GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

[drum118]

We caught 2 eastbound GO Train coming off the Canpa Sub onto the Galt Sub as we were arriving and leaving the subway at Kipling on Sat. First time seeing this.

Don;t think the first train was a LSW train as the locomotive had red lights on as our subway train pass it, east of the block signals. Most likely a train being moved to the Milton Yard for change out.

 

[hw621]

We’re making structural improvements to aging bridges along the Lakeshore West line to allow for more service and future electric trains. Plus, better lighting and clearances under bridges will enhance traffic flow and pedestrian safety. http://bit.ly/2x7JO6i #MetrolinxFYI

Future electric trains???!!! Does that imply electrification is still happening?

 

[nfitz]

Future electric trains???!!! Does that imply electrification is still happening?

It just means the clearances are designed for electrification.

There are bridges over the tracks in Scarborough that have two extra spans, to allow for the Gardiner Expressway to pass underneath as well. Building the bridge, is no guarantee that other projects are happening!

 

[Woodbridge_Heights]

Of course doing the work and building something that allows for, for example electrification, when there are no set plans for this future project; Implies some sort of forsight in this project that is often absent in the GTA's infrastructure planning

 

[hw621]

Electrification has not yet been not happening.

I know. But at least it is not cancelled.....yet?

 

[mdrejhon]

They've been clearly protecting for electrificafion for years.

Thats a big reason why they bought their own tracks. Built their rail traffic operations centee. Raised a few road overpasses during reconstruction over the last ten years. Adding places for future portals at the new Whitby yard. Adjusting right of ways. Tripling the size of Union's capacity. Grade separating, including rail-to-rail grade separations. This is something they will continue until actual electrification happens.

The gears may switch. slow down, or speed up. I get the nagging feeling electrificafion is a 2028-2030 completion as the prerequisites are just so numerous. Rather than 2024-2025, but electrification clearly is still coming regardless of party color. And adjusted to satisfy political constituencies more (GO tracks go through ridings of all color).

Postponements and foot-dragging? Sure. Route/stops adjustments? Sure. Outright cancellation of all electrificafion? Doesn't seem like it. It's chamelon enough to be called GO RER or GO Surface Subway or SmartTrack or GO Metro or whatever. GO has the potential to someday be a true actual metro one day in the future. And all of those plans are electric.

 

[hw621]

They've been clearly protecting for electrificafion for years.

Thats a big reason why they bought their own tracks. Built their rail traffic operations centee. Raised a few road overpasses during reconstruction over the last ten years. Adding places for future portals at the new Whitby yard. Adjusting right of ways. Tripling the size of Union's capacity. Grade separating, including rail-to-rail grade separations. This is something they will continue until actual electrification happens.

The gears may switch. slow down, or speed up. I get the nagging feeling electrificafion is a 2028-2030 completion as the prerequisites are just so numerous. Rather than 2024-2025, but electrification clearly is still coming regardless of party color. And adjusted to satisfy political constituencies more (GO tracks go through ridings of all color).

Postponements and foot-dragging? Sure. Route/stops adjustments? Sure. Outright cancellation of all electrificafion? Doesn't seem like it. It's chamelon enough to be called GO RER or GO Surface Subway or SmartTrack or GO Metro or whatever. GO has the potential to someday be a true actual metro one day in the future. And all of those plans are electric.

I really hope that day falls in the era I am still commuting.

 

[innsertnamehere]

I don't understand how this board has convinced itself that RER is cancelled. It's full steam ahead still until told otherwise. Electrification will happen by 2025.

 

[nfitz]

I don't understand how this board has convinced itself that RER is cancelled. It's full steam ahead still until told otherwise. Electrification will happen by 2025.

Ditto for the Sheppard East LRT and some other Transit City lines.

