GO Transit: Construction Projects (Metrolinx, various)

[canarob]

I've never gotten a straight answer as to why the line speeds are so low on Stouffville, but the track, structure and (for the most part) alignment on the section north of Kennedy Station to Markham is good for 70 or 80mph in theory.

Hopefully welded rail will allow for faster speeds. I'm sure five minutes could easily be shaved off here.

 

[smallspy]

Did they upgrade the crossing circuits when they installed CTC on the line? That would be an issue otherwise.

I don't know about upgrade, but they did (and have been) adjusting the circuits over the years throughout there. I don't know if you were around before GO bought the line, but Zone Speeds were down to 45 or 50mph in 2001. They're a bit higher than that now, although since I don't have any of my timetables here I don't know how much higher they are today.

Also There's a fairly tight S-curve around Lawrence that would limit speeds in that section. And there's some decent grade changes along the entire stretch, though that alone wouldn't necessarily limit top speed.

That S-curve was also realigned a bit - 3 or 4 feet at least - as part of the improvements in 2002 and 2003. If it was good enough for 45 or 50 before, you would think that it should be able to do better than that now.

Hopefully welded rail will allow for faster speeds. I'm sure five minutes could easily be shaved off here.

The rail is entirely welded north of Scarborough. In fact, GO has been telling people now that their trains are not capable of running on jointed rail.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.

 

[vegeta_skyline]

I don't know if you were around before GO bought the line, but Zone Speeds were down to 45 or 50mph in 2001. They're a bit higher than that now, although since I don't have any of my timetables here I don't know how much higher they are

Unfortunately they haven't changed at all since then. Zone speeds are still only a brutally slow 40mph from Scarborough to Agincourt and then the line tops out at 50mph from there until Stouffville, with a couple PSO's sprinkled in between.

 

[innsertnamehere]

I find it always crawls through (the town of) unionville as well, pulling into centennial.

Its just a slow line in general I find. Getting off the subdivision and onto the Kingston sub its always refreshing to suddenly get up to 120km/h. Or as occurred last week, almost 150km/h.

 

[Transportfan]

I find it always crawls through (the town of) unionville as well, pulling into centennial.

Why don't you just say between Hwy. 7 and McCowan? Unionville hasn't been a physically distinct town since well before you were born. Why the hell does everybody persist in this hicksville perception for everything outside the Toronto city limits?

 

[innsertnamehere]

Why do they call it Yorkville still? it hasn't been a town since the 1800's. It makes no sense, it should just be called Bloor-Bay, surely.

The town of Unionville is a neighbourhood, just like streetsville, port credit, etc. I said "town of" because I didn't want it confused with the GO station.

 

[canarob]

Yeah, Old Unionville is a pretty well defined area. We call new areas by names too, such as Cornell and Cathedraltown. All of this "Upper Unionville" nonsense is a different story though.

 

[PL1]

Yeah, Old Unionville is a pretty well defined area. We call new areas by names too, such as Cornell and Cathedraltown. All of this "Upper Unionville" nonsense is a different story though.

Further to this (and off-topic), I lived at Dundas and Jarvis for years and jokingly referred to it as South Rosedale. "Upper" this area and "Lower" that area are created by real estate agents trying to sell houses.

 

[drum118]

Further to this (and off-topic), I lived at Dundas and Jarvis for years and jokingly referred to it as South Rosedale. "Upper" this area and "Lower" that area are created by real estate agents trying to sell houses.

This applies to other cities and towns as well.

Mississauga has class the area of Hurontario and Eglinton as Uptown Mississauga while Dundas area is Lower Mississauga/Middle Downtown with Sq One being Downtown. Growing up at Ontario and Wellesley it was call one thing back then and today it call some thing else.

 

[Transportfan]

Why do they call it Yorkville still? it hasn't been a town since the 1800's. It makes no sense, it should just be called Bloor-Bay, surely.

Maybe I was a bit harsh, but if you pay close attention, you will notice that for historic places in the 905, people tend to see them as distinct places, not mere neighborhoods, and it's apparent if you look in a phone book or at an Ontario road map--they seem to have semi-official status.

