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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

tsm1072 said:
The question is whether that money could be better spent. Hamilton GO is always going to be the end of that line, compared to West Harbour, which is an intermediate stop on a longer line. A complete shoot from the hip, for the cost of that tunnel upgrade, you could:
  • Build the dedicated trackage for frequent service to Stoney creek
  • Add a station at Ottawa Street
  • Upgrade bus service on Barton
  • Extend the LRT down James St to connect to West Harbour
Ideally, you do these things and improve the service to Hamilton GO. But, if I wanted to service more people, these upgrades would do that.
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reaperexpress said:
The tunnel is a 570m stretch of cut-and-cover under a public street, so probably a fair bit less than a billion. The going rate for bored subway projects is about $300M per km including stations, and cut and cover is generally cheaper than bored. So surely just raising the corners of the roof of the tunnel would cost less than $300M.

The off-peak express service will need to remain at West Harbour in order to continue into Niagara, but it would be nice to have, for example, two local trains per hour terminating at Hamilton Centre.
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I think the direct service to the downtown (which we should hope booms in population along with LRT) should probably be the goal
 
reaperexpress said:
The tunnel is a 570m stretch of cut-and-cover under a public street, so probably a fair bit less than a billion. The going rate for bored subway projects is about $300M per km including stations, and cut and cover is generally cheaper than bored. So surely just raising the corners of the roof of the tunnel would cost less than $300M.

The off-peak express service will need to remain at West Harbour in order to continue into Niagara, but it would be nice to have, for example, two local trains per hour terminating at Hamilton Centre.
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As a comparison, the 401/409 tunnel is a twin bore each 182ish meters in length. I don't know if the horizontal pile method is capable of boring a longer tunnel, but the total cost was about $100M per bore. One has to assume that a second bore might be constructable without displacing CP

But for the same cost, LRT tracks from West Harbour to the downtown would likely be of similar or less cost. or even BRT. Maybe that would grow out the downtown quite nicely and provide adequate connectivity.

- Paul
 
reaperexpress said:
The tunnel is a 570m stretch of cut-and-cover under a public street, so probably a fair bit less than a billion. The going rate for bored subway projects is about $300M per km including stations, and cut and cover is generally cheaper than bored. So surely just raising the corners of the roof of the tunnel would cost less than $300M.
Click to expand...

I had heard (perhaps wrongly) that the solution being looked at was a dig-down (ie. underpinning) to gain the additional height needed to support double-stack containers, on two tracks.

Do you have any sense on the relatively viability and costs?
 
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Northern Light said:
I had heard (perhaps wrongly) that the solution being looking at was a dig-down (ie. underpinning) to gain the additional height needed to support double-stack containers, on two tracks.

Do you have any sense on the relatively viability and costs?
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Digging down from the current tunnel is probably cheaper than digging down from the street to the current tunnel, so at the face of it, it sounds like a good idea. My only question would be if that could maintain an acceptable grade from the lowered tunnel up into the station.

I don't have relevant info or expertise to contribute regarding viability or costs.
 
Northern Light said:
I had heard (perhaps wrongly) that the solution being looking at was a dig-down (ie. underpinning) to gain the additional height needed to support double-stack containers, on two tracks.

Do you have any sense on the relatively viability and costs?
Click to expand...

As the tunnel was originally built as a double-tracked structure, either digging-down or building a new cap overtop of it seems to be the idea that I've heard thrown around the most - either of those would be by far and away easier and cheaper to accomplish versus digging a new bore.

I don't have grade maps for that line, but from what I recall lowering the rail a couple of feet is certain not a difficult prospect in the least, in terms of the alignment of the surrounding lines.

Dan
 

Quick Facts​

  • The trip from London to Toronto’s Union Station will take approximately four hours. Between London and Kitchener will take approximately two hours.
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I'm with the people who say the corridor improvements should come first. This is going to give trains in London a bad reputation that won't easily disappear. Liberals talked about high speed rail on this corridor, the Conservatives are delivering something that would be absolutely painful to use. Those seats are not designed for a four hour trip. Humans are not design for a four hour commute each way.
 
yup.

The good news is that travel time should be coming down quite quickly as the Guelph slow zone will start to make an impact very soon.

The corridor between Kitchener and London clearly needs a lot of work if it takes 2hrs to travel. That shouldn't take more than an hour or so to cover as there are so few stops.
 
innsertnamehere said:
yup.

The good news is that travel time should be coming down quite quickly as the Guelph slow zone will start to make an impact very soon.

The corridor between Kitchener and London clearly needs a lot of work if it takes 2hrs to travel. That shouldn't take more than an hour or so to cover as there are so few stops.
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Apparently the trip is supposed to take 4 hours, which is a bit brutal, and only two trips per day.

They should have started with one trip in either direction. I would think that a morning train from London to Toronto would be more useful after the VIA train leaves london.
 
Bordercollie said:

Apparently the trip is supposed to take 4 hours, which is a bit brutal, and only two trips per day.

They should have started with one trip in either direction. I would think that a morning train from London to Toronto would be more useful after the VIA train leaves london.
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The government press release says that it is just one trip in each direction, in the weekday peak period.
 
EnviroTO said:
I'm with the people who say the corridor improvements should come first. This is going to give trains in London a bad reputation that won't easily disappear. Liberals talked about high speed rail on this corridor, the Conservatives are delivering something that would be absolutely painful to use. Those seats are not designed for a four hour trip. Humans are not design for a four hour commute each way.
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I think the only people who will use this are those who took Greyhound for specific reasons. Like one off travel trips.

I doubt anyone will commute with this. I sure hope not.
 
I had a trip take 4 hours a few years ago when the Kitchener -> Union express was delayed over 2 hours by weather related equipment delays. I was very happy to get off the train that morning.I was very thankful I had a decent data plan at the time. But having only 5 hours in the office that day compared to 8 hours in transit made it seem not really worth the trip.
 
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