GO Transit: Construction Projects (Metrolinx, various)

[crs1026]

From what I have been able to gather, there may be more heavy work required before any of the second track is placed in service between Kennedy and Milliken.

It has been a step forward to get the "wobbles" out of the single track so that the track being used is one complete line instead of swapping back and forth between two tracks - sounds like the weekend closures did accomplish that.

Until that infamous missing bridge is installed at West Highland Creek, there is zero potential to use the second track through Agincourt and Milliken stations. But what is there is good enough for the current service plan.

- Paul

 

[SubHuman]

... The space where a second Barrie track will go remains a recreational area for dogs and ML flagmen...

I took a GO train trip from Toronto to Newmarket and back recently, and the impression I got was that there's a lot of that line that is still just one set of tracks, and simultaneous two-way traffic won't be starting any time in the near future. But if they could start by just finishing a second set of tracks to Bloor/Lansdowne and then Downsview Park, it would be useful.

Frustrations raised over GO Transit train service for Coldplay concerts at Rogers Stadium

Metrolinx staff also apologized after AI was used to reply to at least one GO Transit customer's complaint about Barrie line trains.

toronto.citynews.ca

 

[Leo_Chan]

Is the bridge over Sheppard Ave wide enough for both the second track and platform, or will it require widening and at the same time also accommodating the 3rd track that Downsview Park station platform gap seems wide enough for?

 

[crs1026]

I took a GO train trip from Toronto to Newmarket and back recently, and the impression I got was that there's a lot of that line that is still just one set of tracks, and simultaneous two-way traffic won't be starting any time in the near future. But if they could start by just finishing a second set of tracks to Bloor/Lansdowne and then Downsview Park, it would be useful.

Frustrations raised over GO Transit train service for Coldplay concerts at Rogers Stadium

Metrolinx staff also apologized after AI was used to reply to at least one GO Transit customer's complaint about Barrie line trains.

toronto.citynews.ca

The AI gaffe is worth a chuckle, a bit of proof that AI is still an experiment that is being pushed into use without very much learning, yet......but..... the more serious issue is, GO Expansion is not about building transit to a temporary venue that was conceived and built in a random location on a pretty rapid timeline, to service the occasional concert or event. GO Expansion is infrastructure being built for numerous decades, if not a century, to meet the GTA's mainstream transportation needs, based on planned and longstanding transportation demands and patterns of use..

And rightly or wrongly, it isn't ready yet.

The trains GO added are pretty clearly all the system, in its imperfect state, can offer just now.

If that seems a bit rigid, consider that in 2003 the same venue (roughly) housed a concert with an audience of roughly 500,000.... with no subway line within walking distance. The only GO trains operated were used to transport performers, not paying public. The transit to this venue is very much improved, and will be even better when GO Expansion is completed.

I'm not defending the operational decisions of either GO or TTC, perhaps more service could have been run somehow, but no one could reasonably expect GO to have been ready to meet this venue's fairly sudden needs fully, just yet..

- Paul
(Possibly just a boomer who recalls hitchiking to the Police Picnic at an obscure park somewhere in Halton Region. No subway for that one, either......kids these days......lol.......)

PS - 2003 SarsStock transport strategy: bike rack on car, park on a random sidestreet two miles from the venue, cycle as close as possible, lock up bike, walk the rest of the way. Easy peasy, worked great, but it sure was a hot day.

 

[dowlingm]

It will be interesting to see how Metrolinx handles Barrie line capacity as stuff like Lansdowne and the double tracking progress but electrification moves further down the road - given the promises made to the Davenport Diamond communities.

I would love to be a fly on the wall as these special services are decided. No doubt there are a lot of events and festivals this summer that would love to have GO moving mountains to park trains and run late-ish services, to be told GO has no crews, or they don’t run service on that line on weekends or whatever, and then every so often anything is possible. And even then when they do it here, because the venue and band drone on into the late night, you have people moaning that they had to leave to get the train.

