GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

[generalcanada]

Is there a different reading to this where OnXpress operations and deutche bahn was just too soon? like they would come back in a few years once some construction gets finished and more service is possible?

 

[dowlingm]

So smart track is dead. And if you don’t live next to the subway well good luck.

SmartTrack is a discredited brand so good riddance to it. As to the service level for urban stations, if Tory’s deal to use TO property taxes to pay for GO stations didn’t have some level of protection built into it, then that’s just one more reason to curse his mayoralty.

 

[dowlingm]

Reece is NOT HAPPY

Reece Martin (@rmtransit.bsky.social)

Metrolinx has decided that they know how to run a railway better than the Germans at DB who made up ONxpress. A huge loss of talent for transit in Toronto and Canada and easily as catastrophic a move from Metrolinx as the agencies performance on the Eglinton Crosstown. [contains quote post or...

bsky.app

 

[APTA-2048]

I wonder if we can see a return to better maintenance in the near future. Since the pushback of the new contract, I’ve noticed an uptick in dirty trains as well as broken and dirty washrooms. According to a crew member, Metrolinx and Alstom know about all these problems.

 

[EastYorkTTCFan]

Does that mean the end of Deutsche Bahn involvement in GO Expansion ?

Reece is NOT HAPPY

Reece Martin (@rmtransit.bsky.social)

Metrolinx has decided that they know how to run a railway better than the Germans at DB who made up ONxpress. A huge loss of talent for transit in Toronto and Canada and easily as catastrophic a move from Metrolinx as the agencies performance on the Eglinton Crosstown. [contains quote post or...

bsky.app

View attachment 652072

Haven't the Swiss recently banned them from running trains into Switzerland because they are frequently late?

 

[ARG1]

Is there a different reading to this where OnXpress operations and deutche bahn was just too soon? like they would come back in a few years once some construction gets finished and more service is possible?

It's not that simple. Whole engineering teams of people working and designing new schedules and operating standards were just let go, and they're probably never coming back. The biggest loss here isn't DB as an organization running trains, but the hundreds of talent that were hard at work trying to improve GO Transit into something special.

 

[Northern Light]

Good for Andy over at The Star for at least trying to cover this OnExpress debacle.

But he was completely stonewalled by Mx and the other players as to any details others than the contract being terminated.

Metrolinx quietly drops Deutsche Bahn, Aecon from multibillion-dollar GO expansion project

Deutsche Bahn, the German national rail company, and construction firm Aecon had been contracted out to operate and maintain GO transit in Ontario starting this year.

www.thestar.com

 

[Northern Light]

Reece is NOT HAPPY

Reece Martin (@rmtransit.bsky.social)

Metrolinx has decided that they know how to run a railway better than the Germans at DB who made up ONxpress. A huge loss of talent for transit in Toronto and Canada and easily as catastrophic a move from Metrolinx as the agencies performance on the Eglinton Crosstown. [contains quote post or...

bsky.app

View attachment 652072

Reece, who I like as a person...........often speaks publicly without a full understanding of what occurred,

Now, I'm not giving Mx a free pass on anything here............

 

[generalcanada]

wait why is aecon associated with deutche bahn. I thought they were part of the construction part of it

 

[generalcanada]

The design and construction portion of that contract, led by Alstom, Aecon and Spanish construction company FCC Group was billed at an estimated $1.6 billion.

That is weirdly way to low. whats up with that

 

[PL1]

I bet this cancellation will cost the Ontario taxpayer...

 

[Urban Sky]

Haven't the Swiss recently banned them from running trains into Switzerland because they are frequently late?

With sustained Ontario-levels of infrastructure funding, Deutsche Bahn would approach Swiss reliability levels, just like neither Swiss nor Japanese railroads would achieve better results than DB if faced with the latter’s chronically underinvested and overburdened rail infrastructure.

Germany’s rail performance deficits are a political (federal) failure, not an organizational (DB) one, and the decade-long experience in squeezing the most out of insufficient infrastructure makes DB a much better fit for Canada than anything France and Spain have to offer, which have decided decades ago to concentrate their rail infrastructure funds on HSR and metropolitan passenger rail systems, while severely neglecting (France) or almost abandoning (Spain) their freight rail operations…

 

[rbt]

wait why is aecon associated with deutche bahn. I thought they were part of the construction part of it

Aecon Concessions was part of the Operations contract.

Aecon, FCC Construcción S.A. is part of the design/construction contract.

Aecon consortium partners with Metrolinx as new operations and maintenance partner for GO Transit service

Aecon Group Inc. announced that ONxpress Operations Inc. (“OOI”), a member of ONxpress Transportation Partners (“ONxpress”), will serve as the new operations and maintenance partner for the GO Transit system in the Greater Golden Horseshoe Area.

www.aecon.com

 

[crs1026]

This is effectively a five-year setback, considering how much time it took ML to work out its procurement model, execute the RFQ/RFP decisions, and then begin the codevelopment phase.

The loss of the team which was recruited and organized is a huge loss....especially for anyone who took the chance and left a job in the "old" regime.

The disruption that ML already incurred when Alstom began to wind down its involvment (especially the pause in training new operators at a time when the system is heading for massive upsizing) is a further impact.

The map that was posted in the Electrification thread hints that 15 minute service is no longer planned on some routes. That's a huge retrenchment in the design.

I hope this is the start of further media inquiries.

- Paul

 

[ShonTron]

Reece, who I like as a person...........often speaks publicly without a full understanding of what occurred,

Now, I'm not giving Mx a free pass on anything here............

Yeah, I’m annoyed by all the hot takes lately, a big shift from his previous work. But now he’s got a big following, which amplifies these.

But it doesn’t help that Metrolinx and the province are as clandestine as they are to clear things up.