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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

lenaitch said:
If there was a market for freight traffic to Collingwood, the line wouldn't have been embargoed (rails are still in place but the line is spiked at Utopia). There is always the 'last mile' problem. The ROW is at the east end of Collingwood, the hills at the west, and line is a fair distance from the beach at Wasaga. A shuttle bus from the GO railhead at Barrie would make more sense if there is a market. Of course, private money is free to invest. Probably better to spend public money on real needs before playground needs.
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Rails are mostly in place, but some crossings have been removed, such as at Poplar Sideroad on the south end of Collingwood and Highway 26 (Airport Road) at Stayner.

There are some industries that still benefit from direct rail access: auto assembly plants, chemical plants and fuel depots, lumber yards, and large grain processors, and it might be worthwhile to resurrect a short spur to serve them, like the Oshawa Harbour spur recently rebuilt. But if you need rail access, are you going to locate in Collingwood that's a long distance from an active railway? Or would you set up near Utopia? That's why Orangeville is hanging on to its railway, but it is still in decent shape at least.

Put a fork in it, rail service to Collingwood is gone forever.
 
which is a shame as the alignment is so straight. While I understand the reasoning behind the low demand - you could easily upgrade it to 110mph standards and have trains from Barrie to Collingwood in around 20 minutes. That's a 50 minute drive today as Collingwood is so far off the 400 series highway network. (I also think a 400 series highway connection would be very prudent and am surprised MTO isn't planning for one at all, but that's another matter).

I guess I'm just surprised at how poor transportation options are to collingwood given it's strong growth patterns and high tourist demands.

a sub 2 hour Toronto-Collingwood train would be unbelievably competitive - and I think it's a real possibility with an express track on the Barrie line and 110mph standards on the Collingwood spur.
 
canarob said:
Brampton takes another L. Wow.
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It is a bit of a stretch, though, to say Brampton is worse off....sure, some additional seats will be occupied by people on trains before they get to Brampton but no one can think that it is actually a significant number. This last round of changes was (IMO) "neutral" as it relates to Brampton.

This article also does something that I have seen multiple times on twitter in the #brampoli discussions.......it points out that the bypass is cancelled....and it says the bypass was thought to be necessary for all day two way service.....leaving the reader to draw the conclusion that plans for all day 2 way service have been cancelled/postponed....and fails to point out that the minister also promised AD2W service in shorter, cheaper, way......now I have no idea if they can deliver on that promise but to report the press conference and leave that out is just plain poor reporting.
 
innsertnamehere said:
which is a shame as the alignment is so straight. While I understand the reasoning behind the low demand - you could easily upgrade it to 110mph standards and have trains from Barrie to Collingwood in around 20 minutes. That's a 50 minute drive today as Collingwood is so far off the 400 series highway network. (I also think a 400 series highway connection would be very prudent and am surprised MTO isn't planning for one at all, but that's another matter).

I guess I'm just surprised at how poor transportation options are to collingwood given it's strong growth patterns and high tourist demands.

a sub 2 hour Toronto-Collingwood train would be unbelievably competitive - and I think it's a real possibility with an express track on the Barrie line and 110mph standards on the Collingwood spur.
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If you extended the tracks to Blue Mountain, you could have a ski train and would get demand from Toronto.
 
robmausser said:
If you extended the tracks to Blue Mountain, you could have a ski train and would get demand from Toronto.
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Lets assume 200 skiers per day, paying $10 out of total ticket price per day towards amortising the investment, four days a week for twelve weeks a year..... to repay a capital investment of maybe $40 million...... those are all numbers pulled out of the air, but maybe you can see the problem. If we had the $40 million to spend, there are lots of higher priorities.

- Paul
 
M636RF said:
But yeah, I agree that there are few arguments to be made in favor of re-establishing rail service to Collingwood in the foreseeable future. I wonder how long it will be until the line is converted to a bike path.
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If I recall correctly, the County of Simcoe purchased the ROW to bank it.


innsertnamehere said:
which is a shame as the alignment is so straight. While I understand the reasoning behind the low demand - you could easily upgrade it to 110mph standards and have trains from Barrie to Collingwood in around 20 minutes. That's a 50 minute drive today as Collingwood is so far off the 400 series highway network. (I also think a 400 series highway connection would be very prudent and am surprised MTO isn't planning for one at all, but that's another matter).