 

[sixrings]

The AI gaffe is worth a chuckle, a bit of proof that AI is still an experiment that is being pushed into use without very much learning, yet......but..... the more serious issue is, GO Expansion is not about building transit to a temporary venue that was conceived and built in a random location on a pretty rapid timeline, to service the occasional concert or event. GO Expansion is infrastructure being built for numerous decades, if not a century, to meet the GTA's mainstream transportation needs, based on planned and longstanding transportation demands and patterns of use..

And rightly or wrongly, it isn't ready yet.

The trains GO added are pretty clearly all the system, in its imperfect state, can offer just now.

If that seems a bit rigid, consider that in 2003 the same venue (roughly) housed a concert with an audience of roughly 500,000.... with no subway line within walking distance. The only GO trains operated were used to transport performers, not paying public. The transit to this venue is very much improved, and will be even better when GO Expansion is completed.

I'm not defending the operational decisions of either GO or TTC, perhaps more service could have been run somehow, but no one could reasonably expect GO to have been ready to meet this venue's fairly sudden needs fully, just yet..

- Paul
(Possibly just a boomer who recalls hitchiking to the Police Picnic at an obscure park somewhere in Halton Region. No subway for that one, either......kids these days......lol.......)

PS - 2003 SarsStock transport strategy: bike rack on car, park on a random sidestreet two miles from the venue, cycle as close as possible, lock up bike, walk the rest of the way. Easy peasy, worked great, but it sure was a hot day.

OK boomer!!! This is one privileged comment Paul. First of all it’s a privilege to have a car or access to a car. Then some more privilege to have a bike or access to a bike. And finally the ultimate privilege that you are non-disabled allowing you to ride said bike.

 

[crs1026]

OK boomer!!! This is one privileged comment Paul. First of all it’s a privilege to have a car or access to a car. Then some more privilege to have a bike or access to a bike. And finally the ultimate privilege that you are non-disabled allowing you to ride said bike.

My comment was tongue in cheek, apologies if it didn't come across that way... but you kind of made my point.
The real arrogance is plunking a high capacity venue down somewhere and expecting the supporting infrastructure to magically appear. And buying concert tickets for same venue and expecting the government to leap to make your commute a painless one.
PS: At todays's ticket prices, it's the ticket holders who are displaying privilege.

- Paul

 

[SubHuman]

Is the bridge over Sheppard Ave wide enough for both the second track and platform, or will it require widening ...

Looking at the satellite image, I'm not sure if another platform on the west side of the tracks would have to use the bridge over Sheppard Ave like the one already there on the east side of tracks. It looks like it might fit entirely south of Sheppard Ave and the bridge. The ends of the platforms don't necessarily have to be exactly in line with each other, as seen at Malton GO station.

a temporary venue that was conceived and built in a random location ...

This new concert venue is temporary (there for at least another four years), because the intention is for other more permanent things to eventually be built there. But the "Festival Terrace" area on the other side of the tracks in Downsview Park is nearby and is still used, I think for crowds of up to about 30,000, as it has been apparently since 2008.

... in 2003 the same venue (roughly) housed a concert with an audience of roughly 500,000.... with no subway line within walking distance. ...
PS - 2003 SarsStock transport strategy: bike rack on car, park on a random sidestreet two miles from the venue, cycle as close as possible, lock up bike, walk the rest of the way. Easy peasy, worked great, but it sure was a hot day.

The Sheppard West ("Downsview" at the time) station had opened in 1996, and Wilson station in January 1978.
I recall, as a pre-high school aged kid in 1977, when Toronto City Council was about to reject the proposal to have the F1 Canadian Grand Prix at Exhibition Place starting in 1978, I thought that they should have instead tried to arrange to use Downsview Airport for one weekend a year, which conceivably could have had much of the crowd using the new Wilson station. But I don't think the idea was considered at the time.
And Montreal quickly moved to get it there, where it's been ever since then. (Edit: I looked in The Star online archives, and the Toronto vote to reject it was in early December of 1977, not October as the linked article implies).

