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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

Northern Light said:
Hmmmm.........on Niagara............

There's a story today.....out that way....where these paragraphs appear:

View attachment 422742
via www.pressreader.com

The story is dated today............

Edit to Add:

I found the original story, took me a moment...........its actually from 2 days ago.

Mostly about adding a new road connection and roundabout.............but with the GO Train mention........

www.niagarafallsreview.ca

Roundabout called major step in downtown Niagara Falls revitalization

$4.6-million project co-funded by region and city will link with Thorold Stone Road extension by 2024
www.niagarafallsreview.ca www.niagarafallsreview.ca
Click to expand...
A downtown train station? I'm sorry what? Weren't any tracks that went downtown ripped out long ago in favour of Casinos?
 
ARG1 said:
A downtown train station? I'm sorry what? Weren't any tracks that went downtown ripped out long ago in favour of Casinos?
Click to expand...

No, the Niagara Falls station IS next to the historic downtown area of NF; but that is not particularly close to The Falls or to Clifton Hill which people tend to think of as DT Niagara.........but technically and historically speaking, it is not.
 
Yeah, the downtown station is the station that GO and VIA/Amtrak use.

The tracks that led to Clifton Hill and beyond was a Michigan Central (New York Central) connection from Niagara Falls NY to its Canada Southern mainline to St. Thomas and Detroit. CP took it over when Conrail (which took over the remains of the NYC system) divested itself of its Canadian rail assets. With the loss of industry in Niagara Falls and Welland, CP didn’t need that track, as it has another connection at Fort Erie anyway.

I don’t know why the article is talking about commuter service in 2023, as there’s one weekday train a day that does it now. Maybe it will be an upgraded service, with the West Harbour connection completed. Maybe the announcement will finally kickstart the Centennial and Casablanca station work.
 
ShonTron said:
Yeah, the downtown station is the station that GO and VIA/Amtrak use.

The tracks that led to Clifton Hill and beyond was a Michigan Central (New York Central) connection from Niagara Falls NY to its Canada Southern mainline to St. Thomas and Detroit. CP took it over when Conrail (which took over the remains of the NYC system) divested itself of its Canadian rail assets. With the loss of industry in Niagara Falls and Welland, CP didn’t need that track, as it has another connection at Fort Erie anyway.

I don’t know why the article is talking about commuter service in 2023, as there’s one weekday train a day that does it now. Maybe it will be an upgraded service, with the West Harbour connection completed. Maybe the announcement will finally kickstart the Centennial and Casablanca station work.
Click to expand...
Things have been quiet on the Confederation GO front for a while. I wonder if he chose Niagara Falls because it encapsulates the entire corridor. Tendering all the station work for the extension/expansion/service increase in one package may make sense.
 
rbt said:
This Initial Business Case was released a couple years ago.

It included consideration of a station at Beamsville and ~6 daily round-trip trains to Niagara Falls. No track improvements.


So my guess is a new station at Beamsville, finishing Confederation GO, some improvement of Niagara station (more platform space), and 5 to 6 daily round-trip trains to Niagara Falls for a total capital cost of ~$100M.

Worth noting, the last time Ford visited Niagara Falls he spent $24M. So he's shown willingness to make fairly minor announcements there in person.
www.stcatharinesstandard.ca

Falls train station to be redeveloped into ‘one-stop shop’ for transit

A $1.5-million provincial commitment will help redevelop the outdated train station in downtown Niagara Falls into a “multi-modal” hub that will become a “one-stop shop” for transportation, says Mayor Jim Diodati.
www.stcatharinesstandard.ca www.stcatharinesstandard.ca
Click to expand...

In addition, I recalled a 2021 Metrolinx article stating the stub-end tracks at West Harbour would be extended. Funding this work may be part of today's announcement as well.

"Metrolinx is also building towards enhanced track capacity and working with rail partners to bring service to the future Confederation GO Station.​
​
Over the next few years, there are plans to add additional pocket tracks to the two stub-ended tracks at West Harbour, connecting the tracks to the main Lakeshore West Line on the east side of the station. This work will eliminate the need to reverse GO trains into the station, which adds 20-minutes to trips when travelling to and from Niagara and will facilitate service to Confederation GO and beyond.​
​
Service beyond Hamilton​
​
Unlocking increased service in Hamilton also means unlocking expanded GO train service to Niagara, down the line. Niagara already has weekend and holiday rail service to and from Niagara Falls, with demand for more. Work continues to bring more service to both Hamilton and Niagara region as soon as possible.​
​
By finding smarter and better ways to work together, Metrolinx is accelerating service improvements to these areas."​

blog.metrolinx.com

Metrolinx Press Room

Find the latest Metrolinx news, project updates and more.
blog.metrolinx.com
 
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I'm really curious why it's in Niagara Falls as well.

I expected an announcement of changes to Hamilton GO service soon, particularly 30 minute service to West Harbour and construction finally starting on Confederation, but Niagara is interesting.

The other alternative is that the announcement may be related to the Garden City Skyway replacement / twinning, but why hold it in Niagara Falls then and not St Catharine's? Perhaps going down that "roads" route, it could be an announcement of replacing the Thorold Stone Road interchange on the QEW and widening the QEW south to the 420, which has been an overdue roads infrastructure project in the area for a while..

Really just getting Confederation GO built will result in improved service to Niagara too, as it allows seasonal Niagara trains to stop in Hamilton and will shave a good amount of time off the single peak hour train to Niagara as it won't have to back into West Harbour any more.

I believe the Niagara Extension's costs are primarily around Confederation GO, which needs a new track from West Harbour to enable all day service to it. Otherwise it's a relatively small amount of money to spend at Grimsby for a new station, some minor facelifts at Niagara Falls and St Catharines, and perhaps an additional passing track or two.
 
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Here's the announcement:

Ontario Newsroom

news.ontario.ca news.ontario.ca

1661530325127.png
 
innsertnamehere said:
that would be new for weekday service, but this is weekend service. It represents a reduction over previous service levels, which had IIRC 4 round trips through the winter season.
Click to expand...
So they announced a service cut but made it sound like a positive thing. That's some good spin.
 
Wow how generous of Ford to provide 2 daily weekend trips instead of the 4 we had previously.

I'm surprised that the news release mentioned that the service was already previously year round before being cut under the Ford Government. That's unusually honest of them. Though I guess they make up for it by "forgetting" to mention that it used to be twice as frequent as it will be now.

They also make up for it with this headline:
Screenshot_20220826-191424.png

Apparently fiscal Conservatism isn't really about using market forces to balance supply and demand, it's just about letting the people with the most political power pass their costs onto others...
 
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