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Do you recall the nature of the Danforth reconfiguration Dan? (platform/track alignment)
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- Thread starter drum118
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Do you recall the nature of the Danforth reconfiguration Dan? (platform/track alignment)
smallspy
Senior Member
I have not seen a final one as yet, no. I've put out requests for more information to my contacts at Metrolinx.
The various EAs and Business Cases identified at least 3 different potential configurations, the most extreme (in my mind) of which involved moving the platforms several hundred meters to the east. I seem to recall the most recent one (or ones) having a reasonably modest move of the platforms east by a couple of carlengths, and a configuration utilizing 1 island platform and 2 side platforms.
Dan
Metroscapes
Active Member
"Union Station Rail Corridor" or USRC is the official term, and this is evidenced by the signs.
In the east, the USRC officially goes / went to the signals at the Don for the Kingston sub, and south if Dundas for the Bala sub.
In the west, I don't know is what the true "extent" is. I recall they had 'expanded' it to Strachan when they were doing the underpass, but I don't know if that was in a legal property sense or otherwise, and I don't know if / how it reverted back. The photo above, and other (old) diagrams suggest it starts east of Bathurst on the south side. I don't have an idea of how it changed on the north (Weston sub) side; used to be at the signals west of Strachan, but that's before the grade separation.
BTW, there's a dedicated USRC improvement thread.
drum118
Superstar
Thanks."Union Station Rail Corridor" or USRC is the official term, and this is evidenced by the signs.
In the east, the USRC officially goes / went to the signals at the Don for the Kingston sub, and south if Dundas for the Bala sub.
In the west, I don't know is what the true "extent" is. I recall they had 'expanded' it to Strachan when they were doing the underpass, but I don't know if that was in a legal property sense or otherwise, and I don't know if / how it reverted back. The photo above, and other (old) diagrams suggest it starts east of Bathurst on the south side. I don't have an idea of how it changed on the north (Weston sub) side; used to be at the signals west of Strachan, but that's before the grade separation.
BTW, there's a dedicated USRC improvement thread.
I decided to kill two birds with one post for my request
With all the changes over the years, I wasn't sure where things started and ended. USRC was my preferred choice and wanted to make sure before making major changes.
I break the Lakeshore West and Weston Sub on the west side of Bathurst St.
How I tag in the beginning and since then has changed several times including this year that I have gone from 27,000 tags to 6500 in the last year. This covers everything I shoot which is a lot.
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crs1026
Superstar
The USRC western limits are -
Galt Subdivision - MP 1.9 Strachan Ave
Weston Subdivision - MP 1.9 Strachan Ave
Oakville Sub - MP 1.2 Tracks 1 and 2 (west of Bathurst St)
Oakville Sub - MP 1.0 Tracks 3 and 4 (east of Bathurst St)
In practical terms it makes sense to treat the Strachan underpass as part of the USRC and to treat the Bathurst St bridge as the dividing line for the Oakville Sub.
- paul
kotsy
Senior Member
Installation of two new tracks is progressing past the King/Liberty pedestrian bridge.
crs1026
Superstar
I took a ride to Kitchener today and took some notes of what I saw. Here's the rundown:
Norval - lots of initial site prep going on west of Mount Pleasant station, but it's not clear whether this is for a grade separation, the Heritage Road layover yard, or both.... or something else.
Georgetown - while there are two usable platform tracks within the GO portion of the station, the second track can't be connected at the west end until an underpass is built, as the platform has a pedestrian walkway running north at the west (dead end) of the second track. The existing signalling governing westbound trains leaving the platform permits only 15 mph until the next signal at Silver is reached. Clearly it will take a fair bit of construction at this location to remedy all this.
Acton - the former siding is still in place, but rail is severed at each end. I expect it will be removed. There is a service track at the west end of the former siding which is being used to store work equipment. I suspect this track is what is being shifted to Rockwood as a maintenance of way track. Lots of signs of initial site prep and surveying work for the new passing siding. I am speculating that the siding will be located just west of the station, meaning that the station will remain single track. That's a cheap and effective way of adding passing capacity without building out the station.
Rockwood - the former Rock Cut siding still exists, hidden in the weeds. It's not in use. No signs of any work to create the new maintenance of way siding.
Guelph - the second station platform appears almost complete, but there is virtually no sign of prep to extend the siding track west to Hanlon and little sign of any prep work at Hanlon. So while there may be an announcement soon celebrating completion of the station, it's meaningless. Unlikely that the siding will be completed this summer imho, so the new platform is a white elephant for another year. . Maybe next year.
Breslau - new siding mostly complete, crews working to weld rail joints. Signals erected but not in service. The layout of the siding is interesting, in that the east end switch is reverse to the new north track and the west end switch is reverse to the (south) old main line. In other words, all trains regardless of direction will encounter one reverse switch no matter how routed. Assuming the switches are good for 45 mph, it means that every train will have to slow to 45mph at one point or another. This deprives the line of any potential for high speed running all the way from Kitchener to Guelph or vv. Presumably the intent (recognising this is a fairly long passing track) is that trains will meet with neither train having to "head in" and stop to wait for the other as in a conventional siding.... but it's a design that sacrifices high speed potential. The solution is fuller double tracking..... it will happen eventually when money is available, I suppose.
Kitchener - I wasn't prepared for the urban blight along the short walk to the LRT. Even by Toronto standards, the conditions of the homeless encampments coming into and in downtown Kitchener are appalling. The good news is, the passenger count was substantial. 2WAD can't happen soon enough.
