^ Very well presented, I'm still studying possibilities further than what you've articulated, as one shortcoming I can see....albeit it's a trade-off already done on the later down trips from Mt Pleasant, is the mid-day last two runs down 'GO express from Malton to Union' (I presume that's being kept in the impending timetables?) Ostensibly this is for padding, albeit I've yet to be on one of those express runs (blowing past my stop at Bloor, and my having to backtrack) where they didn't arrive at Union with surplus time to spare.
...the trip would take about 30 minutes from Bramalea to Union, which is a whopping 35 minutes faster than the current 17:15 bus trip which also has the same stopping pattern!
This raises a number of possibilities, the obvious I hinted at, inserting Malton and/or Weston and/or Bloor into the run again. If pathing and time permit, there's an obvious benefit to those who wish to alight at those stations, plus it raises the viability of:
Combining the UPX as an 'evening service connector' with a single shuttle train, with as little as a single F59 with two or three coaches (the min required to satisfy accessibility, and a driving coach) to shuttle between Bramalea and Weston, to allow Bramalea to be connected with Union with all stops (perhaps minus Malton) with passengers changing at Weston. Even with the ostensible 7.5 min headway lag and intermediate stops to Union (or reverse) most of that "whopping 35 mins" would still remain. Plus rail delays, at least on Metrolinx owned tracks, are a fraction of the times for buses on highways downtown.
This 'shuttle' would not only do great service for Bramalea, and the bus routes looping there, it would also bolster UPX ridership outside of peak.
There may be some hitches I haven't considered, high v. low platfrom is an obvious one, but there again Weston and Bloor have both! A shuttle using present 'second line' stock biding time on the 'surplus until disposed of siding' could be pressed into service to do this. I'd suggest two or three shuttles, and going all the way down to Union, but that would start to get away from the simplest idea. At present, UPX every fifteen mins isn't ideal, but it works, and has empty seats outside of peak. There's no need to overlap a shuttle any more than effectively extending UPX up to Bramalea. At least at this time. "Every 15 mins to Bramalea" was the promise. It can be met this way.
This would be a *HUGE* coup for the present Overlords of Metrolinx writ Political Masters. They could (and most certainly would) claim "All Day Frequent Service to Bramalea-Union has begun!".
And they could do it with the present infrastructure with perhaps a signal/control/switch tweak. And it would cost dick to do it.
I wonder if Reaper or someone else could figure out if a single shuttle (and an F59 with just two or three coaches could be PDQ accelerating and decelerating) would be suffice to do Bramalea to Weston, including turn-around time? Or if 'sandwiching them' in between the UPX headways isn't even necessary by using the present third track pathing now used for DDs? And if such a service should in fact be more than one shuttle, and regular 15 or 30 min service to Union? Perhaps even further?
The bottom line is that Bramalea "RER" can be done in a bare-bones form now. The excuses for not doing what has been promised for years are running out. And it won't need 'tunnels and another track added' to do it, at least not in an interim form until electrification.
lol, I had a cider with dinner, so pardon my rough formatting. I'll try and tidy it up later. Had to post as Reaper crystallized the beginnings of 'what could be'. And done simply and cheaply.
