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407 Rail Freight Bypass/The Missing Link

It's bizarre. Not only they are studying this for ages, but now they are taking a step BACKWARDS, and are going through a process to find a consultant to do further studies.
 
Allandale25 said:
@crs1026 any thoughts on this update?
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I’m out of town this month and not in touch with the usual grapevine, but my observation from the bleachers would be - procuring a “Technical Advisor” seems to be a standard step in how ML handles the first stage of these major projects - basically a technical expert who represents ML’s interests in discussions between planners, designers, etc. leading up to the EA and actual procurement. Which is a much more tangible set of activities and outputs than merely hiring a consultant to study something.

My inference is, there may now be QP support to get on with Kitchener, and likely enough of an indication of commitment from CN to make the effort more than hypothetical. Similar to what HSR triggered west of Kitchener, the first hurdle will be proving with detailed technical data that the bypass is doable and necessary - and a better option than continuing to share the existing line with CN. Once the EA is launched, those who are negatively impacted will be in a position to formally oppose the project. From the writeup, it sounds like the TA will oversee this diligence.

Why have we not heard about an agreement with CN? Because it is not necessary to set that in stone at this time, given that an EA hasn’t happened yet. Until the EA provides the preferred solution, it would be unwise for CN to say their needs have been met, let alone set a sale price. Besides, let another year go by and that agreement becomes a Ford accomplishment. All we need to have established is that CN is on board.... perhaps that’s now the case.

- Paul
 
I had time to read through the other presentations for the next ML Board meeting. Lesley Woo’s presentation shed a tiny bit more light on where things stand. There is a comment about the tender for study of the Kitchener Line which alludes to “options for journey time and service frequency”. Also a comment which says “some of these options anticipate the construction of a freight bypass....”
This could be read as backsliding to “we might build a bypass” rather than “we will build a bypass”.
Personally, I don’t take this as bad news. It may mean that someone in the Ford government asked the hard question “do we really need such an extreme and costly solution?” .... or ... someone in Legal pointed out that it’s bad form (and presents all sorts of room for legal challenge) if one enters an EA appearing to hold a predetermined planned outcome. Either way, it will take the hard data that a full study will deliver - so IMHO it is time well spent, and hopefully a transition away from the smoke, mirrors, and puffery of the Wynne era to putting real data on the table.
But yeah, no shovels in the ground for a while longer.

- Paul
 
crs1026 said:
It may mean that someone in the Ford government asked the hard question “do we really need such an extreme and costly solution?”
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I hope not. Without more timeslots on that bottleneck I don't see how we can get more GO service out to Kitchener. Getting more passenger trains on that route means removing freight.
 
Bureaucromancer said:
At the same time, Lesley [sic] Woo's involvement really seems to go with projects disappearing into the indefinite future...
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Not sure about that subjective view but if you listened to the last Metrolinx Q and A, Greg Percy the Chief Operating Officer of GO Transit, was in Montreal for several days over the course of a couple of months negotiating with CN Rail.
 
Allandale25 said:
Not sure about that subjective view but if you listened to the last Metrolinx Q and A, Greg Percy the Chief Operating Officer of GO Transit, was in Montreal for several days over the course of a couple of months negotiating with CN Rail.
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That would indicate they have slowed down negotiations....I mean several days over a couple of months is less than the at the negotiating table every day that the PR folks once said ;)
 
^ I'd need to go back and look at the video to provide the exact quote. It may have been over a few weeks.
 
I wonder what all there is to negotiate about? All CN needs is those two points linked, that's all. Once it's agreed that ONgov builds that link it should just be lawyers dotting the is and crossing the ts on a track-swap agreement. This isn't something like a CN/CP swap of old where what will be swapped is still fungible and open to question because there are nice to haves and must haves on both sides that might not match up. The bottleneck has been known for years, CN would be getting a new track (with corresponding lower maintenance costs for a many years) with no disruption to their business at no cost to themselves. What's left to negotiate?
 
^ Part of the reason that the discussions are still happening is because CN needed to see an electromagnetic field study. They wanted to know their communications systems and signals would function along the bypass tracks given they are beside high voltage towers. GO's COO mentioned this at the last Metrolinx Q and A. The study is done and the results were promising apparently.
 
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