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Peterborough Commuter Rail

trudeau1982 said:
I have a question.

In the article, it says: "CP, which owns the track and operates GO's Milton line, hasn't even figured out how the train headed north out of Union Station will make the switch to an eastbound track, south of Lawrence Ave. near the Don Valley, said spokesperson Michel Spenard. The two aren't linked."

What does that mean? When I saw the CP holiday train this winter, they backed the train up the Don Valley and across the bridge over the Don River (there was a picture the next day in the Toronto Star). Are they saying that track is not connected to the CP main line? Wouldn't there be a connection near at the Millwood Road bridge over the CP tracks? How else would they have got the holiday train to other parts of the country if there was no connection?

Did they remove the tracks from the days when there was service to Peterborough which ended in 1990?
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There's a connection to the main CP line so the article is wrong. If you look at the aerial photos on maps.live.com you can clearly see it - it connect to the main CP line near Bayview & Nesbitt, and runs beside the DVP until Riverdale Park.

To those that are critical, look at it this way - Peterborough is by far the biggest city in Southern Ontario without rail service. It should be served by rail.

Obviously MoveOntario2020 should have been funded, but the fact that it wasn't doesn't reduce the merits of restoring intercity rail.
 
Though I am a fan of rail travel I find it crazy that this idea was announced by the Feds without any consultation with the Province or Metrolinx. The head of Metrolinx when interviewed on CBC yesterday was very diplomatic but clearly very pissed off. I had hoped that the day of 'transit projects' had ended and we were on to 'transit networks' but clearly not. I frankly doubt that a train will break even; in addition to funding the repair of the tracks is he intending to also increase the VIA subsidy so it can provide the service?
 
I can only hope that this is the first step towards a high speed link along the W-QC corridor. If its a one-off, it will be such a waste.
 
Admiral Beez said:
Why is this being called High Speed Rail? If I can out run a GO Train on my thirty-six year old, 38hp motorcycle, this is hardly high speed.
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It's all relative. Right now the speed limit on that line is 40 MPH.

Don't expect anything more than 90 MPH.
 
Ha ha. The title of that article made me think of TGVs zooming to Peterborough, too.

Paying homage to the pre-1990 line, I think the Peterborough run should use railcars. These sleek German "train buses" would be ideal, but I'm not sure if they'd make North American crash standards.

Wieslauftalbahn07012005-b.jpg


VT116-STB-Meiningen19052002-b.jpg
 
This isn't a first step towards real high speed rail, but I sure hope it's a first step towards fixing up some of the other dilapidated VIA routes, especially the one to Kitchener. There's no way that trip should take an hour and three quarters to go 100 km.
 
Darkstar416 said:
Just curious, where was the Leaside station?

Also are any of the stations on the run (save Peterborough and Union) still standing?
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The station is at Millwood and Village Station Road. As far as I know, it's still there. I think the only other station may be Claremont.

Hipster! Stop stealing my thoughts. I was thinking about german rail buses and talent DMUs too.
 
unimaginative2 said:
... other dilapidated VIA routes, especially the one to Kitchener. There's no way that trip should take an hour and three quarters to go 100 km.
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The Feds provided funding in 2003 to start speeding up that trip - but the Nimby's in Weston have tied that up so badly, it could be years before even the first phase of improvements are started.
 
Anything else you want to blame on those "Weston NIMBYs?"

The real problem is the condition of the track west of Georgetown, the really annoying slow order through Guelph, and a primitive signalling system. In comparison, the trains fly though Weston.
 
SeanTrans said:
Anything else you want to blame on those "Weston NIMBYs?"

The real problem is the condition of the track west of Georgetown, the really annoying slow order through Guelph, and a primitive signalling system. In comparison, the trains fly though Weston.
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I was watching the speedo one time over the engineer's shoulder on a midday run once. We were doing 79 MPH on approach to Weston Station
 
SeanTrans said:
Anything else you want to blame on those "Weston NIMBYs?"

The real problem is the condition of the track west of Georgetown, the really annoying slow order through Guelph, and a primitive signalling system. In comparison, the trains fly though Weston.
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Upgrades are needed on the entire line, but the Weston subdivision needs work as well. I'd hardly say it flies through the entire Weston subdivision from Highway 427 to Strachan Road. It's been 5 years since this project was funded now. Given that after 5 years, they are still stuck fighting NIMBYs, clearly funding for a second phase of upgrade isn't about to be forthcoming!
 
nfitz said:
Upgrades are needed on the entire line, but the Weston subdivision needs work as well. I'd hardly say it flies through the entire Weston subdivision from Highway 427 to Strachan Road. It's been 5 years since this project was funded now. Given that after 5 years, they are still stuck fighting NIMBYs, clearly funding for a second phase of upgrade isn't about to be forthcoming!
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What the Weston subdivision needs is a second track between CN Keele and CN Woodbine East. We were delayed 30 minutes on tuesday because the 3:15 departure couldn't clear the single track in time. Aside from a temporary slow order, the time from Strachan to CN Halwest is much faster than CN Halwest to Brampton.

What we do with that second track is a whole other topic.
 
Well, if we had just accepted the Federal government's money years ago, we would have not just two but three tracks through that section already.
 
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