-to-be-suddenly-shut-down-for-a-day-in-march/article_5275dfce-2d09-417f-a57d-693995a083df.html

At the time, the provincial transit agency said the UP Express was shut down for nearly 11 hours on March 5 for “unexpected track work.”

Almost a month after a GO train derailed near Union Station because of missing screws on a track fastener, the UP Express to Pearson airport was suddenly shut down after a similar problem was discovered, according to a report obtained by the Star.

On March 5, service on the Union-Pearson Express was unexpectedly suspended for 11 hours, forcing commuters on the line between the airport and Union Station to take shuttle buses. At the time, Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency, said the shutdown was due to “unplanned track work.”

An internal Metrolinx report written the following day shows that “wide gauge defects” were discovered on both the east and west tracks of the airport train line, just outside of Pearson airport.

Those defects included several sections of track with missing or broken fasteners, which led to the rail moving a half-inch out of alignment.

Rail experts who reviewed the details of the incident for the Star said the shift in the track was caught by Metrolinx well before it became problematic, but it could have caused a derailment if it had gone unnoticed, as more trains running on the track could have moved the tracks further apart.

The missing and broken bolts were not caught by the private contractor paid by Metrolinx to maintain the line, a situation similar to what led to the February derailment of a GO train just outside of Union Station.

Ian Naish, a former rail safety director for the federal Transportation Safety Board, said the similarity was “serious.”

“To me, there may be a question of, ‘Do the maintenance people have the right experience maintaining those types of tracks?” said Naish.
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When asked about the report, Metrolinx spokesperson Lyndsay Miller said that the “issue” had been caught during scheduled track testing and has been repaired.

“Metrolinx regularly inspects and services all assets, to identify and address conditions that may require immediate or longer-term intervention, which was the case on March 5,” Miller added.

The missing and broken bolts were found in a three-kilometre section of the UP Express called the Pearson subdivision. That stretch of the line has been especially prone to track failures since it opened in 2015, the Star reported on Wednesday, and several consultants hired by Metrolinx have failed to solve the underlying problems.

In February, Metrolinx awarded a $591.7-million contract to the consulting firm HDR to undertake a detailed engineering study of the section of UP Express track where the missing and broken bolts were discovered.
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Union derailment parallels​

On Feb. 2, a similar instance of track movement led to a train derailing just outside of Union Station. No one was injured in the early morning derailment, which caused commuting chaos for days.

In that case, according to a report by Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay, 18 screws were missing from fasteners that held the tracks down and nine more screws then broke, causing the track to shift by 1.125 inches and roll, leading to the train leaving the tracks.

The initial missing screws went unnoticed over the course of a decade’s worth of inspections done by the private contractor in charge of inspecting and maintaining the tracks, according to Lindsay.
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The March 6 report on the UP Express incident blames Siemens Mobility, the contractor responsible for both the maintenance and inspection of the UP Express tracks near Pearson, for not identifying or repairing the missing bolts before Metrolinx spotted the problem.

Allowing the missing and broken bolts “to progress to a place where they represent operational and safety exposure is a reflection of the inspection and maintenance quality,” according to the internal Metrolinx report.

“Visual inspections failed to either identify or protect the deterioration of the track prior to the development of a defect.”

Siemens deferred to Metrolinx in response to the Star’s request for comment.

According to publicly available documents, Siemens was awarded a $108-million contract in 2023 to maintain parts of Metrolinx’s tracks and signals. Neither Siemens nor Metrolinx would disclose the length of the contract.

A followup engineering directive issued on March 9 by Metrolinx’s chief engineer ordered “weekly walking inspections” of the entirety of the tracks outside of Pearson until further notice.
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Avoiding the worst-case scenario​

Because the fasteners that keep the UP Express tracks in place had broken, the tracks had moved by 0.5 inches, according to the report.

Once that happened, the rails were not perfectly spaced, said Jeff Casello, a professor of engineering and planning at the University of Waterloo.

“One of the critical operating parameters that makes a rail system safe is precision and how far apart the rails are,” Casello said.

Over time, if the rails aren’t spaced properly, trains can derail, he added.

The curved section of the UP Express line where the track had shifted was especially vulnerable because a turning train causes more strain on the bolts that hold the tracks in place, Casello said.

“Imagine that a train is coming through that curve and the outside rail gets pushed far enough so that the train actually shifts off the inside rail — that could lead to a derailment for sure,” Casello said.

The bigger question for Naish is how this was missed by the maintenance contractor.

“You think they would know after 10 years of operation whether there are defects and how to fix them,” Naish said. “But it doesn’t seem that they’ve done that.”

Still, the missing and broken fasteners were caught “long before it became potentially very problematic,” Casello said, “which is a different case than what we saw at Union.”
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The main problem seems to be near the elevated portion of the UPX near the airport.

During the repair work, they could run the UPX to and from Mount Dennis Station. Passengers transfer to and from the 901 Airport-Eglinton Express bus. It was not implemented when Line 5 opened, but could be implemented at this point.
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nfitz said:
The Bloor-Dundas connection WAS part of the original scope. Which David Miller has been heckling Metrolinx about, for years on Twitter.
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If you want to go back further, it was part of the original scope of the Geogetown GO line when it opened in April 1974, so this is not quite exclusively a Metrolinx issue.

Dan
 
smallspy said:
If you want to go back further, it was part of the original scope of the Geogetown GO line when it opened in April 1974, so this is not quite exclusively a Metrolinx issue.
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Indeed it was; and they roughed some of it into Crossways when it was built when it was built, just after that; but without provisions for elevators.

I think I linked to some documents earlier in the thread (or the Dundas West station thread), last decade. But I don't think the 1970s was actually a commitment. Metrolinx has answered every question for a decade about the connection with a "we're working on it" type answer.
 
Monarch Butterfly said:

Confidential Metrolinx report reveals why UP Express had to be suddenly shut down for a day in March​

From https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/confidential-metrolinx-report-reveals-why-up-express-had-to-be-suddenly-shut-down-for-a-day-in-march/article_5275dfce-2d09-417f-a57d-693995a083df.html

At the time, the provincial transit agency said the UP Express was shut down for nearly 11 hours on March 5 for “unexpected track work.”






The main problem seems to be near the elevated portion of the UPX near the airport.

During the repair work, they could run the UPX to and from Mount Dennis Station. Passengers transfer to and from the 901 Airport-Eglinton Express bus. It was not implemented when Line 5 opened, but could be implemented at this point.
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They need more money to implement this route. TTC isn’t doing very well in fare box recovery these days and relies on subsidies to keep the system afloat.
 
UP Express from the moment construction started a project to spend the least amount to connect the downtown to the airport. Initially there was a study that was about a corridor diversion which would have allowed the airport to be a stop for through trains (VIA, GO Kitchener), then the cut that back to a spur, and then they cut that back to a spur on the cheap that required the craziest sharp turn after passing under the 427 and almost no expropriation at all.
 
A lot of upset people trying to get to the airport from Union today with UPX out of service. Was this an anticipated downtime to fix the issues outlined above or another unexpected shutdown? If this can’t be fixed, it’s gonna be fun during the World Cup. 😒
 
nightstreak said:
A lot of upset people trying to get to the airport from Union today with UPX out of service. Was this an anticipated downtime to fix the issues outlined above or another unexpected shutdown? If this can’t be fixed, it’s gonna be fun during the World Cup. 😒f
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For some reason they only had buses going to highway 407 station.
 
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