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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

Guelphs MPP seems a bit confused.. First of all Guelph wouldn't even be served by the HSR line. Also, the MPP seems to be talking about the express trains they want to introduce in 2016, not the HSR service which would presumably not be opening until 2020 or later. she is talking about the short term improvements such as the doubling of GO service to Kitchener with the express train, not the HSR which is longer term. those express train will probably operate for 5 or 6 years before being replaced by the HSR.
 
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gweed123 said:
It would be nice if Ontario could find a way to repurpose one of the closed down auto plants to build transit vehicles instead. Transit expansion is going to be booming for the next 20-30 years, and in places like Windsor and Oshawa you have the plants, and you have skilled (former) auto workers looking for work. Think of how much more approval this GO REX plan would get if the Premier came out and said "all new EMUs that will be used by GO will be built in Windsor and Oshawa, creating hundreds, if not thousands of high paying jobs."
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That would be simply excellent. Would win the Wynne government a good degree of support among the struggling manufacturing ex-workers, of which it seems we get more each week.

Plus good jobs are good jobs, and it'd be nice to get some quality Ontario-made products.
 
innsertnamehere said:
I thought they were all built up at Thunder Bay in a singular plant? It mostly builds Bilevels for the North American market, but also does the TTC streetcars and TRs. Presumably Talent 2s as well in a few years. (If the province selects bombardier as the train producer, Ottawa did go with Alstom remember)
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US multilevels are made at Bombardier Plattsburgh NY to fulfill Buy America requirements where funding requires it. As for Alstom in Ottawa, not sure how much actual Canadian content there since much of the work will be done at Alstom Hornell NY. They seem to have been selected as part of the construction bid, whereas GTA projects have to take from Metrolinx' options for Bombardier. Not sure who is going to be ordering non FRA single deck EMUs (Talent2)
 
innsertnamehere said:
I thought they were all built up at Thunder Bay in a singular plant?
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They are about as combined as a GM van line and sedan line. Staff may migrate (with training) so there is benefit to having a large amount of expertise in a single area, but the assembly lines are fully independent with fully dedicated staff/equipment/space.

They don't have a single large crew which kicks out 1 rocket then 1 tram then 1 bilevel car, then 1 more rocket, ... The upper management, purchasing, shipping/receiving, warehousing, and building is combined for a cost savings and flexibility.

In essence, 1 building (nearly 500m in length) with several mostly independent factories/assembly lines working within it. It could just as easily be 3 or 4 smaller buildings. You can either look at each as being 25% of a mega-factory or 100% of a regular sized factory. You get the same thing with electronics manufacturing; 10M units could be produced by 5 normal sized factories or at a slightly lower price at a single factory that is 5 times the size; the mega factory is still typically compartmentalized internally with multiple assembly lines.
 
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gweed123 said:
It would be nice if Ontario could find a way to repurpose one of the closed down auto plants to build transit vehicles instead. Transit expansion is going to be booming for the next 20-30 years, and in places like Windsor and Oshawa you have the plants, and you have skilled (former) auto workers looking for work. Think of how much more approval this GO REX plan would get if the Premier came out and said "all new EMUs that will be used by GO will be built in Windsor and Oshawa, creating hundreds, if not thousands of high paying jobs."
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the time to have done that was with the LRV order for Toronto. 400+ vehicles to be cranked out on a brand new line, not 1000km from the destination city. Instead it all went to Thunder Bay to keep the north happy, which let's face it it didn't.
 
MrsNesbitt said:
That would be simply excellent. Would win the Wynne government a good degree of support among the struggling manufacturing ex-workers, of which it seems we get more each week.

Plus good jobs are good jobs, and it'd be nice to get some quality Ontario-made products.
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Exactly. It seems to make a lot of political sense in addition to making practical sense. I wonder if there are any unseen (to us) obstacles to this or if it just hasn't happened because no one in power has thought of it.

dowlingm said:
the time to have done that was with the LRV order for Toronto. 400+ vehicles to be cranked out on a brand new line, not 1000km from the destination city. Instead it all went to Thunder Bay to keep the north happy, which let's face it it didn't.
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That's true. But now that this $29B plan seems to be a pretty sizeable addition to the orders already in place in Thunder Bay, they could use the "Thunder Bay doesn't have the capacity to build these EMUs in addition to the orders already there" line, which could very well be true.

EMUs in Windsor or Oshawa, with LRTs/streetcars and subway vehicles in Thunder Bay. Everybody gets a piece of the action. THAT is the type of government 'job creation' I can get behind, because it isn't just putting money into a black hole and hoping that it creates jobs. With something like this, you know it will, and you know that Ontario will get something back for that money too.
 
The HSR will skip Guelph--passing through without stopping. It will be an express that stops only at London, Kitchener, Pearson, and Union.
 
nfitz said:
I think your a bit confused. The Kitchener-Toronto line runs through Guelph.
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1overcosc said:
The HSR will skip Guelph--passing through without stopping. It will be an express that stops only at London, Kitchener, Pearson, and Union.
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Exactly 1overcosc. The HSR will stop in 3 cities and the airport. Guelph gets all day service at 15 mins. Let's make that clear.
 
Just a note, but manufacturing is largely stable in the province right now. any job losses are roughly offset with gains. Most of the losses were in the mid to late 00's.
 
innsertnamehere said:
Just a note, but manufacturing is largely stable in the province right now. any job losses are roughly offset with gains. Most of the losses were in the mid to late 00's.
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Caterpillar? (Locomotive plant in London, Lovat here in Toronto) Heinz? Bicks? Ford St. Thomas? Hershey Smiths Falls? Kelloggs? Orion Bus?

Lots of big plants in the last three years closed or announced closure. I'd like to see the numbers.
 
o-BMO-JOBS-CHART-570.jpg


ignore the healthcare thing, but it shows manufacturing sector employment. Big name closures occur sure, but there are other plants opening up that are offsetting it. 500 jobs may sound like a lot, but in the schemes of a province of 14 million people and a sector with ~800,000 employees, its not. each one of those closures will see a small blip on that graph, but the next month a new plant opens and it jumps up again by a roughly equal amount. Compare this with the 2003 - 2008 period where job losses were one after another, and it is fine. Markets are constantly in flux, closures are to be expected. A good example directly visible on the graph is the first large jump after it stabilizes in late 2010, that is likely the opening of the Toyota plant in Woodstock.
 
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I presume that MTO has done some basic feasibility studies.

In general I think ware just going to have to wait it out another 2 weeks until the full budget comes out and we can see exactly what is going on.
 
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