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GO Transit: Construction Projects (Metrolinx, various)

Weston Go Aug 26th 2019
Looks like they have finished clearing space for the 4th track and platform.
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Highway 401/409 Aug 26th 2019. Looks like they are building twin tunnels? Only the east side has the metal tubes, the west doesn't have them.
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^ They are adding two tracks total so I guess it's one tube per track? cc @crs1026 @smallspy

The original designs called for 2 tunnels - one 2-track tunnel immediately to the east of the current underpass, and a second, smaller one for an access road beside it. I don't know if they still intend to work to those plans, but it certainly looks like it could be the case.

Dan
 
^ Thanks. Hadn't realized they would build a service tunnel so interesting to hear. Would it also act as an emergency exit tunnel? Also, looks like the smaller tunnel is going in between the existing tunnel and the new one?
 
This coming September 5th, there is a Metrolinx Townhall that is open to public.

Metrolinx is accepting question submissions at the moment.
The top 10 upvoted questions will be addressed at the town hall.

__________

I posted a question there that appears to be getting many upvotes in a short time period (over 125).

Currently, Niagara GO trains are somewhat of an enigma for West Harbour GO
(1) The weekday Niagara GO train has to "back-in" into Hamilton West Harbour GO station to pick up passengers.
(2) The weekend Niagara GO train does NOT stop at all at Hamilton West Harbour GO station, it just whooshes past.

Although Metrolinx is reportedly working on a solution...
...It doesn't hurt to make sure they address this question at Town Hall.

200903

(You can upvote here)
 
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It's good West Harbour GO service is finally doubling, but...

Many of you long-timers already know what I write about...
....for new UrbanToronto members unfamiliar, I wrote a big article in 2015 about West Harbour GO.

The dead-end West Harbour GO problem existed since fall 2015 and still continues to exist today with no implemented solution yet:

200922

The two possible solutions are:
(A) Either turning the dead end tracks to through tracks (some complexities but shouldn't take years)
(B) And/or putting a platform at the north edge (freight tracks used by the weekend Niagara GO train)

Whichever is faster, but neither solution appears currently under visible construction as of August 2019.

This shortsight in 2015 caused West Harbour GO to miss a stupendously massive amount of GO train service that has already been running seasonally to Niagara Falls for several years. See YouTube video of Niagara GO Train trundling past West Harbour GO without stopping -- for those who are unfamiliar with this situation.

Since 2015, more than 425 passenger-filled GO trains whooshed past Hamilton without stopping.
(all seasonal Niagara GO trains since opening in 2015, in both directions, totalled up)

This has apparently helped West Harbour GO remain a ghost station -- since I hear from more people in Hamilton has had interest in boarding those weekender midday Niagara GO trains. In some summers, there has been as many as 8 weekend trains whooshing past per weekend without stopping (4 in each direction at pretty sensible non-early times).

The opportunity to service a city (Hamilton) in the middle between Niagara & Toronto! West Harbour GO won't have significant impact to the GO timetable. The CN railyard & lake curve means GO trains are already trundling relatively slowly past West Harbour. So that is a brief deceleration, dwell, and acceleration. A very time-efficient stop! At a city in the middle of a GO route! This can be easily engineered to zero impact to Niagara timetable, thanks to efficiencies of the third track over Desjardins canal.

More people here in Hamilton (And even some in Niagara Falls wanting to visit Hamilton) -- that wanted to board those sensibly-timed that run past without stopping -- than those too-early 6:09am weekday commuter trains. This would have financed Niagara GO expansion faster.

No wonder this is now the top-upvoted question at Metrolinx Engage.
 
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This coming September 5th, there is a Metrolinx Townhall that is open to public.

Metrolinx is accepting question submissions at the moment.
The top 10 upvoted questions will be addressed at the town hall.

__________

I posted a question there that appears to be getting many upvotes in a short time period (over 125).

Currently, Niagara GO trains are somewhat of an enigma for West Harbour GO
(1) The weekday Niagara GO train has to "back-in" into Hamilton West Harbour GO station to pick up passengers.
(2) The weekend Niagara GO train does NOT stop at all at Hamilton West Harbour GO station, it just whooshes past.

