[smallspy]

Why are there VIA trains there? Regular route tracks closed?

Oakville Sub closure due to various trackwork projects and the removal of the Drury Lane pedestrian bridge in Burlington.

Dan

 

[qubyte]

Why are there VIA trains there? Regular route tracks closed?

March 8-9 weekend, Burloak Grade Separation closure of LSW west of Oakville GO due to Burloak. Via tends to detour all of their routes via the Halton and Weston Subdivision during LSW closures. They often stop at odd signal locations along the line, likely due to traffic (few single lane sections from Tansley to Stewarttown). I have seen freight traffic waiting up to an hour in some cases, not sure how operations will be impacted with 4 extra intermodal trains from the hub.

 

[SkylineHorizons]

Why are there VIA trains there? Regular route tracks closed?

*edit disregard, explained above.

 

[ShonTron]

Over the last 15 years, there have been multiple weekend diversions by VIA over the Weston and Halton subs (skipping Oakville) and the Bala and York Subs (skipping Guildwood) due to GO/Metrolinx work. There was even detours via the Newmarket and Halton subs to detour around GO/UPX work in 2013-2014. I’ve sometimes took advantage of these to ride the “rare mileage” and so I have been on the entire York and Halton Subs.

 

[Allandale25]

 

[qubyte]

Lower Base Line Grade Separation opened today, July 14th, 2025.

Progress Photos from Q1 Report:

Photos from June 23 after multiple grass fires due to sparks from a passing train along the CN Halton Subdivision in Milton and Burlington. Resulting in closures of Hwy 407, Appleby Line, Tremaine Road and Upper Middle Road. Appears to be a recurring issue in this stretch of the corridor with multiple fires each year. CN should look into better management of overgrown vegetation in isolated areas, as trains were stopped along this corridor for 6+ hours.

Roads reopen in Burlington and Oakville after smoke from grass fires reduces visibility

All lanes of Highway 407 are reopen in the Burlington and Oakville area after several grass fires produced heavy smoke and caused visibility issues.

www.cp24.com

Trains stopped north and south of the site:

Good progress on the Britannia Access Road Bridge, the bridge abutment has been completed. Deck formwork for the concrete deck indicates preparation for the concrete pouring phase. The retaining wall on the western portion is close to completion:

Grading of the truck access road:

Signs up for work regarding the Britannia Access Road Intersection Construction since May 22:

 

[Transportfan]

I wonder why Lower Baseline was never renamed Eglinton Ave. as Burnhamthorpe, Steeles, etc. were?

 

[qubyte]

I wonder why Lower Baseline was never renamed Eglinton Ave. as Burnhamthorpe, Steeles, etc. were?

Halton didn’t standardize Lower Baseline to Eglinton mainly due to lack of any development in the corridor. Unlike Toronto and Mississauga, which were urbanizing rapidly and needed consistent arterial names for traffic and postal purposes, Halton remained largely rural farmland for much of the 20th century. Roads like Burnhamthorpe and Steeles had hamlets and post offices along their routes in Halton, which helped their names stick. There were no major villages, post offices, or crossroads along Lower Baseline to drive a name change, and the road’s functional role as a local connector didn’t require rebranding. As a result, the old survey-based name stuck, even as Eglinton continued westward in Mississauga.

It was only when Mississauga annexed land from Milton in 2010 that a portion of the road got renamed Eglinton Avenue West, but beyond the city boundary, Halton kept the historic Lower Baseline name.

 

[SkylineHorizons]

 

[qubyte]

The bridge supporting the Britannia Access Road and the road itself look to be close to completion.

Intersection modifications at Britannia Road to create a new truck entrance are close to completion as well. There are new turning lanes, traffic signal adjustments, hydro pole relocations, and realignment of the multi-use path and bicycle lanes.

Sidewalks were closed, but today, Nov 18th, it appears the guardrails have been installed.

Subgrade construction between Britannia and Derry Road, as part of the mainline corridor extension, is nearing completion.

From Britannia Road looking North:

From Louis St. Laurent Ave looking South:

From Louis St. Laurent Ave looking North:

Will start to see tracks being installed to extend the second mainline from Ash station (Mile 39.50, near the access road bridge) to a point south of Derry Road (Mile 36.86).

 

[Transportfan]

Surprised to Britannia six-lanes there. Must be expecting major industrial growth there.

 

[qubyte]

Surprised to Britannia six-lanes there. Must be expecting major industrial growth there.

The Town of Milton and the Region of Halton were strongly opposed to this project, so the EA didn't consider the traffic from the CN project in its Traffic Volume Data.

It was originally as in the 2014 EA, six lanes from Tremaine Road to Regional Road 25 (starting in 2014) and a phased widening to 4 lanes from Regional Road 25 to Highway 407 (starting in 2014) and then to 6 lanes (starting in 2028). But the initial widening was delayed to 2018, so the Halton decided that, as the bridges would have to be widened to 6 lanes anyway, they would widen the whole stretch starting in 2018 (delayed to Fall 2019).

The road was designed such that within a 1.5 km radius of Britannia Road, from Tremaine to Trafalgar, it is set to see about 100k residents using the road to some extent, 50k in Boyne, 50k in Britannia/Trafalgar and some in the Milton Education Village Lands. Geographically, it is not possible to construct another mid-block east-west corridor west of Thompson Road in a financially feasible manner due to numerous environmental barriers, including multiple sixteen-mile creek crossings (three major crossings), the Halton Waste Management Site, and the CN Halton Rail crossing and Logistics Hub. Thus, it makes sense from a traffic standpoint; it is the last arterial road in the area, and the only other corridor to the south is Lower Base Line, 3km to the south, which, as it stands, is discontinuous and not designed for high traffic. Which isn't proposed to be reconstructed to be a continuous minor arterial road till the mid-2030s.

The employment lands as proposed in 2017 were planned as such:

Less storage, warehousing and distribution-related development and more office employment-related. Note "New 407 interchanges at Tremaine Road", interested to see if there is any merit to diverting truck traffic from the hub directly to the 407. Although it was shot down quickly by CN due to added expenses, early in the consultation process.
Update from the Official Plan in 2025

About half of the area in the South West Employment Area is swallowed by the Logistics Hub, leaving not as much space for employment land, about 500 acres or so. Which traffic will be split between Tremaine and Britannia?

The only expansion of land in this area is found deep in the appendices as a future strategic employment area, which I'm assuming will only be serviced once the existing areas are sufficiently occupied.

Sneak peek at one of the developments considered adjacent to the site, looks to be storage and distribution related, ideal as next to the hub:

Will the GTA-bound truck traffic travel up Tremaine to the new 401 interchange in 2027 or go down Britannia and take James Snow or Trafalgar?

 

[junctionist]

It's sad to see those beautiful green fields in the drone photos about to become cheap disposable sprawl, especially the ones that are still used for farming. Summertime photos of the new roads through the area are beautiful, but the wide roads and bridges are basically the nails in the coffin for the area's rural charm. Once they get built, the sprawl will follow.