Hamilton: General Service Discussion

[crs1026]

I counted 160 cars on two freight trains. What is the current maximum allowed length in these parts?

I don't know the official limit, but 15,000 feet + is pretty normal these days. Axle counts in the 700's, which is 175 cars. They have started using a midtrain locomotive on the Niagara train when required, which lets them run that long.

- Paul

 

[mdrejhon]

New pictures of West Harbor GO station construction progress.
- Top-level parking now open (Once, I finally redirected an Aldershopt trip to West Harbour on a rainy day, since I was early)
- Urban Art Sculpture almost ready to unveil
- Underground parking garage almost done
- There's an electronic parking-space display waiting to be activated
- Plaza looks substantially complete with a few exceptions

The station is simply begging for some form of all-day 2-way service (despite claims of Hamilton Downtown GO being the official AD2W terminal by 2024)... Cue in the 2017 Niagara Seasonal GO train stopping here, for a weekend semi-AD2W service.

(I peeked....oops.....The sculpture is more complex than that -- it's multiple bead threads, not just one). They allowed the public to vote on the sculpture, and the bead sculpture was my #1 choice as well because of its kid-friendliness and would draw families to the plaza.

Now need the low-lying apple action of getting those existing Niagara seasonals to stop by Victoria Day 2017, pronto! And maybe the regular Niagara-Hamilton daily commuter service I keep hearing about will be announced before the end of the decade.

This station is way too fancy (...relatively speaking...) to be used by just two trains a day (6:15am and 6:45am) forever.

The hints including spending along the corridor, the Lewis yard size (4 train layover, with future room for 8), the Niagara study, the Niagara service related potential, all appears to show something is afoot about some major unannounced service increase of some kind before the end of the decade, beyond anything officially announced. There is plenty of corridor capacity in the Grimsby sub (only 2 freights a day) and capacity/schedule reliability issues at Hamilton Junction is apparently going to be mostly solved. There are exactly zero official announcements about Niagara links to West Harbour GO, but it's pretty defacto a shoo-in (even if just seasonal).

Yet Metrolinx is being quiet. (I can hear a pin drop, and I'm deaf). Getting anxious for that rumored announcement they want to do this year. This could be very important to the Hamilton LRT if bones of major service increases are thrown.

(Hello Steven Del Duca, when's your next Hamilton press conference?)

 

[steveintoronto]

Question on this station that isn't trains: Are the connecting buses going to run up James, or are they planning a faster way out to the 403?

 

[mdrejhon]

Question on this station that isn't trains: Are the connecting buses going to run up James, or are they planning a faster way out to the 403?

Not sure.

I'd love to know their long-term plans for the multiple bus bays.
Presumably, HSR could be allowed access too.
I think the "big" announcements are yet to come.

 

[mdrejhon]

Electrification all the way to Hamilton is discussed in the newly released Appendix A!

This is (probably) 2030s stuff, but it's good to see this "option" finally mentioned officially in the current GO RER umbrella.

View attachment 72831

It would replace Hamilton 16 because Burlington expresses are significantly faster. Approximately ~40-minutes or ~45-minutes Hamilton-Union. I know that express trains between Union-Burlington takes only 30 minutes (that's a diesel GO train) as that happened to one late-running PanAm express train.

For this to be likely to happen sooner, we can't let Metrolinx trunctate electrification Burlington-Aldershot.

With the big announcement of Kitchener electrification by 2024, I am left saying "Yoo hoo, Hamilton city councillors, look at how we can get electric GO service, if we let the Hamilton LRT get built!".

Hello Bob Bratina and Chad Collins, I've got some things that will make pro-GO anti-LRT heads explode...

 

[mdrejhon]

Meantime, beginning June 27th, here's the new Hamilton GO train schedule towards Union:

And in the evening:

Boohoo. No 6:30pm express back to Hamilton, it's now a 6:00pm express.

Part of this is because of the various construction going on along Lakeshore West, requiring some rejigging of the trains.

 

[mdrejhon]

Worth bringing up again, because of the big announcement today -- Steven Del Duca in Niagara to announce a GO expansion!

