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Urban Sky said:
I haven't heard about these "green and red zones", but I would welcome any articles or documents mentioning them...
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It's a Metrolinx term pertaining to construction along the ROW. Doing work in an active corridor is considered a "red" zone and so requires additional care and staffing requirements. A "green" zone is done by either closing off the corridor entirely or using barriers to protect against the active movements within the corridor.

Metrolinx has recently declared that they are going to try and eliminate all red zone work by the end of this year, which is frankly an insane proposition.

Dan
 
Obviously there is a shocking amount of incompetence at ML but the thing that should really ticked people off is their bold face lying. They knew years ago that they would not electrify any of the system by 2026. No poles in the ground but also no substation or rolling stock orders to be found yet they only decided to tell the public a few months ago. That is not "mismanagement" nor "lack of information" or "unforeseen events" but just good old fashioned lying and they did it for years with a straight face.
 
ssiguy2 said:
Obviously there is a shocking amount of incompetence at ML but the thing that should really ticked people off is their bold face lying. They knew years ago that they would not electrify any of the system by 2026.
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When was the last time they ever gave that number? Actually wait, let me back up a bit, when have they ever given that number? I know during the GO RER days they were estimating a completion of 2025, but that was at least over 7 years ago, and even then it was clear that that was a shot in the dark. After the project re-branded into GO Expansion, they rarely if ever gave anything resembling concrete dates, and certainly didn't make any specific promises regarding start of electrified service.

The only source I can even remotely find that claims this is Wikipedia which claims that "As of 2022, construction for the electrification of lines is to begin in 2023, with partial implementation in 2025 and 2026 and full completion in 2032", however a quick look at the footnote shows that the CityNews article they're citing instead says: "Also, while construction is set to begin in 2023 and shorter-term projects could result in incremental increases to GO Transit service in 2025 or 2026, the current potential finish date for electrification is currently pegged for around 2032." They have never said that electrification will start in 2026, this is just a clear cut misquote/misinformation on Wikipedia's part.

Mate if you're going to call anyone a liar, please double check to make sure you have the right quote.
 
Bureaucromancer said:
Its been done in some European jurisdictions without collapsing the system. Not every European practice makes operations easier.
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Prove it. Not a single railroad that I'm aware of operates without some emergency maintenance tasks being done on the live network. That is what Metrolinx is suggesting will happen.

Dan
 
More news on battery trains and this time it's from Canada.

Cando Rail & Terminals have completed a one year trial {not study} of a refurbished diesel electric locomotive into 100% battery. It will be for shunting in rail yards and was capable to haul up to 50 FULL freight cars. They can be recharged either by a plug-in {like a car} or by overhead catenary. There are already such trains in the world but these ones are adapted for Canada's cold climate and were tested in Winnipeg at temperatures of -40c. Cando is so impressed that they are going to be looking at transferring all their locomotives on small routes/shunting to battery.

This is great news as opposed to the new battery trains that have recently been announced in Dublin because they were able to do it because they have the inherent luck of the Irish. I also acknowledge that ML couldn't follow Wellington new order of battery trains because in New Zealand, the electricity runs upside-down.

Still, I'm not sure if ML would even consider testing such locos for GO, after all, they were tested in Winnipeg and I'm not sure the mandarins at ML would see that as a transferable technology. After all, they were tested in Winnipeg which is on Central time while Toronto is on Eastern and that can very much effect their performance.
 
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ssiguy2 said:
More news on battery trains and this time it's from Canada.

Cando Rail & Terminals have completed a one year trial {not study} of a refurbished diesel electric locomotive into 100% battery. It will be for shunting in rail yards and was capable to haul up to 50 FULL freight cars. They can be recharged either by a plug-in {like a car} or by overhead catenary. There are already such trains in the world but these ones are adapted for Canada's cold climate and were tested in Winnipeg at temperatures of -40c. Cando is so impressed that they are going to be looking at transferring all their locomotives on small routes/shunting to battery.

This is great news as opposed to the new battery trains that have recently been announced in Dublin because they were able to do it because they have the inherent luck of the Irish. I also acknowledge that ML couldn't follow Wellington new order of battery trains because in New Zealand, the electricity runs upside-down.