 

[sixrings]

My comment was tongue in cheek, apologies if it didn't come across that way... but you kind of made my point.
The real arrogance is plunking a high capacity venue down somewhere and expecting the supporting infrastructure to magically appear. And buying concert tickets for same venue and expecting the government to leap to make your commute a painless one.
PS: At todays's ticket prices, it's the ticket holders who are displaying privilege.

- Paul

Don’t worry Paul. I’m a fan. It was a joke on my end. And yes I no longer go to concerts based on the prices. Same with sports games. Maybe I’m just old as well. And or maybe if I want to go full boomer… if these kids would just stop wasting money on these crazy ticket prices they could afford the housing market.

 

[crs1026]

This new concert venue is temporary (there for at least another four years), because the intention is for other more permanent things to eventually be built there. But the "Festival Terrace" area on the other side of the tracks in Downsview Park is nearby and is still used, I think for crowds of up to about 30,000, as it has been apparently since 2008.

I'm not knowledgeable about how all the Downsview development - there is much coming - plays into ML's plans for the Barrie corridor.

At 1,200 people per train, even 15 minute 2WAD does not empty a 30,000 seat venue very fast. Subway helps a lot, but that's 1,000 riders every two minutes at very optimistic headways. Building Line 4 west from Yonge will help.

I know of no plans to add staging points to the Barrie line that would allow extra GO trains to be added, as happens at Union on major event nights.

Emptying many sports venues in other cities - either by road or by transit - is just as much a nightmare. Patience is often necessary.

- Paul

 

[Sauga89]

Metrolinx says the Dufferin bridge over the Lakeshore West Line will get a structural assessment this weekend. The work is to be done by Ontario line contractors, but I thought I'd stick this here since the I know the Dufferin bridge is also important to GO. There will be lane closures.

Is this emergency work?

The construction notice seems a little last minute, and I'm a bit surprised that the Ontario line wouldn't already have a structural assessment of the bridge. Though I guess it could be routine monitoring?

 

[crs1026]

Metrolinx says the Dufferin bridge over the Lakeshore West Line will get a structural assessment this weekend. The work is to be done by Ontario line contractors, but I thought I'd stick this here since the I know the Dufferin bridge is also important to GO. There will be lane closures.

Is this emergency work?

The construction notice seems a little last minute, and I'm a bit surprised that the Ontario line wouldn't already have a structural assessment of the bridge. Though I guess it could be routine monitoring?

I have not heard of any LSE related work on this bridge… but…. As it is likely about to be a key route for heavy amounts of materiel and equipment for the TBM and tunnel launch… I would expect a “just in case” check would be timely and wise.
If anything untoward were discovered or confirmed… especially if it needs fixing with related delay to construction…. I’m sure Metrolinx won’t tell us.

- Paul

 

[Northern Light]

Let me bring the above linked notice forward:

 

[kotsy]

I have not heard of any LSE related work on this bridge… but…. As it is likely about to be a key route for heavy amounts of materiel and equipment for the TBM and tunnel launch… I would expect a “just in case” check would be timely and wise.
If anything untoward were discovered or confirmed… especially if it needs fixing with related delay to construction…. I’m sure Metrolinx won’t tell us.

- Paul

It is indeed a check before using it as a truck route, as explained in the last line of this slide.

 

[JJTheJetPln]

Tangentially related because this isn't a ML/GO project, but a Peel Region project - Mississauga Road bridge over CN Rail west of Mount Pleasant GO. They made significant progress in the last year and are expected to be done by 2026. From what I've seen, the trains pass under it perfectly fine, and it's definitely going to help traffic flow north of Mississauga Road / Bovaird.

If this shouldn't be here, please feel free to flag a mod down to move it to the appropriate topic.