- Paul
Norval - lots of initial site prep going on west of Mount Pleasant station, but it's not clear whether this is for a grade separation, the Heritage Road layover yard, or both.... or something else.
Georgetown - while there are two usable platform tracks within the GO portion of the station, the second track can't be connected at the west end until an underpass is built, as the platform has a pedestrian walkway running north at the west (dead end) of the second track. The existing signalling governing westbound trains leaving the platform permits only 15 mph until the next signal at Silver is reached. Clearly it will take a fair bit of construction at this location to remedy all this.
Acton - the former siding is still in place, but rail is severed at each end. I expect it will be removed. There is a service track at the west end of the former siding which is being used to store work equipment. I suspect this track is what is being shifted to Rockwood as a maintenance of way track. Lots of signs of initial site prep and surveying work for the new passing siding. I am speculating that the siding will be located just west of the station, meaning that the station will remain single track. That's a cheap and effective way of adding passing capacity without building out the station.
Rockwood - the former Rock Cut siding still exists, hidden in the weeds. It's not in use. No signs of any work to create the new maintenance of way siding.
Guelph - the second station platform appears almost complete, but there is virtually no sign of prep to extend the siding track west to Hanlon and little sign of any prep work at Hanlon. So while there may be an announcement soon celebrating completion of the station, it's meaningless. Unlikely that the siding will be completed this summer imho, so the new platform is a white elephant for another year. . Maybe next year.
Breslau - new siding mostly complete, crews working to weld rail joints. Signals erected but not in service. The layout of the siding is interesting, in that the east end switch is reverse to the new north track and the west end switch is reverse to the (south) old main line. In other words, all trains regardless of direction will encounter one reverse switch no matter how routed. Assuming the switches are good for 45 mph, it means that every train will have to slow to 45mph at one point or another. This deprives the line of any potential for high speed running all the way from Kitchener to Guelph or vv. Presumably the intent (recognising this is a fairly long passing track) is that trains will meet with neither train having to "head in" and stop to wait for the other as in a conventional siding.... but it's a design that sacrifices high speed potential. The solution is fuller double tracking..... it will happen eventually when money is available, I suppose.
Kitchener - I wasn't prepared for the urban blight along the short walk to the LRT. Even by Toronto standards, the conditions of the homeless encampments coming into and in downtown Kitchener are appalling. The good news is, the passenger count was substantial. 2WAD can't happen soon enough.
- Paul
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crs1026
Superstar
Actually, those orphan track segments have been there since the GTS project of ten years ago. Those cross ties are now ten years old without ever having carried a train.
There does appear to have been site prep happening along that stretch, and I hope we are getting closer to the new track being added, but nothing in those photos is new construction.
- Paul
kotsy
Senior Member
Thanks for that info, Paul!
Garuda
Active Member
It's really disappointing that the 2nd track through Guelph is nowhere close to being done. The platform as you said is up and ready to go with no track tie in. I was hoping for a weekend service to Kitchener to start by September. But I feel that goal slipping away.
ARG1
Senior Member
To be fair, Metrolinx has only ever promised the 2025 date, and thus far I don't see how they won't be able to make that.
crs1026
Superstar
Actually it started as a 2024 date, and then that got pushed back, but never with specifics. Does that 2025 imply full 2WAD? 30 mins at peak? Proper counter peak? ML won't say.
The Georgetown and Brampton pieces clearly won't be ready in 2025, and they are central to 2WAD.
- Paul
Allandale25
Senior Member
Timely update Paul because I just saw this. Letter from Verster to a HoC standing committee, as tweeted out by a Green MP for Kitchener.
reaperexpress
Senior Member
This is mostly things we already knew, but I don't think we've seen that 26.2 km figure for the Halton Sub before. The segment of the Halton Sub to be upgraded is only about 20 km long so that's an average of 1.3 additional tracks. So for example they might add 1 additional track for 2/3 of the corridor and 2 additional tracks for 1/3 of the corridor. Given that a large portion of that segment is already triple-tracked, this suggests that there will be substantial quad-tracking, probably narrowing to 3 tracks at challenging spots such as Brampton station and the Credit River bridge.
Actually it started as a 2023 date:
King Victoria Transit hub Project Update - Waterloo Region
Given that phase 1 of the Breslau double track and the Guelph platform will be complete soon, my hope is that they the activate the second platform as soon as possible (even if this means temporarily reinstating the switch in its former location while work is ongoing to extend the double track westward to Hanlon). Then at least there could be AD2W train service between Kitchener and Guelph while construction is ongoing in Acton, Georgetown and Brampton.
With a travel time of 17 min from Kitchener to Guelph, a single trainset shuttling back and forth could provide an hourly two-way service. The recovery time would presumably be located entirely at Guelph station (20 min terminal time) to keep the occupancy of the single platform at Kitchener to a minimum (6 min terminal time). The Kitchener-Guelph corridor is one where train service provides a massive advantage over bus service or even driving. It's at least a 35 min drive from downtown Kitchener to downtown Guelph so even with 12 minutes of walking to/from stations, the train is faster than driving:
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drum118
Superstar
Thanks.
Good to know for future reference.
I have the Newmarket subdivision starting at the Toronto yard with Parkdale at 2.41. I class the whole corridor from Bathurst to Bloor as the Weston Subdivision knowing that there are to be two tracks for the Gailt Subdivision and one track for the Newmarket Subdivision. Oakville also starts at Bathurst as well.