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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

Garuda said:
CN is not abandoning that line anytime soon. It's a vey popular for freight. Just because a blogpost says it doesn't mean it will happen.
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They are down to one customer in Cambridge with service once per week. That's a lot of track miles and several high maintenance bridges and crossing for very little revenue. CN wants out of the Fergus Spur and the only reason it has stuck around this long is because they are speculating on selling it for GO service. If the Fergus Spur GO plan falls through, the line is done, and as highlighted above, it will be redeveloped, permanently erasing the corridor.

Regardless, the Fergus Spur compares poorly with a Milton Line extension, and any Cambridge to Guelph traffic is much better served by busses.
 
kalis0490 said:
Relevant new article
https://www.therecord.com/news/wate...cle_12961ebf-5bfb-567c-8e2c-93d06bb71747.html

"A study for the preliminary design of a GO connection between Cambridge and Guelph is underway, with an update expected in the spring and a final report next fall, said regional transportation commissioner Mathieu Goetzke."
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Well that was fast. The author might be reading this thread...

Great to hear. Hopefully either Metrolinx or Guelph Junction Railway purchases the the Fergus sub. which is confusing because the line no longer goes to Fergus.
 
C_Johnson_1995 said:
They are down to one customer in Cambridge with service once per week. That's a lot of track miles and several high maintenance bridges and crossing for very little revenue. CN wants out of the Fergus Spur and the only reason it has stuck around this long is because they are speculating on selling it for GO service. If the Fergus Spur GO plan falls through, the line is done, and as highlighted above, it will be redeveloped, permanently erasing the corridor.

Regardless, the Fergus Spur compares poorly with a Milton Line extension, and any Cambridge to Guelph traffic is much better served by busses.
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I don’t see how a Milton extension is better. Not only is CP’s mainline a tough duck to expand service on, it also doesn’t have as many options for local trips or leave much room for service expansion if successful. The number of people going from Cambridge to Milton is low compared to Guelph; perhaps even lower than those going from Cambridge to Toronto.

The Fergus spur is a very lucrative option because it will use track we are already heavily investing in (the Kitchener Line), can serve local trips, and doesn’t require negotiating with CP/CN for anything new. If we can/will run AD2W to Kitchener, but only peak service to Milton, why try to give Cambridge that lower service cap option? We could bake in $billions in expansion work to bring it up to par, or we could just hook the city into a line already at said standard. Not to mention it would be owned by Mx, something that is always a net positive versus not.

I get the implication that the Fergus spur might cost more to fix up than the cost to enable service from Milton onwards, but I think that’s really up in the air at this point. It’s essentially both the more useful and easier option for Cambridge and GO respectively. Maybe if we poured a bunch of money into the Milton Line, it would be a different story.
 
Does this mean that this will be the first GO line that has more than one termini that will see trains not serve all stations of the line depending on the termini?
Something to Cambridge has been a long time coming. Hopefully Next can be an extension to Bradford, either through using the Dundas sub,or the old ROW from Cambridge.
 
micheal_can said:
Does this mean that this will be the first GO line that has more than one termini that will see trains not serve all stations of the line depending on the termini?
Something to Cambridge has been a long time coming. Hopefully Next can be an extension to Bradford, either through using the Dundas sub,or the old ROW from Cambridge.
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No, not at all. There are two branches of the Lakeshore West Line into Hamilton. The Lakeshore East extension to Bowmanville will divert from the existing corridor west of Oshawa Station.
 
micheal_can said:
Does this mean that this will be the first GO line that has more than one termini that will see trains not serve all stations of the line depending on the termini?
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I’m a little confused by your wording here but wouldn’t Niagara Falls-West Harbour/Hamilton Centre the first one?
 
micheal_can said:
Yes, Brantford.....I always confuse the 2 even though I know the 2.
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Would certainly be nice, but I don’t think there’s room/time slots for GO to go to Brantford as-is without usurping VIA services. It’s my understanding this is CNs mainline, hence they wouldnt be really willing to budge. We only associate this behaviour with CP because we actively do use their mainline (which was a “gift”); we don’t really operate GO on any CN mainline in a similar way.

Adding passing tracks might work, but as with everything touching Hamilton, the geography isn’t well suited to adding tracks to the Dundas sub. So we gotta go to negotiating for time slots…

Not to say we shouldn’t try; I think GO could, perhaps even should usurp VIA on Toronto-London via Dundas, but I don’t think entrenched interests want that.
 
Sunnyside said:
Would certainly be nice, but I don’t think there’s room/time slots for GO to go to Brantford as-is without usurping VIA services.
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There is some room, I believe, but not a lot.

Sunnyside said:
It’s my understanding this is CNs mainline,
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This is true.

****

@Urban Sky is probably best equipped to discuss the potential of this line for additional service.
 
Sunnyside said:
Would certainly be nice, but I don’t think there’s room/time slots for GO to go to Brantford as-is without usurping VIA services. It’s my understanding this is CNs mainline, hence they wouldnt be really willing to budge. We only associate this behaviour with CP because we actively do use their mainline (which was a “gift”); we don’t really operate GO on any CN mainline in a similar way.

Adding passing tracks might work, but as with everything touching Hamilton, the geography isn’t well suited to adding tracks to the Dundas sub. So we gotta go to negotiating for time slots…

Not to say we shouldn’t try; I think GO could, perhaps even should usurp VIA on Toronto-London via Dundas, but I don’t think entrenched interests want that.
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This makes sense as to why it hasn't gone to Brantford yet. My guess is once Metrolinx/the province sees that it should be, then they will look at options.
 
Northern Light said:
There is some room, I believe, but not a lot.



This is true.

****

@Urban Sky is probably best equipped to discuss the potential of this line for additional service.
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„Much pain for little gain“ is probably the best way to describe GO train service from Brantford. Once HFR-style speeds and frequencies have been established on the Northern Route, however, it would be only natural for GO to take over the milkruns to London…
 
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