Although Metrolinx is reportedly working on a solution...
...It doesn't hurt to make sure they address this question at Town Hall.

View attachment 200903

(You can upvote here)
That's a substantial number of upvotes (145). Did anyone create multiple accounts just to upvote? The next question is only at 41 votes (43 up, 2 down), so this big of a difference doesn't really impact how the questions will be answered. Not saying that the votes are not warranted, just that it seems a bit overkill.
 
That's a substantial number of upvotes (145). Did anyone create multiple accounts just to upvote? The next question is only at 41 votes (43 up, 2 down), so this big of a difference doesn't really impact how the questions will be answered. Not saying that the votes are not warranted, just that it seems a bit overkill.
I just posted a question and lets see if it shows up about the Milton Line.
 
That's a substantial number of upvotes (145). Did anyone create multiple accounts just to upvote? The next question is only at 41 votes (43 up, 2 down), so this big of a difference doesn't really impact how the questions will be answered. Not saying that the votes are not warranted, just that it seems a bit overkill.
Simpler explanation: This question has gotten more publicity than the average question-asker.

I've simply been highlighting this specific question on forums such as this one -- and in my Twitter account -- and some Facebook groups.

Also, the Electrification question has been asked three times, taking out 3 out of the 4 top question slots.
So there's already over 100 upvotes total for electrification too, just spread over Question #2,3,4.

Anyone can (and do) promote their question in their respective social media and advocacy groups. However, my increased pull is because I'm known as a known #yesLRT advocate locally. I'm the original founder of the Hamilton LRT advocacy, my spouse ran as a city councillor candidate last year, and Hamiltonians are a particularly vocal lot on social media -- so I'm reasonably well-networked in the local transit sphere.

Either way, this is something that crosses the aisle (Liberals and Conservatives alike) as a bi-partisan issue -- most agree that there was a missed-opportunity for West Harbour. Imagine being a Hamiltonian watching revenue-service trains pass-by a city bigger than Oakville and Burlington. A whopping excess of >425 passenger-filled Niagara trains coasted mere centimeters past without stopping -- 5 summer worth of Niagara seasonals for 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, all trundling past without stopping.

Now these weekend Niagara trains are year-round from now on (8 trains per weekend at 52 weeks per year -- that's 416 trains per year that passes Hamilton without stopping). Watching these trains go past a city bigger than Oakville/Burlington is even more infuriating regardless of party color. So there is huge incentive to raise the publicity of this issue until this is fixed, since this is such a low-lying apple of a Metrolinx tweak that is very taxpayer-efficient.

Regardless of opinion of Hamiton Conservative MPP Donna Skelley (Flamborough-Glanbrook) who had historically been anti-LRT, she gave Doug Ford a tour of West Harbour GO Station last year (August 16th 2018) pointing West Harbour's prolonged ghost-station status.
Hamilton Spectator Newspaper said:
"...Skelly said she wanted the tour to include the West Harbour GO Station, because she wanted to show Ford that despite the $45-million expenditure to build the station, which opened in 2015, there is still no all-day service from the site..."

I suppose, this is an opportunity for a "Metrolinx optimization opportunity" to get more service at low cost without adding more trains (just get existing trains to stop). As much as I disagree with Donna on many LRT issues, I'm in agreement when it comes to fixing West Harbour GO station ghost status. It's a station that could have had far more service for the last 4 years without needing extra trains.

The simpler cheaper solution of removing the north fence and pouring some concrete -- for a north platform -- since the complex logistics is delaying extending the dead-end track. Regardless of the solution chosen, many want to put this issue back on the front burner again about fixing the dead end at Town Hall even with the north platform workaround.

It is a perfect timing to get a simple "Metrolinx optimization" question back to the front burner when the hoopla of West Harbour service doubling (Aug 31) is at peak publicity, and when people are paying attention.
 
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I assume CN said absolutely positively NO to that option before the station was even designed.
Five summers of missed Niagara Seasonal Service is long enough for Metrolinx and CN to come to an agreement, don'tcha think?