Still, I'm not sure if ML would even consider testing such locos for GO, after all, they were tested in Winnipeg and I'm sure the mandarins at ML would see that as a transferable technology. After all, they were tested in Winnipeg which is on Central time while Toronto is on Eastern and that can very much effect their performance.
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This is great news to see, but I'm concerned that the test bed was limited if they only used it for shunting. Did they do any sort of test-moving either locally or nationally, or will this be a separate test?
 
ssiguy2 said:
More news on battery trains and this time it's from Canada.

Cando Rail & Terminals have completed a one year trial {not study} of a refurbished diesel electric locomotive into 100% battery. It will be for shunting in rail yards and was capable to haul up to 50 FULL freight cars. They can be recharged either by a plug-in {like a car} or by overhead catenary. There are already such trains in the world but these ones are adapted for Canada's cold climate and were tested in Winnipeg at temperatures of -40c. Cando is so impressed that they are going to be looking at transferring all their locomotives on small routes/shunting to battery.

This is great news as opposed to the new battery trains that have recently been announced in Dublin because they were able to do it because they have the inherent luck of the Irish. I also acknowledge that ML couldn't follow Wellington new order of battery trains because in New Zealand, the electricity runs upside-down.

Still, I'm not sure if ML would even consider testing such locos for GO, after all, they were tested in Winnipeg and I'm sure the mandarins at ML would see that as a transferable technology. After all, they were tested in Winnipeg which is on Central time while Toronto is on Eastern and that can very much effect their performance.
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I asked not long ago in the "GO transit fleet" thread if GO had shunters at their mechanical yards. Apparently they don't and just use whatever locomotive is sitting around.

I wonder if MX would look into these electric shunters in order to free up the locomotives used at Willowbrook and Whitby?
 
Bojaxs said:
I asked not long ago in the "GO transit fleet" thread if GO had shunters at their mechanical yards. Apparently they don't and just use whatever locomotive is sitting around.

I wonder if MX would look into these electric shunters in order to free up the locomotives used at Willowbrook and Whitby?
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GO has 91 active locomotives and 8 that they recently purchased from Metrolink being rebuilt by ONR in North Bay. They also have a Rail King rail car mover they use when moving individual cars in and out of the shops. Even during rush hour service they don't use all 91 locomotives, so they store the extras at Willowbrook and Whitby to be used for yard work or to dispatch as rescue trains (which is also why they have extra coaches and cab cars at Willowbrook as you can't move just the locomotive at track speed). Why spend the money on buying a shunter when you have spare locomotives in the yards that are more than capable of doing that job?
 
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Long Island has just started using their new dual powered trains on their commuter routes. They run via catenary on their usual electrified portion and then battery for the rest of the non-electrified route.

Alas, again I don't think ML will see this as a technology they would be able to employ. These trains can only function on islands and Toronto, unfortunately is on the mainland. This explains why Japan has been able to develop an effective passenger rail system but France can't.
 
ssiguy2 said:
Long Island has just started using their new dual powered trains on their commuter routes. They run via catenary on their usual electrified portion and then battery for the rest of the non-electrified route.

Alas, again I don't think ML will see this as a technology they would be able to employ. These trains can only function on islands and Toronto, unfortunately is on the mainland. This explains why Japan has been able to develop an effective passenger rail system but France can't.
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Do you have to keep going on about this? We get it, electric trains are the most important thing in the universe. I can't be the only one who finds this repetition of the same talking points to be tiresome.
 
T3G said:
Do you have to keep going on about this? We get it, electric trains are the most important thing in the universe. I can't be the only one who finds this repetition of the same talking points to be tiresome.
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There is a good reason why the number of people responding to this sad spammer is constantly dwindling. The “Ignore” function really helps preserving your mental health…
 
ssiguy2 said:
Long Island has just started using their new dual powered trains on their commuter routes. They run via catenary on their usual electrified portion and then battery for the rest of the non-electrified route.
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How do you manage to get everything so factually wrong?

The Long Island Railroad does not have any overhead catenary. The locos that they've had delivered recently - only a very small number for testing - do not have battery capability.

Dan
 
smallspy said:
How do you manage to get everything so factually wrong?

The Long Island Railroad does not have any overhead catenary. The locos that they've had delivered recently - only a very small number for testing - do not have battery capability.

Dan
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Metro North put a recently delivered dual-mode [diesel-electric] Charger into service in September.

Metro North also has a few Battery/Catenary locomotives on order for service in 2030. They probably got the 2 separate orders conflated; easy to do since they mentioned both in their speech.

LIRR has been running a small number of Diesel/Third-Rail trains for decades.
 
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