smallspy
Senior Member
I don't know when there will be an announcement, but.....
There are plans for more trains to shuttle back and forth from Kitchener to London in the coming weeks to train more operators.
Dan
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- Thread starter drum118
- Start date
There are plans for more trains to shuttle back and forth from Kitchener to London in the coming weeks to train more operators.
Dan
crs1026
Senior Member
^I sure hope that any announcement comes with a plan, timeline, and committed funding to fix the tracks.
Without that, it's not a very big step forward in terms of utility or cost-effectiveness.
- Paul
Without that, it's not a very big step forward in terms of utility or cost-effectiveness.
- Paul
innsertnamehere
Superstar
It will likely be much like the original Kitchener and Niagara extensions, get the service operating, even if on a substandard schedule, and start working towards upgrading tracks and improving travel times. For Kitchener's case it's taken a decade or so, but there are finally some substantial time savings occurring Times are 15 minutes better than at service initiation today, and will continue to drop.
robmausser
Senior Member
Even 15 minutes is huge because the sections they are fixing are abysmally slow. There is something just so soul crushing about crawling along a piece of track at 50kmh. Its like how its preferable to drive around a traffic jam even if it makes your commute 10 minutes longer. Something about stop and go/slow that just feels worse. The perception of motion has a psychological play at hand, like people think "oh this is a far trip but at least we are making good time!" even if a slower route would get you there faster.
Richard White
Senior Member
That happened to me a few weeks ago going to Niagara. We were crawling along heading there to the point where I was ready to get out and hire an Uber (it would have been faster).
When the journey is already 2.5 hours, speed matters.
robmausser
Senior Member
You have to be really careful with this though, first impressions are everything to the casual person.
You dont know how many arguments ive had with a casual Torontonian how ATC will fix the slow subway system, or that VIA HFR will fix the ontime performance of VIA. Theyve written it off permenently.
Its hard to rechange initial perceptions.
I think for any of these new services where slow track still has yet to be fixed, they need to run express through the 905, to compensate. Run the London GO with limited stops downtown to make up lost time.
Same should be with Niagara. It should stop at West Harbour, Aldershot and then express to Union.
Bordercollie
Senior Member
I don't think traffic on the 401 and QEW is going to get better anytime soon.
But take into consideration that in ideal conditions the car is faster but not when it's snowing, raining or there is an accident. That can easily put you behind an hour.
Plus for business people, when you drive you can't answer emails or texts which really sucks. So you end up spending time at the end of your trip trying to answer emails you couldn't while you were driving.
Plus it's not fun driving the 401 between Toronto and Kitchener at any time of the day.
Bordercollie
Senior Member
It's likely that it will make all stops to try to cater to as many people as possible.
Garuda
Active Member
That’s a very exciting development! metrolinx wouldn’t be spending lots of money on fuel and wages to train crews and move a train over a weekend without being serious about future service.
for service using existing stations Metrolinx will have to building the accessible platforms. My guess is that they’ll be wooden ones similar to Niagara Falls Station and make a permanent solution later one.
Bordercollie
Senior Member
I'm sure that the track time is not cheap either. Not to mention all the support work involved.
So would CN be doing the dispatch on the line?
sacred
Active Member
Feds: if you vote for us we might give you the bare minimum passenger service you’ve been asking for for decades
Province: I have a surprise for you
Province: I have a surprise for you
Allandale25
Senior Member
Northern Light
Superstar
Two significant commitments:
Still a bit ambiguous on the timelines:
Bureaucromancer
Active Member
There's been no mention of this so far, but one thing that does occur to me about the Milton funding announcement is that the open ended nature of it suggests this might be something that could be used to move toward a Cambridge extension as well as just all day on the existing corridor.