innsertnamehere
Superstar
50 trains is a lot, but there are probably 100-200 trains running daily on lakeshore east, between VIA, GO, and freight.
TTC bus drivers are required to stop at any and all railway crossing, like a school bus.
I wonder how many trains per day use this section of track.
The warrants for a grade-separation crossing must depend on the traffic volumes and on the train volumes. I have heard "hindsight is 20-20" people talking about the City planning a grade-separation but the cost was excessive ($80M). I would guess that grade-separation makes more sense were trains frequencies are higher than a few Via trains per day. Along commuter rail lines, it makes more sense since there are now probably close to 50 trains per day on the Lakeshore line. If you think of a train the same as an intersection with cross traffic - even 50 is not that large of a number. That is why if any rail line gets down to 5 or 10 minutes frequency, grade-separation is required.
The driver reportedly hit the brakes right before crashing. This whole thing was simply an accident.
I just think it's an unpreventable tragedy and all the investigation will yield is that we have no control over these matters.
Sure, the easy thing to say is that we should have grade separated this intersection, but there are thousands of these level crossings across North America and this one, being exclusively used by professional bus drivers, was probably safer than the others. It was a freak accident and my heart goes out to the families of those victims, but I don't think there was anything that could have been done.
Doesn't the Canadian use the Richmond Hill/Bada tracks? I saw one going by Richmond Hill GO a few weeks back.
Ahh I see. I was thinking it made its way to Washago and beyond through Barrie, but I couldn't find any railways which connected the two places (even though a railway going from Barrie to Orillia and Washago to connect with the Bala/Rama line would make an insane amount of sense).
TTC buses are required to stop due to a municipal ruling. That same ruling does not exist in Mississauga, Brantford and Ottawa, and thus the transit buses there are under no requirement to stop.
Dan
Toronto, Ont.
By far the busiest rail crossing that the TTC operates across is CN/Metrolinx Kingston Subdivision at Morningside Avenue. There are 90 scheduled GO Trains most weekdays
Steeles Avenue and Finch Avenue grade crossings with the CN/Metrolinx Uxbridge Sub are also very busy bus crossings (routes 43/53/353 and 39/199/308) - there are 14 GO train movements at these crossings.
TTC buses are required to stop due to a municipal ruling. That same ruling does not exist in Mississauga, Brantford and Ottawa, and thus the transit buses there are under no requirement to stop.
Dan
Toronto, Ont.
Was that a guess? If so it was almost spot on. According to the current Form 660(what GO's train schedule document is called), the number of GO trains passing Morningside is 94; 41 revenue + 6 equipment eastbounds and 45 revenue + 2 equipment westbounds.