Here's my research so far, on the Niagara corridor:

Predictions for today's announcement:

-- Best case scenario, West Harbour GO gains all-day 2-way service before the 2018 election, as part of package that includes Niagara GO package.
-- Worst case scenario, some kind of incremental GO expansion for Niagara that also stops at West Harbour GO later this decade.

 

[mdrejhon]

Steven Del Duca in Niagara area for a 1pm press conference

@NiagaraGO is tweeting now, as are the usuals (@Patrick4ONT, @StevenDelDuca, etc). This may be the train #HamOnt has been waiting years for.

Part of me wants to get excited and hope West Harbour all-day 2-way GO service is also happening before 2018 election (as the corridor becomes technically capable of being so), but it's probably some kind of major incremental Niagara GO service increase, which will also stop at West Harbour sometime in 2017.

 

[mdrejhon]

"@StevenDelDuca announces weekday rail transit for Niagara starting 2021!"

The train will go between Hamilton's Confederation station and St. Catharines by 2021, and all the way to Niagara Falls by 2023.

West Harbour GO station is not included in this announcement at this time. Yet.

I suspect that perhaps hourly all-day 2-way GO service will reach Confederation, thanks to the Hamilton Junction expansion -- and Confederation becomes the interchange point between the Niagara-StCat trains. I would have thought West Harbour GO would be the perfect role for this instead of Confederation.

It is also possible they are hedging Hamilton for now, given the LRT situation at the moment. The major construction in the Hamilton area, does ensure that there is flexibility to make an announcement that benefits Hamilton West Harbour GO station here. Looks like the big (for Hamilton) announcement will wait a bit.

New Weekday GO Rail Service Planned Between Hamilton and the Niagara Region
Province Increasing Travel Options to Help Manage Congestion
June 28, 2016 1:00 P.M.
Ministry of Transportation

Ontario is planning to bring new weekday GO rail service between the future Confederation GO Station in Hamilton and the Niagara Region starting in 2021, with service to Niagara Falls by 2023.

Subject to a final agreement with CN Rail, Metrolinx will start the consultations, planning and design work required to implement the service including:

Track improvements
New and upgraded rail stations
A new layover facility in Niagara Falls
Additional GO rail fleet to provide service along the corridor
Adding more than 30 kilometres of new track.
Three other stations are proposed along the corridor in addition to the Confederation GO Station - a new station on Casablanca Boulevard in Grimsby as well as upgraded VIA rail stations in St. Catharines and Niagara Falls.

Expansion of the regional rapid transit network will help support economic development, increase travel options and manage congestion. Work will begin in 2017 to plan, design and retrofit the existing VIA stations, with completion expected in 2023. Service is estimated to reach Grimsby in 2021, and construction would be completed by 2023 to enable service to Niagara Falls.

Ontario is making the largest investment in public infrastructure in the province's history -- about $160 billion over 12 years. This is supporting 110,000 jobs every year across the province, with projects such as roads, bridges, transit systems, schools and hospitals. In 2015, the province announced support for more than 325 projects that will keep people and goods moving, connect communities and improve quality of life.

Investing in priority transit infrastructure is part of the government's economic plan to build Ontario up and deliver on its number-one priority to grow the economy and create jobs. The four-part plan includes helping more people get and create the jobs of the future by expanding access to high-quality college and university education. The plan is making the largest infrastructure investment in hospitals, schools, roads, bridges and transit in Ontario's history and is investing in a low-carbon economy driven by innovative, high-growth, export-oriented businesses. The plan is also helping working Ontarians achieve a more secure retirement.

Quick Facts
The Niagara Falls GO rail extension will operate on approximately 60 km of track between the future Confederation GO Station in Hamilton and Niagara Falls.
Construction on the new Confederation GO Station in Hamilton is expected to start in 2019, with completion expected in 2021.
Since 2003, Ontario has extended GO’s rail network by nearly 90 kilometres, opened 14 new GO stations, rebuilt four existing stations, and added more than 31,000 new parking spots across the system.
Metrolinx is transforming the GO rail network to provide faster and more frequent GO train service across the region, with electrification of core segments of the network. Weekly trips across the entire GO rail network are expected to grow from about 1,500 to nearly 6,000 over 10 years.

 

[reaperexpress]

"@StevenDelDuca announces weekday rail transit for Niagara starting 2021!"

