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GO Transit: Construction Projects (Metrolinx, various)

Yeah I’m sure in the future that section could see a 3rd track if the corridor is wide enough for it, maybe when Niagara gets further enhanced service.
I would love to see grade separations and speed increases there, why is it so slow right now?
 
Guelph GO update from MX:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1707092775726944692

Image brought forward:

1695837718091.png
 
Reecemartin said:
I really hope the other platform gets a similarly nice canopy, super to happy to see these at all new stations. It improves the waiting experience in bad weather a lot.

That being said with all this good work happening I would love more . . . timelines and commitments on better service from Metrolinx, wishful thinking perhaps . . .
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Based on the construction status it looks like we might be about a year out from hourly off-peak service to Kitchener. That requires at least one of the hourly pairs of double track segments (Guelph and Georgetown, or Breslau and Acton) to be completed.

If they use Guelph and Georgetown, Georgetown would only be able to be served once every two hours, since only one of the thru tracks has a platform that GO can use, due to the lack of accessible connection between the north and south platforms (and thus between the bus and the south platform).

If they use Breslau and Acton, then those stations would only be served once every two hours, again because I don't think they're building two platforms at those stations (which I think makes sense at this stage).

Once a second thru GO platform is built at Georgetown, they could serve all stations hourly all day in both directions with a second train per hour skipping Breslau and Acton.
 
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Willybru21 said:
Yeah I’m sure in the future that section could see a 3rd track if the corridor is wide enough for it, maybe when Niagara gets further enhanced service.
I would love to see grade separations and speed increases there, why is it so slow right now?
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It’s certainly the place where you would logically extend the full breadth of LSW service. With that much room you can perhaps easily run both local and express services on Mx’s own electrified track right next to CN. If I recall correctly they only use one track, but even if they use two, that’s still room for 2-3 more; ample room for dedicated electrified tracks and for diesel express trains to pass, either on said tracks or with the existing time slots CN is giving GO today on their own.

Perhaps if GO Expansion had been more coherent and comprehensively planned from, say, 2000, West Harbour and the extra tracks they’ve built into Hamilton could’ve/would’ve been part of the Electrification plan from the get-go. Now they’re tossing up between WH and Hamilton Centre GO because neither corridor is well prepared for any kind of electrified service via dedicated track. I think cumulatively we’ve added enough kms from Aldershot to the two Hamilton stations to have made one set of good-enough-for-electrification dedicated tracks (to appease the railroads) to one of them. Going to address this one day soon…
 
Reecemartin said:
I really hope the other platform gets a similarly nice canopy, super to happy to see these at all new stations. It improves the waiting experience in bad weather a lot.

That being said with all this good work happening I would love more . . . timelines and commitments on better service from Metrolinx, wishful thinking perhaps . . .
Click to expand...

The third platform design is also underway by a consultant for Metrolinx at the Brampton Station. CN is designing the third track.
 
reaperexpress said:
If they use Baden and Acton, then those stations would only be served once every two hours, again because I don't think they're building two platforms at those stations (which I think makes sense at this stage).
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Am I correct in thinking they won't build a second platform until they perform grade separations at Acton? As the train currently blocks the road on both sides when stopping at the station.
 
tylerbell said:
Am I correct in thinking they won't build a second platform until they perform grade separations at Acton? As the train currently blocks the road on both sides when stopping at the station.
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I'm not aware of any plans to grade separate the crossings in the centre of Acton. The train itself does not currently block both of the road crossings, though it does activate both of the level crossings as it approaches the station. Once the train comes to a stop, the gates go up, and when the train starts rolling forward, the gate beyond the station goes down again.

I also haven't heard anything about adding a second platform, so I think it's safe to assume that the current work to add a second mainline track through Acton will not include a platform on it.

