News   Dec 20, 2024
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GO Transit: Construction Projects (Metrolinx, various)

Now count the number of different routings and thus permutations and combinations of signal indications into West Harbour from the Hamilton Jct area......it's actually a very complex junction and therefore a pretty large signals installation.
Having to permit Cargoflo routings to cross from the freight main through the GO west approach hardly helps there. If only it could be moved to somewhere on the North side of the Hamilton CN trackage.

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Having to permit Cargoflo routings to cross from the freight main through the GO west approach hardly helps there. If only it could be moved to somewhere on the North side of the Hamilton CN trackage.

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I had heard that Cargoflo movements will go through West Harbour station itself to reduce conflicts. That’s why they raised the station tracks 5 inches.
 
One other little nitpick about West Harbour. I hope that installing a fence between the two station tracks is not neglected, because if they don’t lots of people might just cross the tracks to get to the other platform. Especially relevant due to the design of the station and long hike up stairs to get to the other track if you go to the wrong one.
Like what happened at Union a few months ago...

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Especially when the elevator is constantly broken...
that is why 2-3 elevators are needed for each station and platform. Having one is a slap in the face saying you don't need one and don't use transit at all, especially that one breaks down or out of service 6 months for those who need it..
 
According to a post on Groups.io, there is news from the Kitchener line

At 0300 this morning (Sunday November 3, 2024), new controlled locations Shantz (56.3) and Woolwich (57.9) were officially commissioned into service on the Guelph Sub during a busy weekend track closure. The subdivision now has two main tracks between these locations, making it the first place where (well-coordinated) trains could pass at speed.

 
According to a post on Groups.io, there is news from the Kitchener line

At 0300 this morning (Sunday November 3, 2024), new controlled locations Shantz (56.3) and Woolwich (57.9) were officially commissioned into service on the Guelph Sub during a busy weekend track closure. The subdivision now has two main tracks between these locations, making it the first place where (well-coordinated) trains could pass at speed.


@reaperexpress must be tagged for his thoughts.
 
According to a post on Groups.io, there is news from the Kitchener line

At 0300 this morning (Sunday November 3, 2024), new controlled locations Shantz (56.3) and Woolwich (57.9) were officially commissioned into service on the Guelph Sub during a busy weekend track closure. The subdivision now has two main tracks between these locations, making it the first place where (well-coordinated) trains could pass at speed.

Great to see this confirmed! Now if only they’d finish up work in Guelph on the second track (which seems close) we’d have two passing spots!
 
Great to see this confirmed! Now if only they’d finish up work in Guelph on the second track (which seems close) we’d have two passing spots!

The lengthy travel time from Shantz to the next place to the east where GO trains can pass each other remains the barrier to more frequent two way service.
The sooner, the better !

- Paul
 
According to a post on Groups.io, there is news from the Kitchener line

At 0300 this morning (Sunday November 3, 2024), new controlled locations Shantz (56.3) and Woolwich (57.9) were officially commissioned into service on the Guelph Sub during a busy weekend track closure. The subdivision now has two main tracks between these locations, making it the first place where (well-coordinated) trains could pass at speed.

I noticed in the schedule update that one westbound train stops at Guelph at 12:01AM, but does not continue to Kitchener. Are they parking it on that track at Shantz?
 
@reaperexpress must be tagged for his thoughts.
Like Paul alluded to above, the siding is not very useful on its own. The next passing location to the east is beyond Georgetown, nearly an hour away. So the most service it theoretically enables would be to improve the off-peak headway west of Mt Pleasant to 2 hours instead of 3 hours, but that would involve a nearly 100 minute layover in Kitchener which would presumably be quite expensive to operate. Maybe if they could time it such that the layover doubles as the crew's lunch break it might be affordable but I don't think it's likely that they'd actually use the passing track until Guelph or Acton passing tracks are fully in service and they can get hourly off-peak service.

And I'm still angry that they installed it in such a way that every train needs to slow to 45 mph in the middle of a segment where they used to go full track speed (70 mph). And even once they rearrange the tracks and build Breslau station, the full-speed track will be the one next to the platform, with a low-speed bypass track, which is completely backwards.

I noticed in the schedule update that one westbound train stops at Guelph at 12:01AM, but does not continue to Kitchener. Are they parking it on that track at Shantz?
No that train has always been like that. It runs direct from Guelph to Shirley Yard in the east end of Kitchener to avoid conflicts with CN in downtown Kitchener.
 
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^ A very knowledgeable source offered some explanations about how the new siding at Breslau streamlines existing operations, in terms of saving paperwork for some situations and enabling better dispatching for fleeted GO trains at peak. It represents a better quality of CTC than the original version, and allows trains to operate in the face of opposing movements further down the line. So it’s good to have this done…. But the pace of improvements is not something to cheer about.

- Paul
 
If the Acton passing track and Guelph second platform track are put into commission, would we then see some noticeable changes on the Kitchener Line, with more, frequent service that extends on the weekends as well?

Or will it take until Metrolinx figures out the situation at Silver Junction with the potential flyover before we see improvements? AFAIK, MX has the rights to one crossing at Georgetown per hour from the Guelph to the Halton. One of the train-meeting proposed solutions in the past was to have trains coming in the opposite direction meet at the same time at Silver. Could that still be played out in any way?
 
If the Acton passing track and Guelph second platform track are put into commission, would we then see some noticeable changes on the Kitchener Line, with more, frequent service that extends on the weekends as well?

Or will it take until Metrolinx figures out the situation at Silver Junction with the potential flyover before we see improvements? AFAIK, MX has the rights to one crossing at Georgetown per hour from the Guelph to the Halton. One of the train-meeting proposed solutions in the past was to have trains coming in the opposite direction meet at the same time at Silver. Could that still be played out in any way?

A little of this, a little from Collumn B.

We don't know the terms of the agreement with CN, so we don't know whether they will allow any more trains on the Halton Sub once the work west of Silver (due fairly soon) is complete, versus having to wait until the construction east of Georgetown (which will take a while) is finished. Personally I would speculate that CN will insist on the latter, because ML has been so on-and-off about the work that CN may not want to be caught out having to cope with added GO trains if Ontario decided to delay or cancel some of the project. "Fool me once....." applies.

But maybe there is room for modest short term improvements, such as finally running one or two counter peak commuting runs.

- Paul
 

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