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A recent update to the plans for St Clair-Old Weston station and GO Expansion has revealed that major changes are on the way for the station in Toronto's West End, and perhaps for the first time since the collapse of the former GO Expansion plans involving Deutsche Bahn, we are getting insights into the future of GO rail service, some of which are quite positive. In this post, I’ll summarize the changes we’re seeing, and both the implications it has for rail service on the Kitchener corridor, and for GO Expansion more broadly.
Information about the updates came by way of documents released from the City that mention that Metrolinx wants to change St Clair-Old Weston station so that it can be served by the UP Express — it’s mentioned that this change is necessary so that the station can still receive every fifteen minute service, which is apparently a requirement for the 'SmartTrack' stations, although it’s unclear how Bloor-Lansdowne station on the Barrie line would get there, given Metrolinx does not operate such frequent service on single track corridors — even if it's totally possible, given the Barrie line in Toronto is still mostly single track.
In order to have UP trains stop at St Clair-Old Weston, the plans for the station are being modified to include high platforms for UP Express trains. The city report mentions the platforms remaining the same length as previously planned, which seems to be stated to ease concerns that GO trains couldn’t serve the station in the future and that this was a major cut to the infrastructure build, but it seems someone has got their wires crossed and not realized that platforms being the same length as they were going to be previously, would mean that once you factor in the roughly 90-metre UP Express platform, that the GO platform would not be able to handle a full 12-car train. Besides changes to the platforms, basically nothing else appears to be changing with the station, which will have multiple access points on both east and west sides of the rail corridor, canopies for weather protection, and the same (admittedly) nice design (if not architecturally for passengers) as other recently built or rebuilt stations.
While these changes seemed to lead to quite a fuss from the transit community, in reality they are just the latest in a long series of changes to the remnants of SmartTrack more broadly, but also just the stations on the Kitchener line. Initially, plans called for platforms for all tracks at both King-Liberty (the now defunct station between King and Queen, which really ought to be brought back, given the shortage of good rapid transit options around Liberty Village) and at St Clair-Old Weston, but this frankly didn’t make much sense at all. The nice thing about the Kitchener corridor within Toronto is it essentially all features quad track. I might have characterized that as local and express tracks, like you might find on the New York Subway and rail corridors around the world, but with all modern stations on the corridor and both the new stations being planned to have platforms everywhere, that breakdown didn’t make sense — what tracks were meant to be express if they didn’t bypass some stations? If you’re wondering if some higher logic was playing out here, I really don’t think that is the case.
Instead, I think this is a reflection of the fact that Metrolinx still had not actually interrogated what their future service should look like — something that the DB debacle highlighted, but that observers had been saying for some time; while the GO part of the organization that still doesn’t embrace modern passenger rail operating practices probably wouldn’t say no to added flexibility, even if it actually didn’t bring the system toward a modern operating paradigm. In some ways then, these changes show that decisions are actually being made, or at least that presumptions that had long existed are now being locked in — specifically in this case that the northeastern track pair on the Kitchener corridor will be for longer distance and express trains, and that the southern tracks will be for local trains, which ironically means the UP Express.
This arrangement makes some sense, because it means that there is no need for any sort of flyover structure to be built at Pearson to carry UP trains hopping off the corridor over tracks designated for fast through-VIA and GO trains. However, it mirrors decisions made at Scarborough junction on the Lakeshore East and Stouffville lines, which also have a side-by-side local-express arrangement (sometimes referred to as slow-slow-fast-fast or SSFF), instead of the slow-fast-fast-slow (SFFS) arrangement with express tracks in the middle of two slow tracks you see on some rail corridors. While the latter arrangement does mean flyover structures are needed where lines split apart and come together, I personally prefer it because it means that assuming all the corridor capacity isn’t being used, which with our huge trains seems unlikely anytime soon, that during a disruption, maintenance, or other unusual service pattern, trains travelling into or out of the city could easily merge onto either the local or express track for some time, instead of closing an entire track pair and forcing passengers to transfer (which might not even be possible with the way Metrolinx sometimes plans stations). The approach being taken for GO might make some sense for a railway that terminates in the city centre instead of passing through (like many of those travelling into London), it makes less sense in a place like Toronto that wants to move towards more through operation.
Now, what's really ironic here is that people are starting to recognize that the UP Express is actually becoming the local service on the Kitchener corridor. Already from its inception it had intermediate stops (one of which couldn’t be excused by a connection to a rapid transit line), and we already knew that the service was going to get one more stop at the end of the Eglinton Crosstown’s initial segment at Mt Dennis. Furthermore, with the station at Woodbine being built and the new St Clair-Old Weston station, the “express” service is going to be stopping at five locations between Union and Pearson.
To be fair, three of those stops have a near-term or a fairly near-term expectation of a higher-order rail transit connection — to Lines 2, 5 and a potentially extended line 6. However, this raises another question: does the UP Express even have the capacity to handle three new stations and loads of connecting passengers? Right now, the line is already often quite busy during peak periods and after events like the recent Blue Jays World Series run; after all, the trains are not optimized for capacity, and are quite a bit shorter than those operating on the GO network. The line is also still only ten years old, and new stations, transit-oriented development, new rapid transit connections, and fare integration — which is also mentioned in the city report — all seem like they have the potential to seriously boost ridership.
