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Leo_Chan said:
Story time again.

The operator from my train today got so pissed at someone running for the doors after they already started closing. He said it was unacceptable and causes delays (one and a half minutes behind schedule), and how we all know what the weather is like and should come to the station early. All valid points and concluded with “for the rest of the week, once doors are closed they will stay closed”.
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LOL. Times change.

In the old day, you just jumped on the stairs after the train started to move. One wintery day in Montreal the platform was slippery, so I slid on my back part of the way, and when I stood up, it was getting a bit iffy to actually jump on, so the (not particularly young) conductor stuck out his arm, to make it easier for me to jump.

CP were still running that line back then (but by then under contract to MUCTC/STCUM). Definitely old school. But so many H&S fails - I'd be spending a morning writing them all up if that had been a work-trip under today's standards.

And now we can't walk on escalators, or let kids talk on GO Trains in rush hour ... :)
 
Streety McCarface said:
https://www.therecord.com/news-story/8074437-go-train-still-a-no-go-for-cambridge/

In other news, still no movement on Cambridge GO Trains, or even a pilot.
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I'm sure they're fully stalled by CP, but what if they went outside the box? Cambridge could investigate re-laying track on the old right of way east of Water St. that heads south through Branchton and Harrisburg to intercept the double-track CN mainline. If you could lay that single track, and then triple-track the CN portion to the Lakeshore line, you could probably run an all day hourly service to Cambridge. I have no idea what the hurdles to this plan may be (pure Google maps wishful thinking on my part), but if Cambridge payed for a study and did find it to be feasible, what would Metrolinx do with the information? I seem to recall the Missing Link came out of a municipally funded study...
 
KevinT said:
I'm sure they're fully stalled by CP, but what if they went outside the box? Cambridge could investigate re-laying track on the old right of way east of Water St. that heads south through Branchton and Harrisburg to intercept the double-track CN mainline. If you could lay that single track, and then triple-track the CN portion to the Lakeshore line, you could probably run an all day hourly service to Cambridge. I have no idea what the hurdles to this plan may be (pure Google maps wishful thinking on my part), but if Cambridge payed for a study and did find it to be feasible, what would Metrolinx do with the information? I seem to recall the Missing Link came out of a municipally funded study...
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I think using the Hespeler Sub north-east to Guelph would be a much better proposition, and put a station in Cambridge closer to downtown and the track is already there, just needs refurbishment.

You could simply extend one or two of the existing Georgetown terminating trains into Cambridge instead of going to Kitchener.
 
robmausser said:
I think using the Hespeler Sub north-east to Guelph would be a much better proposition, and put a station in Cambridge closer to downtown and the track is already there, just needs refurbishment.

You could simply extend one or two of the existing Georgetown terminating trains into Cambridge instead of going to Kitchener.
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A lot of track upgrades would be required. GO trains can currently go 120 km/h (I believe) on sections between Guelph and Kitchener. Using that line would add a half an hour to your commute. It makes no sense going north to Guelph and Brampton, then back south into Union instead of getting directly on the LSW line (Especially considering the fact that LSW has express tracks in many sections).
 
Explanation sent by GO via email (and tweeted out by @thiscrazytrain) on the signal issues and repairs on LSE.

2DjcX4o
 
Streety McCarface said:
A lot of track upgrades would be required. GO trains can currently go 120 km/h (I believe) on sections between Guelph and Kitchener. Using that line would add a half an hour to your commute. It makes no sense going north to Guelph and Brampton, then back south into Union instead of getting directly on the LSW line (Especially considering the fact that LSW has express tracks in many sections).
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In an ideal world, that would be great to see, but I think right now the region is committed to using the Brampton/Pearson routing for Kitchener GO trains and future HSR service.

Massive amounts of money were committed to the Georgetown Corridor project (and its massive rail-rail grade separation achievement) and now it will eventually accomodate several new tracks that will eventually be used for various service increases throughout this corridor. Also, high speed train service that includes a Pearson stop (proposed via Malton GO + extended LINK shuttle) would allow London/Kitchener to gain Pearson convenience, which is a lot of political points and makes the HSR business case a little bit more viable. And since HSR is electrified, 15-min RER will use the same route as HSR. And thus, RER will be on the same routing. Also, Freight Bypass is cheaper way to fully own the passenger corridor to Kitchener, than via Lakeshore West (to west of Burlingon which is freight-owned). There's only a short section through Brampton that is not Metrolinx-owned, and solvable by the 407 Freight Bypass (~$5bn), while owning the Kitchener corridor fully via Lakeshore West, will be likely far more costly to Metrolinx, unfortunately.

Politics, cost, and congruencies (HSR+RER) dictates we're going to get Kitchener service only via the Georgetown Corridor. It doesn't make as much sense from "as-crow-flies" straighter-line department, but economically and politically, we're stuck using this route.

Blame the 1990s privatization of CN for losing passenger-priority access to our rail corridors and being forced to build a freight bypass to free up the corridor. But it's still much easier than trying to solve Kitchener via Lakeshore West. (It's also why GO trains don't reach Hamilton offpeak -- being forced to stop one stop short of Hamilton). That's just one stop short! Imagine solving this problem all the way to Kitchener via Lakeshore West.

Yes, Lakeshore West is more upgraded, but Metrolinx owns more track to Kitchener via the Brampton/Pearson routing rather than west of the Lakeshore West routing. That gives the flexibilty to run all-day service that Metrolinx cannot west of Burlington via Lakeshore Westing. There's a big difference between spending billions to upgrade the Kitchener corridor, versus not having that option at all (west of Burlington on Lakeshore West) since the freight companies won't sell that portion of the track to Metrolinx.
 
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^ if you click on the white text in the video along the top ("GO Barrie Line...") it should take you to the video in YouTube.
 
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