All of this "Upper Unionville" nonsense is a different story though.

Strangely though, this trend of developers labelling distant subdivisions as being part of a historic village never took off in Mississauga. Ninth Line and Derry was never marketed as being in Streetsville. But in Vaughan, Woodbridge is practically seen as being a sizeable city in its own right.

End of rant.

 

[ShonTron]

Strangely though, this trend of developers labelling distant subdivisions as being part of a historic village never took off in Mississauga. Ninth Line and Derry was never marketed as being in Streetsville. But in Vaughan, Woodbridge is practically seen as being a sizeable city in its own right.

One huge exception though - Meadowvale. Meadowvale GO and what most people think of Meadowvale is distant from the original village. Especially when said village is quite difficult to find with all the street realignments in the area to accomodate all the traffic.

 

[Transportfan]

That was a little different though. The new Meadowvale was actually planned as a distinct new town: "Meadowvale West". But people dropped "West" and it became just Meadowvale. Then the original hamlet had "Village" added to the name, and is today seen as a separate area from the new Meadowvale, not as its historic core.

 

[Allandale25]

The rail is entirely welded north of Scarborough. In fact, GO has been telling people now that their trains are not capable of running on jointed rail.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.

Isn't the line between Kitchener and Georgetown on jointed rail? I thought that was part of the upgrades VIA was doing to GEXR's track? I could be wrong.

 

[drum118]

Hamilton Spectator
}http://www.thespec.com/news-story/4...-44-million-go-station-on-james-street-north/{

View the video by the link

7 hours ago | Vote0 0
[h=1]Metrolinx announces $44-million GO Station on James Street North[/h]play

[h=2]VIDEO: GO station funding[/h]Transportation minister announces $44 million for James Street North station

[h=2]GO Station[/h]Scott Gardner,The Hamilton SpectatorGlen Murrary, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, stopped by the site of the new GO station on James Street North to announced funding for the station.




nextplay/pausepre

2/3​

By Meredith MacLeod
Hamilton's new GO station will be something the city can be proud of, says transportation Minister Glen Murray.
Murray was in town Friday to announce a $44 million tender for the station project.
The new station will receive four extra trains in and out. Murray did not announce any more service for the city but said it's one of his top priorities to buy the tracks between Aldershot and Hamilton to bring all-day service.
He estimated that could come a couple of years after the 2015 Pan Am Games.
He said the James Street North station will be "the 21st century version of the beauty of Liuna station" across the street.
In a speech to the Hamilton chamber of commerce, Murray said public buildings should inspire civic pride and beauty just as they did in the past.
"We shouldn't be stretching tax dollars so far that every library, school and college looks like fertilizer factories. We should be manifesting in our public works and public buildings a sense of community pride. We should be making public buildings public art."
Kenaidian Contracting of Mississauga has already cleared trees and begun leveling the site. The first tasks will be lowering the elevation of the existing railway bed by 1.5 metres so that GO's double-decker trains can pass under bridges. As well, an eight-metre terraced retaining wall will be built.
The station will be connected to a nearby plaza and will include multi-level parking with 300 spaces, new bus bays, a pick-up and drop-off zone and pedestrian walkways.
Groundbreaking on the new station and parking structure is expected in April, said project manager Randal Dreise.
The total cost is expected to be $60 million and that is being paid by the province.
Every weekday, more than 100,000 GO riders travel across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area along the Lakeshore line.
GO Transit moves 65 million riders a year.

mmacleod@thespec.com
905-526-3408 | @meredithmacleod

 

[smallspy]

Isn't the line between Kitchener and Georgetown on jointed rail? I thought that was part of the upgrades VIA was doing to GEXR's track? I could be wrong.

The track from Georgetown to Guelph has been welded for many years. I think that they upgraded to welded rail to Kitchener for the beginning of GO service to Kitchener (they did a whole bunch of other upgrades and fixes), but it's been so long since I've been out that way that I honestly can't remember.

In any case, GO's telling of people that the trains aren't capable of running on jointed rail is crap. The yards are all jointed rail, and frankly the equipment can't tell (and doesn't care) what kind of rail it's running on.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.