I guess I'm just surprised at how poor transportation options are to collingwood given it's strong growth patterns and high tourist demands.

a sub 2 hour Toronto-Collingwood train would be unbelievably competitive - and I think it's a real possibility with an express track on the Barrie line and 110mph standards on the Collingwood spur.
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I'm sure the folks of Angus and Stayner, which the line runs through the middle of, would be thrilled.

Although Blue Mountain is the largest operator, public and private ski operators are spread along the escarpment for several kilometers. It would be a shame to spend public money on a weekend playground when there are so many other pressing needs. Perhaps if the deep commercial pockets the run Blue et al think it's a sound economic deal, they are free to pursue it.
 
crs1026 said:
Lets assume 200 skiers per day, paying $10 out of total ticket price per day towards amortising the investment, four days a week for twelve weeks a year..... to repay a capital investment of maybe $40 million...... those are all numbers pulled out of the air, but maybe you can see the problem. If we had the $40 million to spend, there are lots of higher priorities.

- Paul
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Well you wouldnt just get skiiers, you would get people going to Collingwood as well. I just meant it would help make a business case for the line to collingwood.
 
^ I would rather see the business case built around telecommuters who come into the city say once a week for business. Population up that way is growing, and there are lots of folks in that situation.
Even if you assume 400 Wasaga Beach sunbathers every Saturday/Sunday for the summer, it's still way below cost.
And frankly, I would hate to share a 2-hour train ride back to the city with 400 Long Weekend Wasaga Beach party animals. Can you say "Vomit Comet"? Worse than after a Country Music concert at Skydome.

- Paul
 
crs1026 said:
^ I would rather see the business case built around telecommuters who come into the city say once a week for business. Population up that way is growing, and there are lots of folks in that situation.
Even if you assume 400 Wasaga Beach sunbathers every Saturday/Sunday for the summer, it's still way below cost.
And frankly, I would hate to share a 2-hour train ride back to the city with 400 Long Weekend Wasaga Beach party animals. Can you say "Vomit Comet"? Worse than after a Country Music concert at Skydome.

- Paul
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No kidding. Would be a tad taxing on the onboard washrooms. Can't imagine commuting to work the next day on one of the cars that had to be turned around for commuter service.

At least there wouldn't be a need for special onboard ski equipment storage.
 
Allandale25 said:
^ But apparently some trips are 5 minutes faster? Which trips? Are the speed improvements being referred to in Guelph? I'm confused.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1074778210011963393
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That particular tweet is misleading or misinformed. 5 minutes is indeed the amount of time I estimated they would save from the improvements currently underway in Guelph, but that work isn't done yet so the time savings won't show up in the January changes.

Once the work is done, the Kitchener-Toronto travel times should be:
1h30: VIA
1h46: GO Express
1h58: GO Local

This improvement will finally make VIA the fastest service in the corridor, beating out even Greyhound's optimistic scheduling.
 
For everyone's convenience, here's the consolidated January 2019 Kitchener Line peak schedules (including VIA and UPX), highlighting the changes from the current schedules:

Kitchener2019EB.JPG


Kitchener2019WB.JPG
 
alexanderglista said:
LINX is expanding, and Collingwood will be a new destination. Link.
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Whoa!
5. Bike racks are available on all LINX buses. Loading and unloading is the responsibility of passengers. Visit linx.simcoe.ca for bike rack instructions and to learn more about Simcoe County cycling routes.
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Every hour service, here's the Midland website page on it:
https://www.midland.ca/Shared Documents/LINX-Ride-Guide_FINAL.pdf

This looks excellent, it's truly unfortunate that Ontario is so azz-backwards that it isn't promoting routes like these, ostensibly that will mesh with GO in Barrie.

I'll definitely do a review on this come Summer. (Did Waubaushene to Barrie last year, parts beautiful, other stretches ruined by choice of very coarse sharp gravel Uhthoff to north of Orillia). The North Simcoe Trail stretch to Midland looks far friendlier in terms of trail surface and variation in scenery.

See: https://www.simcoe.ca/InformationTechnology/Pages/TrailMaps.aspx
 
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