GO Transit: Construction Projects (Metrolinx, various)

[Sunnyside]

The entire section running westwards from Lemonville Rd, through the Junction and then around into the CN yard off of York Road is very constrained by geography, roads and highways, botanical gardens and cemeteries. If you were looking at a flyover, could you consider moving the flyover portion easterly to Lemonville or further? Anticipating further rebuilds of,the junction to take advantage of any flyover of course. Which would be another major project requiring political nudging to move along given the participants I think.

Now I’m less knowledgeable than others here… but from a glance, whatever happens at the junction would have to be as “one-and-done” as possible given the price tag- maybe with some future-proofing.

Im not sure a flyover around Lemonville helps, because you need to access two corridors. CP and CNs tracks are organized perfectly for themselves, but GO would need to somehow get dedicated track (if desired) between the two, ie sandwiched just south of Old Guelph Road, so an additional flyover isn’t needed to access one of the corridors. That would seemingly involve widening various parts so as to make room for the corridor once it’s flown over the triangle.

… touching the junction not once, but twice is clearly beyond all of our lifetimes.

 

[11th]

View attachment 603431Milliken View attachment 603430GO Station. East platform not yet open so trains using other side for both directions. This area has become a high density hub since the last time that I was here! Taken 11 October.



View attachment 603432View attachment 603433

Looks like Agincourt station?

 

[tsm1072]

If I were to guess the Hamilton GO upgrades:

• Platform refurbishment and installation of platform snow melt system
• Refurbishment of stairways and platform entries
• Elevator replacement, potentially a new elevator location
• General refurbishment of the station building and bringing it up to modern code and standards (this gets pricey as it is an old structure)

I think the increased ridership at Hamilton GO during rush hour can be explained by a few things:

• Better peak period scheduling for downtown workers and more express trains
• Better access via bus routes
• Downtown location

The scheduling and express trains can easily be addressed by trains at West harbour. Bus routing is harder, but HSR does have a plan to make West Harbour into a better hub. The LRT will also route closer to West Harbour than the express routes do now.

If money is being spent on track upgrades through Bayview, prioritizing speed and access to West Harbour would be a better investment for service frequency and quality.

 

[rdaner]

^^You are correct! It is Agincourt and Milliken is on Steeles.

 

[drum118]

^^You are correct! It is Agincourt and Milliken is on Steeles.

It looks like both photos are of Agincourt by looking that the track in both photos not Milliken. The east side track at Agincourt has yet to see service and not finished.

Milliken eastside platform was used during the work on the west platform and trackwork and then went back to the westside that I can recall seeing.

 

[Chris R.]

It's a shame, because Hamilton GO Centre has way higher ridership in the morning than West Harbour. I've taken both in the morning throughout the week, and I would say Hamilton GO Centre has 2-3x more people catching those early morning trains. I'm guessing because of the bus connections, and far higher residential density?

According to this article, West Harbour actually has more riders: https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilt...cle_7671c245-d555-57ac-bb94-31f57bae3ebb.html

"Currently, an average of 886 people a day board and disembark trains at the North End terminal, compared with just 93 in 2019."

"Aldershot and Hamilton GO Centre remain below pre-pandemic levels, averaging 2,284 and 600, respectively, in 2024."

So while Hamilton Go may have more morning commuters, the West Harbours station gets more overall ridership, which makes sense considering it has all day service.

It will be great once Go gets more frequent and smaller trains because they'll be able to accelerate more quickly and get people to and from Hamilton much more quickly, because West Harbour is likely a decade or more away from needing a full 12-car train.

Yeah I don't know why it's so secretive. 200 million dollars is A LOT of money to be spending on two stations, just for upgrades. Taxpayers should be allowed to know. @Chris R. FOI request?

I'd be interested in FOI requests for Metrolinx projects, but if they're starting anyway, may just wait and see. Could try emailing too. Sometimes if you just ask they'll tell you, but I haven't tried that yet.

That being said, this all reminds me of this tweet I saw today:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1844755232535802249

https://twitter.com/x/status/1844756961683738966

 

[TheHonestMaple]

According to this article, West Harbour actually has more riders: https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilt...cle_7671c245-d555-57ac-bb94-31f57bae3ebb.html

"Currently, an average of 886 people a day board and disembark trains at the North End terminal, compared with just 93 in 2019."

