Interesting, yes, plenty to agree with. Some of which is indeed being advanced. But it is presented inside out. As usual with enthusiast articles, the thing obsesses about fleet and EMU's and electric locomotives - which most agree are the right direction, but are not the silver bullet they are always presented as.
The bigger need is for track, wires, signals, and platforms in the right places. Fleet comes later. First, decide on the mission. GO historically did not address movement within the 416. There has been considerable motion to change that. But GO cannot be hijacked to be the 416's transit solution. And if it were, how well does it meet regional and intercity needs? It has to balance the two, and the capacity for both must be built into the design. Pushing the pendulum too far by adding too many 416 stations risks undermining the longer distance throughput - yes, electrification will allow more stops within the same footprint, but only to a point.
I compare it to a 80 storey condo or office tower. There will likely be express elevators, because nobody wants to stop 78 times on the way to the top floor. One can analyse ridership and note that the express elevators only benefit half the riders, because half the residents get off below the 40th floor. Doesn't mean the express component is wrong. A good designer will be astute in where the crossover floors are. Switching to elevators that move faster doesn't change the agony of stopping at all 79 floors. So some express component has to fit in the design.
I may trigger a bit quickly when discussion focuses on electric fleet, but I see lots of frustration and complaining because posters think ML isn't moving fast enough to procure same. (As if switchgear and power control components can be ordered online and arrive by courier). We can't string wires until we have the track built and the signals activated. We need more common understanding of the system design.
- Paul