 

[innsertnamehere]

Ditto for the Sheppard East LRT and some other Transit City lines.

absolutely not the case. Sheppard has a published completion date of "TBD". RER still very much so has a published completion date of 2025, and the government has said nothing indicating otherwise. Plus we are seeing that the contracts continue to get issued and advance at a relatively normal pace.. There are no reasons to believe it has even been delayed, yet alone cancelled.

 

[timio]

When you have a dumpster fire as premier, you always assume the worst, just like in actual dumpster fires. Unpredictable and bad for the world in general, but you can't look away even though you are well aware of the destruction.

 

[innsertnamehere]

When you have a dumpster fire as premier, you always assume the worst, just like in actual dumpster fires. Unpredictable and bad for the world in general, but you can't look away even though you are well aware of the destruction.

an awfully cynical and quite frankly depressing view on life.

Doug is rather, err, far from being a competent premier - but that doesn't mean that absolutely everything provincially related will automatically totally implode in on itself.

I'm not saying that RER will survive intact 100% all the way either, just that as of today, things are still moving forward with no real signs that they will be stopped. Of course there is always the possibility it will be cancelled, but right now it isn't, and the PCs had it's retention in their platform.. which leaves me giving them the benefit of the doubt for now. The way discussion on this board has gone over the past two months you would think that the thing had died a glorious death. It hasn't.

 

[mdrejhon]

I don't understand how this board has convinced itself that RER is cancelled. It's full steam ahead still until told otherwise. Electrification will happen by 2025.

Hope so, the full shebang.

But elements of.... Let's remember 2025 is potentially pivottable as "End of construction", "Middle of construction" or "Beginning of construction" on cherrypicked subsets of the original RER $13.5bn plan. Phased construction as a cop-out cover for "cuts"/"scalebacks".

For example, perhaps Barrie won't be electrified till 2028-2031 but Lakeshore certainly easily can be by 2025. USRC work, bridge replacement, Whitby electrification-ready yard, etc, the momentum is well towards Lakeshore electrification.

My nagging suspicion is that timelines are going to be phased/stretched out a bit for certain elements. At least I have a good feeling about Lakeshore/Bramalea/Pearson will be electrified by 2025 though.

 

[hw621]

Hope so, the full shebang.

But elements of.... Let's remember 2025 is potentially pivottable as "End of construction", "Middle of construction" or "Beginning of construction" on cherrypicked subsets of the original RER $13.5bn plan. Phased construction as a cop-out cover for "cuts"/"scalebacks".

For example, perhaps Barrie won't be electrified till 2028-2031 but Lakeshore certainly easily can be by 2025. It's full throttle on a lot of pre-requisites (USRC work, bridge replacement, Whitby electrification-ready yard, etc)

My nagging suspicion is that timelines are g`oing to be stretched out a bit. I have a good feeling about Lakeshore/Bramalea/Pearson will be electrified by 2025

What about Stouffville, as John tory is still pitching his ST plan and the early 2020 timeline?

 

[mdrejhon]

Stoufville phasing? Cloudy crystal ball. Ask me again after the municipal election.

Lakeshore's safe though, it'll be electrified this generation. Bet your mortgage on it for "by 2031", or your paycheck or "by 2026-2027".

It's so consistently masterplanned, GO 2020, Metrolinx 2031, Metrolinx 2041, even under earlier PC governments. Heck, it was the Conservatives who invented GO ALRT -- the first electrification concept for GO. That was just paper then. Today we have actual electrification provisions built and continuing to do so.

Early elements continually appear piecemeal. I see it when they demolished the John Street bridge and rebuilt it to OCS catenary height. I see it with the newly built concrete pads for future catenary portals at Whitby. The new Humber Bay bridge spans has OCS/portal structure provisions. Any newbuilds along Lakeshore is electrification ready already. The malarkey at Union Station shed to protect for future OCS. It's just a matter of time for Lakeshore, even if GO is still simply slipstreaming mini-pre-requisites continually until the one big mother-of-DBFOM or whatever. It's just a matter of time even if not 2025.