Metroscapes
Active Member
Well if we could play SimCity, this would be my proposal.
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- Thread starter drum118
- Start date
A_Faulty5
New Member
Why would they demolish the current Oshawa Go station after they already invested millions into rebuilding it from the ground up? They would also remove the connection to VIA Rail... Not sure what Metrolinx was thinking.
nfitz
Superstar
They upgraded the station after they decided not to get rid of the station. They've been planning the Bowmanville spur/extension for many years before the the renovations were done, and there have been many alignments planned.
ARG1
Senior Member
I always imagined that it wouldn't be an either or thing. Based on current info, Bowmanville won't be electrified, and will only feature hourly service. As such all of the excess electrified RER services would terminate at Oshawa, whilst the rest will bypass it and go to Thornton and Bowmanville.
nfitz
Superstar
They don't need to bypass with the current, poorly thought out, plan. They've switched back to crossing the 401 east of the existing station, again. The regular service will just terminate in Oshawa.
We'll see how many more times this changes, if they ever build this.
ARG1
Senior Member
I'm talking about the AU where the initial plan got built, since we were talking about decommissioning Oshawa. I know that the current plan is to use the GM spur.
smallspy
Senior Member
Oshawa Station is poorly sited. No amount of money spent on that, or any other project connecting to it, will fix that.
If I was king for a day, the VIA station would be moved to Whitby, which has a parking structure and has better access to/from the highway. The old alignment for the extension to Bowmanville would be reinstated, and the old Oshawa Station and its lands would be sold off for redevelopment.
Dan
kamira51
Active Member
That routing over the 401
makes me kinda, on the edge.nfitz
Superstar
I'm not sure what the "old" alignment is - there have been so many, I've long since lost track.
The current Oshawa station is poorly located - it's not even in Oshawa in a traditional sense - the western end of the GO platforms are actually in Whitby!
The original CN station was about 3 km further east, between Simcoe Street and Albert Street (the southern potion of Albert Street, formerly being called Station Street).
Personally, I'd keep (and rename) the current GO station, then build a new Oshawa GO back on the original station site. There's plenty of right-of-way width, or adjacent empty industrial land for tracks.
I'm not sure the best place to run to Bowmanville would be - but if you stay on the CN ROW until somewhere near Townline, would make sense to me - though there may be some backyard issues east of Ritson. I think this was similar to one of the proposals.
(I wouldn't oppose running on the CP all the way from Agincourt!)
Allandale25
Senior Member
The 'old' alignment is in light blue here: https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threa...-projects-metrolinx-various.9023/post-2116847
crs1026
Superstar
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
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
ARG1
Senior Member
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.
turbanplanner
Senior Member
I think being north of the 401 will make a difference. It's funny some pretty major roads like Thornton don't even cross the 401 by the existing station.
A lot of the intersections end up being traffic jams at rush hour
nfitz
Superstar
Old, as in mid-2010s. I thought they reopened it with those 4 options, that they'd had an alignment a decade before that (perhaps that is blue).
They've been studying this since at least the 1970s. Studied to death, the Star reported in 1987! How does this compare to the 4 routes examined in the 1987 Dillon study?
The outcome of the 1987 study was choosing a route that's similar to the currently proposed route, but using a new alignment in Oshawa between Thornton and Stevenson rather than using the GM alignment. The blue route above from the mid-2010s used a new alignment that is further west - in Whitby.
Here's the "finalized" route map that GO released in 1988. It was supposed to open by 1991.
I wonder how many alignments there have been since the 1970s.
And the alignments keep getting worse and worse. Recall the early 1980s proposed GO alignment diverged from the CN tracks at Whitby GO, following the 401 to Hopkins, and then a very shallow tangent to the CP tracks, joining them just east of Thickson. I'm not sure that's even possible now, after they instead widened the 401 - and with all the development now between the tracks.
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Willybru21
Active Member
There was a proposal in the 2011 Bowmanville extension business case that suggested tunnelling under the existing Oshawa station parking lot to get to the CP line: