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407 Rail Freight Bypass/The Missing Link

In closed session at the upcoming Metrolinx Board meeting, there is an agenda item for "freight operators". Because it's in closed session there's no report (and not clear if it's just a discussion or the agenda item has a report.) I'm going to cross-post this to the GO Service thread.
 
 
I noticed this recent article with quotes from Doug Ford and the Minister. Emphasis added below for the potential relevance to this thread.
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Ontario PC leader Doug Ford promises to relook at GTA West corridor in visit to Caledon gas station

NEWS 12:00 PM by Karen Martin-Robbins Caledon Enterprise

Progressive Conservative leader Doug Ford’s election bus rolled into Caledon on Monday, April 23 for a quick visit.

In a five-minute speech, Ford promised, if elected in June, to restart the environmental assessment process on the GTA West Corridor.

“We’re all about building infrastructure in transportation,” Ford said.

After more than a decade of planning and study, in February the provincial government walked away from its GTA West highway plans to pursue a smaller-scaled alternative. The highway through north Peel and Halton would have run near the current 407 toll highway and connected Highway 400 in Vaughan with Highway 407/Highway 401 in the west. Studies have been ongoing since 2007.

At the time, Dufferin-Caledon MPP Sylvia Jones criticized Ontario’s Liberal government for spending more than $14 million before axing the project.

“Our goal is to build more roads and more infrastructure, getting people from point A to point B, because traffic in Toronto and the GTA is a nightmare,” Ford said Monday.

Minister of Transportation Kathryn McGarry said a lot has changed since the project was started and they accepted an advisory panel's recommendation that the proposed highway is not necessarily the best way to address transportation demand in the area.

"We know that gridlock is one of the greatest challenges we face in this region and we have consistently invested in highway infrastructure where it makes sense," McGarry said, in response to Ford.

"For the northwest GTA corridor, I have directed the ministry to proceed with a planning study to explore other infrastructure opportunities for this corridor, including utility needs, rail, as well as other transit options," she said.

The Liberals expect the new study to take between nine and 12 months to be completed. A corridor that is approximately one-third of the size of the area covered by the former GTA West environmental assessment is being protected from development while the planning study is underway, she said.

Ontario’s election is set for June 7.
 
Politicians on the hustings are so predictable: go to cheese factory and say you love cows; go to Northern Ontario (probably for the first time in your life) and say you love northerners; go to a gas station and say you love cars and roads.
 
A question was asked at the April 30th Metrolinx Town Hall about more service for the Kitchener Line. Phil and Greg answered. Below is the video timed to the full answer.

While most of us who are following the issue a;ready be aware of what was said, the part I found interesting was Greg's response that he's been in Montreal negotiating with CN Rail over the last three our of the last four weeks. There might be other parts of the response I'm missing that are of interest.

 
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^ For we with technically challenged internet, can you give us the time of that segment?

- Paul
 
^ When you click on the big red play button it should automatically go to the time marker I set (if you click on the white text to should do the same as it's a link). 1hr 20min in.
 
Thanks - somehow Youtube won’t play nice, but I got there the long way.

It’s encouraging that discussions are still happening.... so hard to know if that’s progress or not. The comment that they also want some interim improvements is also encouraging, but I can’t imagine CN allowing that unless there were an overall deal.

My takeaway is - they aren’t getting anywhere close yet.

- Paul
 
crs1026 said:
My takeaway is - they aren’t getting anywhere close yet.
Click to expand...
It's a shell game. Sure as Hell, if they did have some semblance of something substantial, Del Boy, even though it's no longer his file, would be out there with polished shoes and scalp, and a podium.

But then, some put faith in an "Agreement in Principle"...which legally, means absolutely nothing save for drinks and dinner, and pats on the back.

In fairness to Verster, he's excellent in dealing with the public, my patience was tested just listening to most of the questions presented. Compared to the last public massage, this was lame save for only a couple of questioners.

If I had to take notes of this, the text would read "blah, blah, promised, blah, blah...".

As to the Youtube 'pick-up where you left-off' index. It applies only to the user and even that is dependent on cookies. In stealth mode, even the user wouldn't pick-up where they left off, let alone others sent the link. It's not the link that carries that info.
 
Allandale25 said:
As to the Youtube 'pick-up where you left-off' index. It applies only to the user and even that is dependent on cookies. In stealth mode, even the user wouldn't pick-up where they left off, let alone others sent the link. It's not the link that carries that info.
Click to expand...
Actually, there's a way to embed a jump into the link.
But the way the youtube embeds works on UrbanToronto, it's not supported for UrbanToronto embeds (although it's possible for embeds on other websites).

Allandale25 said:
While most of us who are following the issue a;ready be aware of what was said, the part I found interesting was Greg's response that he's been in Montreal negotiating with CN Rail over the last three our of the last four weeks. There might be other parts of the response I'm missing that are of interest.
Click to expand...
Hopefully this will also include interim solutions for the Hamilton/Niagara service as well.

Lewis yard in Grimsby is currently in use now. I think the two morning West Harbour GO trains are parked there overnight now.
 
Allandale25 said:
A question was asked at the April 30th Metrolinx Town Hall about more service for the Kitchener Line. Phil and Greg answered. Below is the video timed to the full answer.

While most of us who are following the issue a;ready be aware of what was said, the part I found interesting was Greg's response that he's been in Montreal negotiating with CN Rail over the last three our of the last four weeks. There might be other parts of the response I'm missing that are of interest.

Click to expand...
As a Brampton resident the frustrating part of that exchange (because the rest I "knew") was how they can talk about that line and the great opportunity it presents and the challenges it presents without saying the word "Brampton" once.........they really present themselves as if the only issue on the Kitchener corridor is getting more service to Kitchener.
 
^Not meant as disrespect - but - KW has an organized and effective business community and municipal council that can work effectively as partners to make the needs of their city known and deliver a coherent, unified, compelling message.

Brampton, not so much.

- Paul
 
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