EnviroTO
Senior Member
It isn't that a transportation corridor where the CP line is wouldn't add value... it is that CP is there with their freight mainline. If the government built the freight by-pass then a midtown line would be a no brainer. But we know the freight by-pass is not being built... at least not by this government. A freight mainline and high-frequency passenger rail running next to each other changes the risk calculations significantly and therefore increases the costs significantly. That small derailment near Simcoe St in Oshawa would likely have killed people if there were frequent passenger trains on the line on a parallel track. When GO decided they were going to have regular trains to Oshawa they didn't share the tracks with CN for good reason because isolated tracks and putting some separation between the corridors decreases risks as well as improves operations. The challenge is the high costs and the fact it would be investing a whole lot of money into a corridor that isn't owned by the government. At least with the freight by-pass option the government walks away with the midtown corridor and the Georgetown corridor as assets, but with investments purely into the midtown corridor the government doesn't end up owning any assets.