GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

[innsertnamehere]

Hopefully that means improved service soon

 

[SaugeenJunction]

Interesting new tender on MERX. The “new stations” part has me intrigued.

SQ-2022-ERNA-122: Prequalified Contractors for Existing Stations Renovations and New Stations Construction.

 

[ShonTron]

There are a few stations that we know are in the pipeline but left unstarted: Confederation, Casablanca, Breslau, not to mention the Bowmanville extension.

 

[innsertnamehere]

interesting if they are issuing it as a single larger package. I wonder what the thought there would be.

 

[Northern Light]

There are a few stations that we know are in the pipeline but left unstarted: Confederation, Casablanca, Breslau, not to mention the Bowmanville extension.

Are all the Smarttrak infill stations tendered yet? If not, then one or more of those could be included.

 

[innsertnamehere]

Are all the Smarttrak infill stations tendered yet? If not, then one or more of those could be included.

I believe they had been tendered out already.

 

[nfitz]

There's also Caledonia station - or has that also been bid?

 

[SaugeenJunction]

There are a few stations that we know are in the pipeline but left unstarted: Confederation, Casablanca, Breslau, not to mention the Bowmanville extension.

Grimsby-Casablanca really needs to get built. There is a ton of growth nearby and would be a logical semi-frequent service extension from Confederation which we assume will get the same half hourly service that West Harbour will soon.

According to updates recently from MX, Confederation GO was supposed to start construction this summer. Hopefully that means an announcement is imminent.

For Bowmanville, it entered tendering before the election. Hopefully it moves fast.

There's also Caledonia station - or has that also been bid?

The update from Metrolinx from earlier this week says construction starts summer 2023.

I believe they had been tendered out already.

Tenders went out last fall and closed in early 2022 (I believe). Hopefully we get contract winners soon.

There are also two stations which had business cases released at random intervals which are Milton-Trafalgar on the Milton Line and Beamsville on the LSW/Niagara Line. I’d assume that MX is working with a developer on these. Will be interesting to see if they advance and how fast.

 

[Allandale25]

 

[crs1026]

^ Also the Heritage Road station west of Mount Pleasant.

- Paul

 

[SaugeenJunction]

Some good London GO news: travel times are decreasing and trains are speeding up. YouTube’s ”The Taylor with Autism 2005”, who has filmed 99% of the PM London-bound GO trains to ever traverse the corridor noted that the September 29th GO from Kitchener to Stratford arrived 12 minutes EARLY. Evidently westbound trains are also arriving at Kitchener about 8 mins early.

After talking to the crews, they told him that two sections of track between Kitchener and Stratford that were limited to 30 MPH had their ”Rule 43” (speed limits due to poor track) lifted. One at “triple seven” (not sure where that is) and one at Shakespeare.

Obviously, trains can’t leave stations early. Hopefully, in the next set of schedules, we can see a 20 minute reduction (12 + 8) for the London GO trip (at least for Union-Stratford). It’s still not as fast as it should be, but for a Stratford to Union traveller, that’s 40 mins of saved time per round trip. Pretty good start if you ask me.

As an aside, Stratford seems to be punching far above its weight for GO ridership from anecdotal evidence and observation.

 

[crs1026]

After talking to the crews, they told him that two sections of track between Kitchener and Stratford that were limited to 30 MPH had their ”Rule 43” (speed limits due to poor track) lifted. One at “triple seven” (not sure where that is) and one at Shakespeare.

“Triple 7” is the Road 102 road crossing at Mp 77.7, first crossing west of the Hiway 7/8 overpass.

- Paul

 

[wopchop]

View attachment 430019

this is pretty much standard at almost every game. Given how often the Jays play, there is a lot of overlap.

 

[SaugeenJunction]

“Triple 7” is the Road 102 road crossing at Mp 77.7, first crossing west of the Hiway 7/8 overpass.

- Paul

Thanks, that makes lots of sense.

 

[Garuda]

Some good London GO news: travel times are decreasing and trains are speeding up. YouTube’s ”The Taylor with Autism 2005”, who has filmed 99% of the PM London-bound GO trains to ever traverse the corridor noted that the September 29th GO from Kitchener to Stratford arrived 12 minutes EARLY. Evidently westbound trains are also arriving at Kitchener about 8 mins early.

After talking to the crews, they told him that two sections of track between Kitchener and Stratford that were limited to 30 MPH had their ”Rule 43” (speed limits due to poor track) lifted. One at “triple seven” (not sure where that is) and one at Shakespeare.

Obviously, trains can’t leave stations early. Hopefully, in the next set of schedules, we can see a 20 minute reduction (12 + 8) for the London GO trip (at least for Union-Stratford). It’s still not as fast as it should be, but for a Stratford to Union traveller, that’s 40 mins of saved time per round trip. Pretty good start if you ask me.

As an aside, Stratford seems to be punching far above its weight for GO ridership from anecdotal evidence and observation.

That's great to hear! That's real progress almost a year in.

I hope GO makes this permanent and can move up the London AM departure time to a later time.