mdrejhon
Senior Member
I believe I have some of the answer to Metrolinx's GO RER being 20% faster.
Relevant to matter: There is a GO train that makes Burlington in just 40 minutes today!
I was surfing the GO schedules, and noticed that the Niagara summer train makes it to Burlington in a speedy 40 minutes!
This would be the fastest commute home for Burlington residents on Fridays on the 6:20pm train arriving Burlington at 7:00pm, every Friday beginning July 3rd. This screenshot is an excellent comparision of trip times of three different stopping plans.
Burlington Trip Times from Union
Regular allstop: 1h 01min
Regular express: 52min
Niagara seasonal: 40min
The Friday evening seasonal is presumably a longtime best-kept-secret of Burlington residents who work late in downtown Toronto to go "ahhhhh, TGIF!" when Burlington temporarily feels almost as close as Oakville to downtown.
How can Niagara seasonal be massively faster than the regular express? Without breaking railroad speed limits? Answer -- longer times at full speed between stops. It appears that, the current diesels are able to efficiently utilize a station spacing of approximately 10+ kilometers, due to the limited slow acceleration of the diesels. Apparently, because of the train performance graph -- big stop spacing between all stops, apparently outweighs the nonstop express followed by allstops in short station spacing, given the same number of stops!
When electric trains arrive, they will accelerate much faster to the railroad's speed limit sooner, so they can arrive at the next station sooner. Realistically, the improved acceleration of electric trains (EMUs moreso than electric locomotives, though) could reliably allow more aggressive timetables to be published that represents arrival times 20% sooner. That depends on whether Lakeshore gets EMUs (much faster timetables, 20%+ depending on stop distance) or electric locomotives (a bit faster timetables, 10% possibly?), assuming stop spacing remains the same.
When the Niagara seasonal eventually stops at Hamilton West Harbor, I would expect it provide a downtown-Toronto to downtown-Hamilton commute in slightly under one hour! Lovely.
Assuming the use of Stadler KISS type EMUs or similar, they have a 160kph max speed. The Stadler KISS EMU (pictured in Metrolinx recent PowerPoint presentations, here, here) accelerates at 4kph/second according to Stadler's specs (1.1m/s^2 = 3.96kph/s). This compares to 1kph/second for a single diesel engine and 2kph/second for a double-diesel consist (two diesels pulling a 12 car train).
My GPS speedometer on my iPhone confirms the acceleration of a GOtrain, and vegata_skyline (a GOtrain driver) confirms that the only way a GOtrain can accelerate 2kph/s is a double locomotive. He's right; I've never seen a GOtrain accelerate more than 1kph/s otherwise.
Not saying Metrolinx will chose Stadler KISS, but such similiar light EMUs accelerate similarly fast (several times faster than a diesel-pulled 12-car consist) due to all coaches having multiple motorized axles. Transport Canada proposed rules to Metrolinx to permit lighter non-FRA trains, so it could happen. An electrified GO network will likely eventually collect EMUs, beginning with routes of short stop spacing (e.g. SmartTrack route), which is important to stick to claims of 20% faster without increasing speed limits.
Although I expect Metrolinx to use electric locomotives on the Lakeshore line, eventually, the bilevels get relegated to peak-period service within twenty years, and EMUs used as a cost-saver (faster trains = fewer trains needed to maintain 15-min service = cheaper than near-empty offpeaks, and possible unstaffed level boarding at the existing Accessibility Platforms) before full discontinuation of the old classic Bombardier BiLevels in about the 2040s due to new orders and new cab cars. It is really not forever economical to operate the BiLevels on a 15-minute offpeak service all the way from Oshawa to Burlington, so as the coaches go EOL (end of life), they will probably be replaced with EMUs.
With EMUs, the "optimal big stop spacing" is much smaller (up to 4x smaller) than Niagara seasonal. This brings optimal stop spacing to smaller than the current stop spacing of many GO lines. From this, it appears EMU will easily perform 20% faster at current Lakeshore stop spacing, while maintaining the same arrival reliablility (guarantee) and safety margins.
EMUs will perform to 90mph railroad speed limit more than a third of the kilometerage of the rail on Lakeshore, and for lower speed limit sections, more than half of the kilometerage between the stations. This assumes no infill stations (which, presumably, are expected -- e.g. Etobicoke south between Exhibition and Mimico)
Both acceleration levels off as max speed is reached, but the EMU accelerates generally four times faster across the whole curve, meaning that maximum speed is achieved in a quarter the distance. Vegata_skyline repeatedly said that a GOtrain barely reaches maximum speed at current stop spacing on Lakeshore, before it has to decelerate. But if it gets to maximum speed 4 times sooner, it can spend a third of the spacing between stop coasting at full speed, rather than an accelerate-then-nearly-immediately-decelerate cycle that frequently happens with GOtrains.
From multiple angles:
- observation of Niagara Seasonal performance versus Regular Express performance;
- math calculations confirms;
- acceleration performance of EMUs confirms;
- current optimal stop spacing performance observed by Niagara Seasonal;
- GO network current stop spacing would allow an EMU to be at railroad speed limit possibly up to half of the kilometerage.
So, assuming the use of EMUs, I consider Metrolinx's assertion of "20% faster" quite accurate and possibly conservative assuming the use of EMUs, even without changing current railroad speed limits.
