GO Transit: Union Station Shed Replacement & Track Upgrades (Zeidler)

[RU479]

weve known this for years, theres pages on pages of discussion about this in the revitalization thread. im more curious about those stub tracks. they seem all pointed towards the west like trips that end at union

Guessing the stub tracks are for trips that terminate at Union and do not go through to other lines.

4 pointing west, likely for trips such as the Niagara, London, the Maple Leaf, Pearson, and maybe even the Milton.

The one pointing east may be for the Richmond Hill line.

 

[reaperexpress]

The one pointing east is all the way at the south end of the station, so it's definitely not the Richmond Hill line which diverges from the north side. My guess is VIA towards Ottawa and Montréal, and/or peak period Lakeshore East express (e.g. to Bowmanville)

 

[mburrrrr]

Another line up of dump trucks.

 

[Reecemartin]

Some more detailed USEP materials posted publicly on the City of Toronto's Development Application website under "supporting documentation". Re-posting part of the public submission package here, to save people a download.

A few things to note: VIA seems to get a dedicated atrium, and there is a massive platform extending to the east of Union.







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Not sure I saw someone comment on this but it appears that the southernmost platform has no doors at the stairs? Perhaps a sign of things to come? I figure the narrower island one is for VIA, but the south probably for LSE - so perhaps maybe new GO intended platforms will be fully open to speed up access?

 

[Willybru21]

Not sure I saw someone comment on this but it appears that the southernmost platform has no doors at the stairs? Perhaps a sign of things to come? I figure the narrower island one is for VIA, but the south probably for LSE - so perhaps maybe new GO intended platforms will be fully open to speed up access?

Platform 3 in the Bay Concourse has a similar entrance with no doors, if they can keep the station warm/cool without doors then I don’t see an issue with removing them.

 

[Reecemartin]

Platform 3 in the Bay Concourse has a similar entrance with no doors, if they can keep the station warm/cool without doors then I don’t see an issue with removing them.

Even still, sliding doors would make far more sense if we must have doors, as used in the bus terminal.
Trying to keep the station warm isn't unreasonable because we have a harsh climate, but we should be a bit more pragmatic!

 

[Allandale25]

Union Station platform construction project to facilitate better GO Transit service progressing

A $560-million project to build two wider train platforms and a new concourse at Union Station is underway. It should be finished in 2026.

toronto.citynews.ca

"As the Ontario government looks to expand GO Transit train service, work is underway to create a new south concourse at Union Station for passengers along with two new, wider platforms. @NWestoll has more on the project."

 

[Parkdalian]

 

[lexaprofessional]

Does anyone know why GO trains travel so slowly through through the Union Station Rail Corridor? It feels like 5 minutes extra time is added on just pulling into Union. Is the speed limit going to be increased with these track upgrades?

 

[reaperexpress]

Does anyone know why GO trains travel so slowly through through the Union Station Rail Corridor? It feels like 5 minutes extra time is added on just pulling into Union. Is the speed limit going to be increased with these track upgrades?

Platform width.

Yes.

 

[smallspy]

Does anyone know why GO trains travel so slowly through through the Union Station Rail Corridor?

The old rules and signalling system are still in place, so many of the old limits are as well.

That said, they have increased some in the past 10 years, notably the outbound limits.

But the other issue is that with all of the construction going on, there maybe other, more temporary speed restrictions in place to protect the crews.

It feels like 5 minutes extra time is added on just pulling into Union. Is the speed limit going to be increased with these track upgrades?

Yes. For much of the corridor leading into the station, the limit will be raised to 60mph. The speed limits over the ladders/crossovers will be increased as well.

Dan

 

[innsertnamehere]

The old rules and signalling system are still in place, so many of the old limits are as well.

That said, they have increased some in the past 10 years, notably the outbound limits.

But the other issue is that with all of the construction going on, there maybe other, more temporary speed restrictions in place to protect the crews.


Yes. For much of the corridor leading into the station, the limit will be raised to 60mph. The speed limits over the ladders/crossovers will be increased as well.

Dan

Do we know when these increased speed limits will come in? I feel like they have been pending for 15 years now and keep getting pushed back.

They will make some of the biggest differences in terms of time competitiveness for GO since basically 90% of trips made on the GO network will see improvements from it.

LSW is holding a 56-minute express schedule from Aldershot, which is already a 2 minute improvement from pre-pandemic, and includes the slow order at Port Credit from the LRT construction.. Makes me wonder if that can approach ~52 minutes with the USRC improvements and no slow orders..

The dream is still a sub-1hr train to Hamilton, which should be very achievable.

 

[smallspy]

Do we know when these increased speed limits will come in? I feel like they have been pending for 15 years now and keep getting pushed back.

They will make some of the biggest differences in terms of time competitiveness for GO since basically 90% of trips made on the GO network will see improvements from it.

LSW is holding a 56-minute express schedule from Aldershot, which is already a 2 minute improvement from pre-pandemic, and includes the slow order at Port Credit from the LRT construction.. Makes me wonder if that can approach ~52 minutes with the USRC improvements and no slow orders..

The increased speed limits are supposed to take effect when the new control system gets turned on, stage-by-stage. And while there are tangible signs of progress, the schedule has been blown out more times than I can count at this point.

And while there will be the ability to make small improvements to the schedules, I can't see them cutting large chunks of time out of the schedule. They're improving the speeds from 30mph to 60mph for 1 to 2 miles, and from 15mph to 25mph over the ladders. It will help, but it's not going to be drastic.

The dream is still a sub-1hr train to Hamilton, which should be very achievable.

It's only barely achievable. The slow orders around the bay to Hamilton make it very difficult.

There's also the fact that it would require the train to have no intermediate stops, which limit its utility.

Dan

 

[cplchanb]

The increased speed limits are supposed to take effect when the new control system gets turned on, stage-by-stage. And while there are tangible signs of progress, the schedule has been blown out more times than I can count at this point.

And while there will be the ability to make small improvements to the schedules, I can't see them cutting large chunks of time out of the schedule. They're improving the speeds from 30mph to 60mph for 1 to 2 miles, and from 15mph to 25mph over the ladders. It will help, but it's not going to be drastic.


It's only barely achievable. The slow orders around the bay to Hamilton make it very difficult.

There's also the fact that it would require the train to have no intermediate stops, which limit its utility.

Dan

Hopefully the electric locos and shorter train lengths will also help considerably

 

[innsertnamehere]

The increased speed limits are supposed to take effect when the new control system gets turned on, stage-by-stage. And while there are tangible signs of progress, the schedule has been blown out more times than I can count at this point.

And while there will be the ability to make small improvements to the schedules, I can't see them cutting large chunks of time out of the schedule. They're improving the speeds from 30mph to 60mph for 1 to 2 miles, and from 15mph to 25mph over the ladders. It will help, but it's not going to be drastic.


It's only barely achievable. The slow orders around the bay to Hamilton make it very difficult.

There's also the fact that it would require the train to have no intermediate stops, which limit its utility.

Dan

I mean I'm not expecting them to shave off 10 minutes here - more like 1 or 2. But when you cut 2 minutes off of 85-90% of GO trips, that's actually a pretty significant cut in average travel times that most other speed improvements (i.e. Guelph slow zone changes) can't match.

Right now express services operate to West Harbour on a 1:07 schedule - getting 7 minutes off that should hopefully be possible to some extent.. Level boarding, Speed increases through Union, removal of slow orders, etc. would get it pretty close. Unfortunately electrification won't help..