[innsertnamehere]

Budd cars are also essentially older versions of DMUs as well. YDHR has a couple of them without engines sitting as their trainset currently.

 

[ShonTron]

Budd cars are also essentially older versions of DMUs as well. YDHR has a couple of them without engines sitting as their trainset currently.

OBRY has one in their passenger fleet as well. The freight trains on that route are quite slow - perhaps limited to 20 or 30 MPH. When I was living in Brampton and had a day off school, I drove through Caledon and followed the train from Alton to Mayfield Road quite easily, meeting it at several railway crossings on the way down. (There are no customers between Orangeville and Sandalwood Parkway in Brampton, so there's no need not to go at full permissible speed through most of Caledon).

If you get a chance, the Credit Valley Explorer is a very lovely ride - I've done it twice. Unfortunately, you have to go up to Orangeville to get there, and it turns around either in Inglewood or at Mayfield Road, depending on the tour length.

 

[dunkalunk]

A lot of ifs here but bear with me:

If Cambridge mayor Doug Craig successfully convinces Minister Murray to extend the Milton Line to Cambridge and...
If Cambridge outs money towards a GO maintenance facility and...
If CP even allows them to use their mainline and...
(possible) If GO purchasees the seldom-used GEXR/CN rail spur between Guelph and Galt when it comes up for re-lease.

I could see the following possible service scenario:

Park and Ride stations at Highway 24 and Clyde Road, urban stations at Preston and The Delta (intersection), Maintenance facility south of the 401 in abandoned railway lands.

Thoughts?

 

[tapper of spines]

Service update; Barrie service going to 20 min in January with one additional train.

Does this mean the signal upgrades are completed? All the way up to Allandale?

TOS

 

[vegeta_skyline]

Yup, all the signals are in place, all the way up to Painswick where the main track begins(its just south of Barrie South, the rest of the line is "subdivision track" where provisions of rule 105, "other than main track" apply). Although they haven't been activated yet, perhaps there's still some work that wouldn't be visible that still needs to be done i.e. connectivity, software, testing.

 

[diminutive]

It is not clear to me what you are asking.....the KW GO corridor is the one that goes closest to the airport as is (and why the UPX is using this corridor before splitting off...and will be using rolling stock very similar to what you post)........if you are going to run these up Highway 10 to orangeville that is essentially what the OBRY does (just west of 10 in a meandering fashion) and Shontron has already exposed some weaknesses in that idea.

Yea, I guess I was ambiguous.

Shontron pointed out that the ORBY was too curvy to be of any use as a commuter line past the Brampton Airport. My idea would be to run a branch from the Brampton Diamond until somewhere near the Brampton Airport, then build a new spur along Hwy 10 through Caledon to Orangeville. The line would run with DMU light rail units. Unlike using the ORBY, a route along Hwy 10 should be capable of quite high speeds. Assuming something like an Orangeville->Caledon->Sandalwood->Brampton->Dundas West->Union express service, travel times from Orangeville to Union would be reasonably quick.

Costs would be:
~40km of new track, mostly single tracked along Hwy10. If Hwy10 was ever widened, the costs to add a single track of rail wouldn't be too bad.

~3 new stations (Orangeville, Caledon, Sandalwood), which would basically be LRT-like stations, perhaps with park-n-ride lots.

~4-6 new DMU sets to actually run the service.

The whole service:

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

Yup, all the signals are in place, all the way up to Painswick where the main track begins(its just south of Barrie South, the rest of the line is "subdivision track" where provisions of rule 105, "other than main track" apply). Although they haven't been activated yet, perhaps there's still some work that wouldn't be visible that still needs to be done i.e. connectivity, software, testing.

So Barrie will only get new service after 2015 right?

 

[royalrivers]

Anybody know the status of the CTC install along the GEXR (Georgetown Silver to London) line?

 

[vegeta_skyline]

So Barrie will only get new service after 2015 right?

No, the signal system will be activated shortly - within the next month, allowing for increased train frequencies. The line will be completely signalize from mile 3.0(where it connects to the Weston sub) to mile 59.3 mile(Barrie South). The last 3.7 miles to Allendale will remain as is, likely because the city didn't want GO trains rocketing through the community at 60+ mph, where as the current speed (30mph) and system of control work just fine as is.