"Aldershot and Hamilton GO Centre remain below pre-pandemic levels, averaging 2,284 and 600, respectively, in 2024."

So while Hamilton Go may have more morning commuters, the West Harbours station gets more overall ridership, which makes sense considering it has all day service.

It will be great once Go gets more frequent and smaller trains because they'll be able to accelerate more quickly and get people to and from Hamilton much more quickly, because West Harbour is likely a decade or more away from needing a full 12-car train.


I'd be interested in FOI requests for Metrolinx projects, but if they're starting anyway, may just wait and see. Could try emailing too. Sometimes if you just ask they'll tell you, but I haven't tried that yet.

That being said, this all reminds me of this tweet I saw today:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1844755232535802249

https://twitter.com/x/status/1844756961683738966

Yeah that’s what I meant. If we had an hourly breakdown, Hamilton GO Centre would probably show mucher higher numbers in the morning and between 4 and 7 pm. That’s just my personal observations though.

 

[Allandale25]

 

[Bordercollie]

View attachment 603837
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So who owns the trackage from the station to the crossover?

 

[crs1026]

So who owns the trackage from the station to the crossover?

"Ownership" only matters so much. Title to the asset will likely sit with CN, except perhaps within the property line of whatever ML owns at West Harbour. CN will charge itself depreciation on that asset.
The bigger thing is that CN has operational control, ie CN dispatchers control the switches and signals. And CN has the right to veto any ML service plan that it considers unreasonable, since the trackage to the east is CN's.
CN likely has agreed to improving scheduling, but the number of trains going east is very much at CN's discretion.

- Paul

 

[Bordercollie]

"Ownership" only matters so much. Title to the asset will likely sit with CN, except perhaps within the property line of whatever ML owns at West Harbour. CN will charge itself depreciation on that asset.
The bigger thing is that CN has operational control, ie CN dispatchers control the switches and signals. And CN has the right to veto any ML service plan that it considers unreasonable, since the trackage to the east is CN's.
CN likely has agreed to improving scheduling, but the number of trains going east is very much at CN's discretion.

- Paul

At least they don't need to make that backup move to the station. Any chance Amtrak/via will use this stop?

Via used to have track slots to Niagara and with the new equipment it would be nice to have. Even though GO has plans for all day train service to Niagara, express trains would nice to compete with car travel times. I did hear that sometimes the QEW is so bad it can take 3-4 hours to travel from Niagara to Toronto

 

[TheHonestMaple]

At least they don't need to make that backup move to the station. Any chance Amtrak/via will use this stop?

Via used to have track slots to Niagara and with the new equipment it would be nice to have. Even though GO has plans for all day train service to Niagara, express trains would nice to compete with car travel times. I did hear that sometimes the QEW is so bad it can take 3-4 hours to travel from Niagara to Toronto

Moving the VIA station from Aldershot to West Harbour makes enormous sense now. Let's hope that happens @Chris R.

 

[nfitz]

Moving the VIA station from Aldershot to West Harbour makes enormous sense now. Let's hope that happens @Chris R.

Opening a Hamilton station might make sense, but does closing Aldershot make sense? It's primary function for VIA is for the London-Toronto trains, not the far less frequent Amtrak train to New York City.

It's not difficult to get from Aldershot to West Harbour. If VIA was to add a stop, I wonder if Centennial would make more sense.

 

[dowlingm]

Moving the VIA station from Aldershot to West Harbour makes enormous sense now. Let's hope that happens @Chris R.

The only VIA service to West Harbour is operated by Amtrak. If WH had space for a high platform then that would be a value add, but making passengers from London go to Oakville and then schlep back to get to Burlington and Hamilton makes little sense to me.

 

[Bordercollie]

Moving the VIA station from Aldershot to West Harbour makes enormous sense now. Let's hope that happens @Chris R.

I think that Aldershot and Oakville are too close. The only issue is that only the maple leaf would serve west harbour.

What they r

Opening a Hamilton station might make sense, but does closing Aldershot make sense? It's primary function for VIA is for the London-Toronto trains, not the far less frequent Amtrak train to New York City.

It's not difficult to get from Aldershot to West Harbour. If VIA was to add a stop, I wonder if Centennial would make more sense.

But they also use Oakville. Do you need Aldershot and Oakville?