Relevant to matter: There is a GO train that makes Burlington in just 40 minutes today!
I was surfing the GO schedules, and noticed that the Niagara summer train makes it to Burlington in a speedy 40 minutes!
This would be the fastest commute home for Burlington residents on Fridays on the 6:20pm train arriving Burlington at 7:00pm, every Friday beginning July 3rd. This screenshot is an excellent comparision of trip times of three different stopping plans.
Burlington Trip Times from Union
Regular allstop: 1h 01min
Regular express: 52min
Niagara seasonal: 40min
The Friday evening seasonal is presumably a longtime best-kept-secret of Burlington residents who work late in downtown Toronto to go "ahhhhh, TGIF!" when Burlington temporarily feels almost as close as Oakville to downtown.
How can Niagara seasonal be massively faster than the regular express? Without breaking railroad speed limits? Answer -- longer times at full speed between stops. It appears that, the current diesels are able to efficiently utilize a station spacing of approximately 10+ kilometers, due to the limited slow acceleration of the diesels. Apparently, because of the train performance graph -- big stop spacing between all stops, apparently outweighs the nonstop express followed by allstops in short station spacing, given the same number of stops!
When electric trains arrive, they will accelerate much faster to the railroad's speed limit sooner, so they can arrive at the next station sooner. Realistically, the improved acceleration of electric trains (EMUs moreso than electric locomotives, though) could reliably allow more aggressive timetables to be published that represents arrival times 20% sooner. That depends on whether Lakeshore gets EMUs (much faster timetables, 20%+ depending on stop distance) or electric locomotives (a bit faster timetables, 10% possibly?), assuming stop spacing remains the same.
When the Niagara seasonal eventually stops at Hamilton West Harbor, I would expect it provide a downtown-Toronto to downtown-Hamilton commute in slightly under one hour! Lovely.
Assuming the use of Stadler KISS type EMUs or similar, they have a 160kph max speed. The Stadler KISS EMU (pictured in Metrolinx recent PowerPoint presentations, here, here) accelerates at 4kph/second according to Stadler's specs (1.1m/s^2 = 3.96kph/s). This compares to 1kph/second for a single diesel engine and 2kph/second for a double-diesel consist (two diesels pulling a 12 car train).
My GPS speedometer on my iPhone confirms the acceleration of a GOtrain, and vegata_skyline (a GOtrain driver) confirms that the only way a GOtrain can accelerate 2kph/s is a double locomotive. He's right; I've never seen a GOtrain accelerate more than 1kph/s otherwise.
Not saying Metrolinx will chose Stadler KISS, but such similiar light EMUs accelerate similarly fast (several times faster than a diesel-pulled 12-car consist) due to all coaches having multiple motorized axles. Transport Canada proposed rules to Metrolinx to permit lighter non-FRA trains, so it could happen. An electrified GO network will likely eventually collect EMUs, beginning with routes of short stop spacing (e.g. SmartTrack route), which is important to stick to claims of 20% faster without increasing speed limits.
Although I expect Metrolinx to use electric locomotives on the Lakeshore line, eventually, the bilevels get relegated to peak-period service within twenty years, and EMUs used as a cost-saver (faster trains = fewer trains needed to maintain 15-min service = cheaper than near-empty offpeaks, and possible unstaffed level boarding at the existing Accessibility Platforms) before full discontinuation of the old classic Bombardier BiLevels in about the 2040s due to new orders and new cab cars. It is really not forever economical to operate the BiLevels on a 15-minute offpeak service all the way from Oshawa to Burlington, so as the coaches go EOL (end of life), they will probably be replaced with EMUs.
With EMUs, the "optimal big stop spacing" is much smaller (up to 4x smaller) than Niagara seasonal. This brings optimal stop spacing to smaller than the current stop spacing of many GO lines. From this, it appears EMU will easily perform 20% faster at current Lakeshore stop spacing, while maintaining the same arrival reliablility (guarantee) and safety margins.
EMUs will perform to 90mph railroad speed limit more than a third of the kilometerage of the rail on Lakeshore, and for lower speed limit sections, more than half of the kilometerage between the stations. This assumes no infill stations (which, presumably, are expected -- e.g. Etobicoke south between Exhibition and Mimico)
Both acceleration levels off as max speed is reached, but the EMU accelerates generally four times faster across the whole curve, meaning that maximum speed is achieved in a quarter the distance. Vegata_skyline repeatedly said that a GOtrain barely reaches maximum speed at current stop spacing on Lakeshore, before it has to decelerate. But if it gets to maximum speed 4 times sooner, it can spend a third of the spacing between stop coasting at full speed, rather than an accelerate-then-nearly-immediately-decelerate cycle that frequently happens with GOtrains.
From multiple angles:
- observation of Niagara Seasonal performance versus Regular Express performance;
- math calculations confirms;
- acceleration performance of EMUs confirms;
- current optimal stop spacing performance observed by Niagara Seasonal;
- GO network current stop spacing would allow an EMU to be at railroad speed limit possibly up to half of the kilometerage.
So, assuming the use of EMUs, I consider Metrolinx's assertion of "20% faster" quite accurate and possibly conservative assuming the use of EMUs, even without changing current railroad speed limits.
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