Currently there is only 1 train every 30 mins, but as of January 2014 train frequency will be increased to one train every 20 minutes, during rush hour only of course. With one new additional train originating out of Barrie. There might also be another train that will go as far as King City/Aurora/Newmarket, as 20 min intervals will allow for 7 trains in a 2 period as opposed to the current 5. But only 6 trains can go all the way to Barrie since there currently is only track space for 6 in the yard. It's also possible that there might be an additional trains in the early afternoon that turn around at Maple/King City(where the second track is) as was seen on the Stouffville line once the CTC signal system and passing track was completed on the Uxbridge sub and the trains turn around at Unionville.

 

[vegeta_skyline]

Anybody know the status of the CTC install along the GEXR (Georgetown Silver to London) line?

Haven't been up on that line in a while, likely there's much work to still be done. I haven't heard anything exact but I'm guessing end of 2014 completion.

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

No, the signal system will be activated shortly - within the next month, allowing for increased train frequencies. The line will be completely signalize from mile 3.0(where it connects to the Weston sub) to mile 59.3 mile(Barrie South). The last 3.7 miles to Allendale will remain as is, likely because the city didn't want GO trains rocketing through the community at 60+ mph, where as the current speed (30mph) and system of control work just fine as is.

Currently there is only 1 train every 30 mins, but as of January 2014 train frequency will be increased to one train every 20 minutes, during rush hour only of course. With one new additional train originating out of Barrie. There might also be another train that will go as far as King City/Aurora/Newmarket, as 20 min intervals will allow for 7 trains in a 2 period as opposed to the current 5. But only 6 trains can go all the way to Barrie since there currently is only track space for 6 in the yard. It's also possible that there might be an additional trains in the early afternoon that turn around at Maple/King City(where the second track is) as was seen on the Stouffville line once the CTC signal system and passing track was completed on the Uxbridge sub and the trains turn around at Mount Joy.

Thanks vegeta. I hope you guys get enough engineers to start all day service on the other lines. But I like this plan, especially since the bulk of the ridership comes from south of Bradford.

 

[Allandale25]

as of January 2014 train frequency will be increased to one train every 20 minutes, during rush hour only of course.

Thanks for the update. Now that CTC and second tracks are in, besides the limitations at Barrie with only six trains fitting, have they also run into a limit at the Davenport diamond for 'slots' from CP? It'll be great to get this grade separated one day. A friend moved in and the first thing I noticed when helping him unpack was the banging sound from the diamond 700 m away.

 

[innsertnamehere]

Stouffville short turn trains end at Unionville, not Mount Joy. It would be much, much better if they ended at Mount joy, but alas.

 

[vegeta_skyline]

Oops, yes that's what I meant. Sorry if I got anyone excited, hah =p

 

[drum118]

Has anyone notice trains either under shoot or over shooting the accessibility platform these days?

Not bad under shooting the platform since the train can crawl up to it if it does. Over shooting it can cause the crews to change ends to bring the train back to the platform or using the other door.

Been on a few train lately where the train had to backup and that about a lost of 10 minutes doing so.

Wed, my Burlington train with F59's was undershooting station since it more of a judgement call compare to the cab car. When I got to Burlington, the eastbound train was still there considering it should had gone by the time my train arrive. Riders standing on the platform with door close on the train. At first I thought it was one of the trains that are breaking down these day for various reason and was going out of service until I saw some riders on the train. Saw the train crew looking at the car a few cars behind the MP40. It turn out that the train over shot the platform by a car length. They finally open the doors to allow riders on since there was no need for accessibility requirement. The train was down almost 10 minutes departing.

To make matter worse, this station has the 2 test signs where the train is to stop in between them to line up with the platform. Either it was a trainee crew being train, or the crew came in to hot to stop in time. I know I can hit trainee crews on my trip to Burlington when you see more than 3 crew members. I end up going into Toronto for a meeting after my Burlington meeting and it was a hit and miss for stops considering it was peak service time.