The short answer is “yes”: after all, this new arrangement will have two more or less dedicated tracks for the UP Express from Pearson to near Union, and changes to the UP suggested years ago by Metrolinx would likely give it a two-track terminus at Union, south of the current one (which conflicts with Barrie line trains at the north of the Union Station rail corridor) at the end of what will hopefully be a widened island platform in the train shed (this also has the benefit of making the UP accessible from the main GO concourses instead of the current awkward location along the SkyWalk — though it's important to make sure the new route into the station remains speedy, as the current one doesn’t face the same speed restrictions as GO trains by not extending quite into the station). The platforms, while shorter than those used on GO, are also not that short by the standards of rapid transit. All of this more or less gives the UP the same infrastructure from a track perspective as a rapid transit line like the Ontario line, and in fact some have even suggested having the Ontario line take over the UP Express infrastructure north of Bloor as part of a western Ontario line extension. The main issue then is actually running more train service than the current “every 15 minutes all-day”. Fortunately, the city report also mentions this, specifically talking about 10 minute service and electrified trains in the future.
So how do we reconcile all of this?
Well, I imagine the future for UP as being pretty clear. Metrolinx clearly is starting to work behind the scenes to think about a new terminal at Union, and has been for years, and this would give the line the track capacity to easily do 10-minute and probably even better service once it is built. Of course, that would be limited by the line's small fleet of trains, which has historically not been super reliable, but new electric trains that either supplement or replace the current units would make that a non-issue. As for the specifics of those trains, in the past I’ve suggested moving towards new low-floor trains akin to those used on Ottawa’s Line 2 — which then would pave the way for a future fleet of GO multiple unit trains that have ramp-free level-boarding with the accessible platform at current GO stations, and the whole platform should they be raised. Instead, it seems Metrolinx is committed to high-floors and platforms for now, given their plans at St Clair-Old Weston. This also probably helps Metrolinx kick the can down the road deciding on what to do about a new regional train station at Pearson Airport, since the current station has a short platform, and an elevated location that created a slow winding elevated spur needed to access it.
As for electrification, while basically the entire Kitchener corridor south of Pearson should be able to enable it, given previous discussion of battery trains from Metrolinx, the UP Express does seem like a potential first deployment location, especially if long layovers might enable charging to occur entirely while sitting at the two terminal stations, perhaps with a short additional section of the route between two intermediate stations.
This substantially changes the outlook for regional rail expansion in the GTHA. While it’s already clear that a return to frequent service and nearer term upgrading of the Lakeshore lines is coming — thanks to changes being made at Union and at various stations and facilities along that route, instead of the previously assumed plan of upgrading the through operating Kitchener-Stouffville services next, it seems instead that the UP Express specifically will be upgraded in the near term, possibly even with a high-floor variant of battery multiple unit trains that might be deployed to the Lakeshore lines — something which is certainly possible. This would leave Metrolinx in the unexpected position where the UP Express continues its evolution into the regional rail network's most rapid transit-like line — with quite a lot of stations within Toronto, a frequent service pattern, and dedicated platform space at Union. Even if the line might not be “express” in the sense that it skips lots of stations, it may well still be almost as fast as it was when it first opened on average, thanks to higher frequency and faster accelerating electric trains offsetting the new stops. Otherwise, we could always rename it the UP Connect — mirroring Heathrow's former Express and Connect services.
Ultimately, I think I might prefer this outcome. While it seems high frequency (at least every 15 minutes all-day long) service on the Kitchener and Stouffville lines might still be a decade away (assuming Kitchener line ridership doesn’t keep growing, in which case Metrolinx’ hand may be forced), and electrification is even further, both of those things are becoming technically easier each year as track bottlenecks continue to be removed, and politically necessary given the ever growing ridership on these services. (it should also be much easier once some trains from other lines can be relocated to these lines.) Meanwhile, the UP Express can continue to act as a great local example we can point to for what GO service, particularly on the inner sections of lines, should be moving towards: a high-frequency bidirectional service with modern multiple unit trains, pleasant stations, level boarding and fewer onboard staff, fixed platform locations at Union Station, operations from early in the morning to late at night, and even platform screen doors which we don’t even have on the subway yet. Perhaps going forward, the UP can even be the testing ground for our first electric multiple-unit trains, and more advanced signalling such as ETCS.
And so the St Clair-Old Weston changes, substantial as they are, are only the tip of a whole iceberg of change coming to the region’s railways.
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Reece Martin is a well-known advocate for good transit, worldwide. He is based in Toronto and blogs at nextmetro.substack.
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UrbanToronto will continue to follow progress on this development, but in the meantime, you can learn more about it from our Database file, linked below. If you'd like, you can join in on the conversation in the associated Line 5 and Line 6 Forum threads, or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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UrbanToronto has a research service, UTPro, that provides comprehensive data on development projects in the Greater Golden Horseshoe — from proposal through to completion. We also offer Instant Reports, downloadable snapshots based on location, and a daily subscription newsletter, New Development Insider, that tracks projects from initial application.
