TheHonestMaple
Active Member
Yeah I don't know why it's so secretive. 200 million dollars is A LOT of money to be spending on two stations, just for upgrades. Taxpayers should be allowed to know. @Chris R. FOI request?
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- Thread starter drum118
- Start date
Sunnyside
Active Member
Now I’m less knowledgeable than others here… but from a glance, whatever happens at the junction would have to be as “one-and-done” as possible given the price tag- maybe with some future-proofing.
Im not sure a flyover around Lemonville helps, because you need to access two corridors. CP and CNs tracks are organized perfectly for themselves, but GO would need to somehow get dedicated track (if desired) between the two, ie sandwiched just south of Old Guelph Road, so an additional flyover isn’t needed to access one of the corridors. That would seemingly involve widening various parts so as to make room for the corridor once it’s flown over the triangle.
… touching the junction not once, but twice is clearly beyond all of our lifetimes.
11th
Senior Member
Looks like Agincourt station?
tsm1072
Active Member
If I were to guess the Hamilton GO upgrades:
If money is being spent on track upgrades through Bayview, prioritizing speed and access to West Harbour would be a better investment for service frequency and quality.
- Platform refurbishment and installation of platform snow melt system
- Refurbishment of stairways and platform entries
- Elevator replacement, potentially a new elevator location
- General refurbishment of the station building and bringing it up to modern code and standards (this gets pricey as it is an old structure)
- Better peak period scheduling for downtown workers and more express trains
- Better access via bus routes
- Downtown location
If money is being spent on track upgrades through Bayview, prioritizing speed and access to West Harbour would be a better investment for service frequency and quality.
rdaner
Senior Member
^^You are correct! It is Agincourt and Milliken is on Steeles.
drum118
Superstar
It looks like both photos are of Agincourt by looking that the track in both photos not Milliken. The east side track at Agincourt has yet to see service and not finished.
Milliken eastside platform was used during the work on the west platform and trackwork and then went back to the westside that I can recall seeing.
Chris R.
Senior Member
According to this article, West Harbour actually has more riders: https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilt...cle_7671c245-d555-57ac-bb94-31f57bae3ebb.html
"Currently, an average of 886 people a day board and disembark trains at the North End terminal, compared with just 93 in 2019."
"Aldershot and Hamilton GO Centre remain below pre-pandemic levels, averaging 2,284 and 600, respectively, in 2024."
So while Hamilton Go may have more morning commuters, the West Harbours station gets more overall ridership, which makes sense considering it has all day service.
It will be great once Go gets more frequent and smaller trains because they'll be able to accelerate more quickly and get people to and from Hamilton much more quickly, because West Harbour is likely a decade or more away from needing a full 12-car train.
I'd be interested in FOI requests for Metrolinx projects, but if they're starting anyway, may just wait and see. Could try emailing too. Sometimes if you just ask they'll tell you, but I haven't tried that yet.
That being said, this all reminds me of this tweet I saw today:
TheHonestMaple
Active Member
Yeah that’s what I meant. If we had an hourly breakdown, Hamilton GO Centre would probably show mucher higher numbers in the morning and between 4 and 7 pm. That’s just my personal observations though.
Allandale25
Senior Member
Bordercollie
Senior Member
So who owns the trackage from the station to the crossover?
crs1026
Superstar
"Ownership" only matters so much. Title to the asset will likely sit with CN, except perhaps within the property line of whatever ML owns at West Harbour. CN will charge itself depreciation on that asset.
The bigger thing is that CN has operational control, ie CN dispatchers control the switches and signals. And CN has the right to veto any ML service plan that it considers unreasonable, since the trackage to the east is CN's.
CN likely has agreed to improving scheduling, but the number of trains going east is very much at CN's discretion.
- Paul
Bordercollie
Senior Member
At least they don't need to make that backup move to the station. Any chance Amtrak/via will use this stop?
Via used to have track slots to Niagara and with the new equipment it would be nice to have. Even though GO has plans for all day train service to Niagara, express trains would nice to compete with car travel times. I did hear that sometimes the QEW is so bad it can take 3-4 hours to travel from Niagara to Toronto
TheHonestMaple
Active Member
Moving the VIA station from Aldershot to West Harbour makes enormous sense now. Let's hope that happens @Chris R.
nfitz
Superstar
Opening a Hamilton station might make sense, but does closing Aldershot make sense? It's primary function for VIA is for the London-Toronto trains, not the far less frequent Amtrak train to New York City.
It's not difficult to get from Aldershot to West Harbour. If VIA was to add a stop, I wonder if Centennial would make more sense.
dowlingm
Senior Member
The only VIA service to West Harbour is operated by Amtrak. If WH had space for a high platform then that would be a value add, but making passengers from London go to Oakville and then schlep back to get to Burlington and Hamilton makes little sense to me.