With only a single platform, it will only be possible to have a single train per hour per direction stopping. The second train per hour (GO during peak periods, CN or Via off-peak) will need to skip the station because it uses the other track. This is a bit unfortunate for Acton considering there are currently two stopping GO trains per hour during peak periods, but on the other hand reducing the number of stopping trains reduces the disruption at the level crossings.
 
ProjectEnd said:
Metrolinx do literally anything challenge…
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This is systemic of our society these days... as predicted theres a shortage of skilled trades manpower due to the stigmatisation of this line of work and the obsession of students wanting jobs in IT, finance and tech.
this will only get worse when the old dogs continue to retire. you ask why contractors are so expensive here... this is the reason why.
 
^Hard to believe I'm making excuses for ML - but - I'm not sure that skills trades shortage is the culprit here (although it may be a factor).

Playing amateur sidewalk superintendent here, it looks like a great deal of work has been accomplished (the trackbed now extends from the north end of the platform to the end of previously laid track on the eventual T1 at the West Toronto tunnel) (the bridge to the south is in the process of being shifted) (track bed is being readied to the south towards Parkdale).

The missing piece seems to be the formwork for the pedestrian tunnel(s). The excavation is complete, and has been shotcreted. It's not clear if some pause is needed to dewater. The presumed next step is for a foundation to be poured and formwork erected. The tunnel is then poured and then backfilled.

One theory is - we push the design of these projects too fast, and the contractor is not ready to proceed because drawings and paperwork aren't complete, or some other part of the procurement is not ready. If the case, that would definitely be on ML. (Wouldn't be the first time that someone has added a change request at the eleventh hour.....)(... or someone discovers a buried utility that wasn't on the drawings and needs to be moved....)

Another theory is - with the intense fishbowl around public projects, robust contingencies have been inserted in the plan, and we are seeing this as "delay" where it's actually just burning off the clock after the previously noted work was completed successfully on schedule. That's on ML but also on us as the public as observers - we get the amount of risk tolerance we ask for, and if we are obsessed with schedule adherence, the schedule will not take risks with timing. If we had demanded less float, maybe the contractor would have bid higher, but we won't pay for that.....

Theory three is - possibly the contractor is still busy with an earlier job and can't get to this one - it's on ML if the contract doesn't penalise the contractor for not showing on time, but even here - does ML fire the contractor and start procurement all over again? Certainly not. So the penalty can't be excessive and we swallow the delay.

All speculation, and in the end it doesn't matter - we want things moving faster, and clearly they aren't - but we better be sure we know the root cause before we try to solve this.

- Paul
 
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ProjectEnd said:
Metrolinx do literally anything challenge…

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Last time I passed by on a Kitchener train it looked like there was some activity further to the south where the Barrie line splits off. But it seemed pretty minimal. Still a lot more of the retaining wall to go.

@crs1026 will that signal bridge in the last picture in the distance need to be lengthened so it covers the new 4th track?
 
Allandale25 said:
Last time I passed by on a Kitchener train it looked like there was some activity further to the south where the Barrie line splits off. But it seemed pretty minimal. Still a lot more of the retaining wall to go.

@crs1026 will that signal bridge in the last picture in the distance need to be lengthened so it covers the new 4th track?
Click to expand...

All the sound wall construction strikes me as incredibly far-sighted, it's the difference between roughing in a minimalist right of way versus creating permanent rail infrastructure that will be there for a century or more.

I recently spent some time in the UK and I was struck by the hundreds and hundreds of miles of heavy metal fencing along British rail lines. The sheer cumulative weight and scrap value of all that metal is mind numbing. (I had fantasies of developing a plastic equivalent as a strategy for recycling waste plastic, and then reclaiming all the steelwork). ML seems to have their own version of that configuration.

The down side is - ML seems to want all the sound walling done before the actual work on grading and building the track bed begins, so the fence construction lengthens the construction project. Hmmmm

As to the signal bridge, I'm told that the new fourth track will wiggle past the existing upright, and the signalling bungalow, to the east side, with a separate ground level signal mast for its signal.

- Paul
 
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