rdaner
Senior Member
^^You are correct! It is Agincourt and Milliken is on Steeles.
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GO Transit: Construction Projects (Metrolinx, various)
- Thread starter drum118
- Start date
drum118
Superstar
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.
Senior Member
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:
TheHonestMaple
Active Member
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
Senior Member
Bordercollie
Senior Member
So who owns the trackage from the station to the crossover?
crs1026
Superstar
"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
Senior Member
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
Active Member
Moving the VIA station from Aldershot to West Harbour makes enormous sense now. Let's hope that happens @Chris R.
nfitz
Superstar
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
Senior Member
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
Senior Member
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
But they also use Oakville. Do you need Aldershot and Oakville?
Sunnyside
Senior Member
Aldershot is functionally Hamilton’s station. Oakville is functionally the ‘just-out-of-Toronto’ and generally the Western GTA Station. You can’t close either without pissing off a large cohort. Though I’d say neither serve their newfound roles very well.
I would agree that if you can’t get through service for a station in Hamilton, it won’t be worth it. Amtrak should really stop at West Harbour, though.
nfitz
Superstar
Yes.
They explictly chose to add service at Aldershot. It's 21 km between the stations - and a lot more convenient for anyone in Hamilton. Where would people in Hamilton catch trains to London and beyond? I also found the direct trains from Aldershot to Montreal useful when I used to live that way.
21 km is longer than the 16 km between Guildwood and Union, 11 km between Cobourg and Port Hope, or the 16 km between Dorval and Central station.
It's only 22.5 between Kitchener and Guelph - perhaps VIA should leave Guelph station after the new expressway opens.
just east of the creek
Senior Member
Re QEW and the answer is “sometimes”??? Stop and Go traffic, most often including the HOV lanes, is a regular occurrence, both eastbound and westbound, from anywhere in Oakville through the QEW to the area of the Red Hill or through the 403 Hamilton, up the mountain and approaching HWY 52.
So yes to express, and increased service, and start thinking about reaching Branford. Express speed connections, and not always ending in Toronto. I have a couple of friends catching the train from West Hamilton to Burlington and Oakville stations re work situations.