Rumor is they were close to agreement about a couple years ago but one thing or another (construction labour shortage) postponed a West Harbour solution during the final years of the previous Ontario administration.

CP & Metrolinx fortunately likely have by now. But something substantial needs to be announced soon(ish).

Now is good timing for the West Harbour dead-end problem to be put back onto the front burner again -- in order to make sure this is not backtracked this time around -- so I'll (and likely others) will continue to be increasingly louder in local Hamilton channels on this issue towards 2020.
 
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Five summers of missed Niagara Seasonal Service is long enough for Metrolinx and CN to come to an agreement, don'tcha think?

Not necessarily. It's not something CN would agree to for a reasonable amount of money if they felt yard operations would be jeopardized.

It is, however, enough time to shift around utilities and build a chunk of track through the station. I can't find the business case or TPAP (was one done?) for the 2023 all day Niagara service commitment but it must have addressed it in some way, even if just putting a dollar figure on that track work.
 
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It is, however, enough time to shift around utilities and build a chunk of track through the station.
West of James Street, yes.

Good piecemeal work, slow but steady, all the way to Desjardins Canal.

However, none of which has happened immediately east of James Street -- they were going to do that about two years ago but was postponed.

A lot of the signal boxes and buried utilities are still sitting there. At least, though, the John Street road overpass is currently being rebuilt.

Past is past. Today is today for bullhorn time. CN may have said no in 2015, but rumor swirling about is that CN already said yes as of this time.

Now that CN and Metrolinx has a better working relationship and probably has now already agreement on this already today. Since the track extension west of James Street appears indefinitely postponed (to a future date) while simultaneously accelerating and increasing Niagara GO service years ahead of schedule. Amplifying wastage of West Harbour GO non-use -- over 400 Niagara trains per year are now going to pass-by hereafter without stopping until this is fixed.

Such absurdity of increased Niagara service that does not stop, plus the "backing-up train" embarassment, now makes it easier for Hamilton residents to gain louder voices on this, to inexpensively push some balky fence-sitting dominoes that has now become cheaper because CN finally said yes. Hamilton has tipped quite a few dominoes, such as with the #YesWeCannon campaigns and #YesLRT campaigns that actually moved needles on government initiatives. I'm glad they started backing up the train into West Harbour; it's a useful service addition while simultaneously advertising the absurdity of the dead-end state. Now awareness is higher.

Given the station was already designed with provisions to permit a simple concrete pour for this north platform, this potentially makes this tweak inexpensive enough to be a potentially capital-cost-profitable even at less than 100 new passengers a week. (The capital cost of a concrete pour being more quickly-than-average paid off by paying passengers that embark/disembark at West Harbour GO, even when deducting slight increase in operating cost of stopping existing slow-moving trains at West Harbour). That's an absurdly low floor considering many accept that transit services are subsidized, at 50%-70%. So low-lying of an apple. This is a very high-ROI "Quick Fix" tweak, assuming CN approved this.

Once done and all those extra trains are now able to stop at West Harbour -- a small amount of cheap local advertising is all that needed to let locals know there's a quicker way to get to Niagara Falls (and more options for Toronto or other stops). That will quickly get 100 new passengers per week, given plentiful parking at West Harbour GO (~300 parking spots, mostly unused), and more wide advertising of the free #99 waterfront shuttle , the #2 Barton, the #20 A-Line service, the existing West Harbour #18 GO bus.

To bypass this original expensive track-extension plan (so they can take their merry time on that useful-but-expensive endeavour) -- they can cheaply remove the fence and pour some concrete floor as CN is rumored to have already agreed to. The station is already designed with provisions for this north platform, making this a reasonably simple pour job. No new signals or track modifications are required for this cheap workaround.

So, now is great timing for local resident-led advocacy to keep this on the front burner to make sure that no further postponements & backtracking occurs again, and at least settle for some cheap quick-fixes. Such as, you know, already-being-discussed fence-removal and concrete-pour for a slight platform-edge extension northwards (facing the freight track) to allow all Niagara trains to stop in Hamilton.
 
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