The train will go between Hamilton's Confederation station and St. Catharines by 2021, and all the way to Niagara Falls by 2023.

One particularly noteable item is that Confederation GO station has been delayed by 2 years -- from year 2019 to year 2021. And that West Harbour GO station is not included in this announcement at this time. Yet.

I suspect that perhaps hourly all-day 2-way GO service will reach Confederation, thanks to the Hamilton Junction expansion -- and Confederation becomes the interchange point between the Niagara-StCat trains. I would have thought West Harbour GO would be the perfect role for this instead of Confederation.

It is also possible they are hedging Hamilton for now, given the LRT situation at the moment. The major construction in the Hamilton area, does ensure that there is flexibility to make an announcement that benefits Hamilton West Harbour GO station here. Looks like the big (for Hamilton) announcement will wait a bit.

The notion of a Confederation-Niagara service is bizarre, I'm assuming/hoping that this is just weird wording and that they in fact mean it's a West Harbour-Niagara or Toronto-Niagara service, and the Confederation-Niagara segment is just the "new" section. In other words, we were already planning to extend as far as Confederation, and now we're planning to extend that extension to Niagara.

I definitely agree that West Harbour is a far better location for the transfer, so people can at least travel between Hamilton and Niagara without a transfer. Until a couple years ago there was CoachCanada/Megabus service between Hamilton and Niagara, but it was discontinued. Now the only practical way from Hamilton to other south lake cities is to drive. Travelling via GO is a non-starter as it involves taking the bus to north to Aldershot, train one stop north to Burlington, then back south on the 12 Niagara GO bus.

 

[mdrejhon]

The notion of a Confederation-Niagara service is bizarre, I'm assuming/hoping that this is just weird wording and that they in fact mean it's a West Harbour-Niagara or Toronto-Niagara service, and the Confederation-Niagara segment is just the "new" section. In other words, we were already planning to extend as far as Confederation, and now we're planning to extend that extension to Niagara.

I suspect this is just an initial announcement to begin with, with the ultimate goal of being West Harbour GO all the way to Niagara Falls GO.

Even with an initial Confederation GO terminus, there's already a GO bus that passes by near there (#12), which presumably will be rejigged as a connecting route. Presumably, a separate GO bus could be introduced between Hamilton downtown/WH and this station, at least until a theoretical B-Line LRT extension to Confederation GO. (this could be a political playing chip towards that, possibly).

The uncertain politics of the Hamilton LRT may also be causing Metrolinx to hedge bets a bit. West Harbour GO actually gains theoretical technical capability of all-day GO service as early as 2017, so there is quite a bit of political flexibility between 2017 and 2024 to scale it up, especially if the LRT project is progressing well.

The Niagara seasonal service will still be running every year, and that will stop in West Harbour GO well before then. This could be considered a 'trial' for accelerating further West Harbour GO service increases.

 

[rbt]

The notion of a Confederation-Niagara service is bizarre, I'm assuming/hoping that this is just weird wording and that they in fact mean it's a West Harbour-Niagara or Toronto-Niagara service, and the Confederation-Niagara segment is just the "new" section. In other words, we were already planning to extend as far as Confederation, and now we're planning to extend that extension to Niagara.

I'm taking this to mean they intend to have a fairly frequent Toronto-Confederation service (via West Harbour) and a less frequent Confederation-Niagara service.

That is, West Harbour will not be the termination point for either route.

 

[mdrejhon]

I'm taking this to mean they intend to have a fairly frequent Toronto-Confederation service (via West Harbour) and a less frequent Confederation-Niagara service.

That is, West Harbour will not be the termination point for either route.

That's quite possible to see hourly all-day 2-way GO service, as a Lakeshore West extension to Confederation.

So we just need a new Steven Del Duca visit somewhere between now and 2017, perhaps strategically scheduled near Supercrawl.

To announce the following:

* Niagara seasonals visiting Hamilton by 2017
* All-day 2-way GO service 2021 (West Harbour & Confederation)
* A-Line LRT re-affirmation.

 

[christiesplits]

Thank you for all your updates, mdrejhon.

 

[KevinT]

Here's my research so far, on the Niagara corridor:

For us out-of-towners: Confederation GO = Stoney Creek GO (prep)???