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High Speed Rail: London - Kitchener-Waterloo - Pearson Airport - Toronto

Adjei said:
Seems at this point no one really knows what's going on. We need actual conformation of some of this stuff from people at Metrolinx, not some tweets from Murray who I think is in way over his head with some of this stuff.
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This isn't yet, as far as I can tell, a Metrolinx plan. There isn't going to be confirmation of it at this point from Metrolinx - what there might be is implementation.

Murray and the Liberals are engaged in a very political process, in which they're claiming as a strong political priority the implementation of transit plans more ambitious than Metrolinx would do on its own. If they get political support for that priority (and its funding streams), then there will be more bureaucratic and technical conversations to be had.

Woodbridge_Heights said:
Re. service to Toronto Pearson. Doesn't the track in London pass close to London's international airport? Would a connection to London airport not solve a whole bunch of the 'secondary regional reliever' airport problems? If London's airport were to expand to have more service I wonder what the breaking point would be in attracting Western GTA residents (and K/W, G, etc) away from Pearson and toward London. Anything that takes pressure off of Pearson would further push Pickering towards the back burner.
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FWIW, the Waterloo Region airport is also not very far from the same rail line.
 
The HSR will probably be outside of metrolinx's jurisdiction, operations in Kitchener are technically not their responsibility (they have little interaction with grand river transit). They do operate GO but like Barrie it is outside of Metrolinx's operating area.
 
Woodbridge_Heights said:
Re. service to Toronto Pearson. Doesn't the track in London pass close to London's international airport? Would a connection to London airport not solve a whole bunch of the 'secondary regional reliever' airport problems? If London's airport were to expand to have more service I wonder what the breaking point would be in attracting Western GTA residents (and K/W, G, etc) away from Pearson and toward London. Anything that takes pressure off of Pearson would further push Pickering towards the back burner.
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The tracks from Stratford go by the north end of the airport I think, but the tracks from Ingersoll aren't that close. I think the tracks just to the south of the airport aren't used by passenger trains, but I'm not sure.
 
Woodbridge_Heights said:
Re. service to Toronto Pearson. Doesn't the track in London pass close to London's international airport? Would a connection to London airport not solve a whole bunch of the 'secondary regional reliever' airport problems? If London's airport were to expand to have more service I wonder what the breaking point would be in attracting Western GTA residents (and K/W, G, etc) away from Pearson and toward London. Anything that takes pressure off of Pearson would further push Pickering towards the back burner.
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Fair, and without a doubt I can get behind anything which just drives down the (perceived) necessity of a Pickering Airport. Though frequent, proper GO service to Hamilton (and upgrades of Hamilton Airport, better transit from Aldershot & James Street North to the airport etc.) might do a better job than London or even Waterloo Airports could.

Adjei said:
Well this is what Murray said about it on twitter:

‏@Glen4ONT 10h
Wait until the full announcement. RER & HSR will be elaborated. Guelph will be well served.
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You know, the term RER really rubs me the wrong way. I know it's a very minor point to quibble over, but is this province really short-sighted enough to not realize the branding possibilities of REX for the new improved GO network? Just think of the dinosaur-themed logos and commercials!!!
 
I could be wrong but I get the impression that only major hub airports are served directly by HSR. De Gaulle in Paris has direct TGV service, for example, but Marseille airport doesn't. I wouldn't think there's any need for HSR to go to small airports like Waterloo and London.

MrsNesbitt said:
It seems a little odd then that Metrolinx would spend a fair degree of money on the UPX service, on the DMUs, the branded stations, and publicize it to a great degree, if they only had the intention of scrapping the service 10 years later. Also GO would still be running 15 min EMUs to accommodate trips to places like Brampton and (I hope) Guelph.
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The DMUs could be sold to another transit agency or used by GO. It's likely that the infrastructure now being built for UPX would be used by any new HSR line so it's not like that would be wasted. And when you're spending billions on a new HSR line and transforming how people travel across southern Ontario, rebranding UPX or incorporating it into the HSR line is pretty minor.
 
MrsNesbitt said:
You know, the term RER really rubs me the wrong way. I know it's a very minor point to quibble over, but is this province really short-sighted enough to not realize the branding possibilities of REX for the new improved GO network? Just think of the dinosaur-themed logos and commercials!!!
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I suspect Glen Murray is just using the term because Paris's RER functions in a somewhat similar way to what he and Wynne are proposing for GO Transit in the GTHA. I don't think it's meant as a brand.
 
I doubt Metrolinx will oversee this project. Their focus is improving transportation in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. This project extends well beyond this political boundary. Kitchener-Waterloo is located at the western edge of the Greater Golden Horseshoe and London is an hour's drive past this edge.
 
I don't know how much of the UPX infrastructure could really be incorporated into future HSR; it looks pretty well designed only for an end terminal at Pearson. Much more likely they'd stay closer to the existing rail corridor passing the airport.

Also I doubt that Metrolinx wouldn't oversee the project, since it's an agency of the provincial government and isn't really limited to the GTHA other than by self imposed mission statements. They also oversee Presto which is in use in Ottawa (not GTHA) already.
 
MrsNesbitt said:
I don't know how much of the UPX infrastructure could really be incorporated into future HSR; it looks pretty well designed only for an end terminal at Pearson. Much more likely they'd stay closer to the existing rail corridor passing the airport.
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I was talking more about the existing Weston sub that's being upgraded to accommodate the service and would likely be used by an HSR line.
 
MisterF said:
I was talking more about the existing Weston sub that's being upgraded to accommodate the service and would likely be used by an HSR line.
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Well of course the HSR would use the Weston Sub on its way up to KW the way that GO does already. The elevated spur line off of that corridor and dead-end terminal being constructed for the UPX though would be pretty useless for HSR and would have to be abandoned if UPX itself was replaced by the high speed service.
 
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