[denfromoakvillemilton]

I don't know Oshawa well, but it seems like a lot of money is being spent to shift GO onto the Belleville sub for a small gain in distance for commuters from north Oshawa. If the shift actually brought GO to downtown Oshawa (in the same way that West Harbour brings it to central Hamilton) I might buy it, but the CP and CN are just not that far apart. So long as the line switches to the CP before reaching Courtice, I would say there is no compelling reason to wind around central Oshawa as planned.

Surely it must be cheaper to extend GO along the CN and build a grade separation under/over the 401 out at McLaughlin Bay where the two lines are within sight of each other. The added distance to a Ritson station on the CN line is only 900 meters.

- Paul

Whilst the CP station isn't that much closer to downtown than the CN station, it is still somewhat closer, and more importantly its not separated from Downtown Ottawa by the 401. This means that the area around is theoretically more developable, and more importantly it is more walk-able to more potential destinations.

To add to this, no more transfers at Oshawa Centre to get to the go station by bus.