Urban Sky
Senior Member
Just to let you know, I have replied to the following posts in the "High Speed Rail: London - Kitchener-Waterloo - Pearson Airport - Toronto" thread to move these "GO HSR" discussions there:
I think that 200kph GO RER (region express rail) would be quite successful on a fully electrified Kitchener route -- instead of 2 hours, you'd have 1 hour on an upgraded corridor mostly keeping speed limits (Georgetown Corridor) but upgrading some sprints to 200kph+. You'd have a great long express coast in many sections, with a few selected key-hub stops. […]
Such 200kph speeds would still be defacto high-speed GO trains if HSR was defined as 200kph minimum -- and might be the compromise outcome of the current Ontario-funded high speed rail study, that might result in an Ontario-funded high speed train, which might fall upon Metrolinx, which might be part of GO RER Phase II or III in a future decade. Still much cheaper than the 300kph options. […]
I can't think for a minute, that the cost of putting an entirely new alignment around Guelph, is at all worth the value of the much shorter, relatively straight track through Guelph. [...]
The problem for the track through Guelph is the *Go Slow* order on it. It is one step away from street running, having a 1 metre concrete retaining wall each side of the (former) double track RoW with residential (and up-scale!) streets running directly parallel with houses facing the tracks.
What other option do you suggest? I lived right by those tracks in two different places for a total of two years. You could talk to the GO passengers with sign-language as they crawled past, and the upper deck ones especially as I sat in the loo looking out the window, and they looked in. It is a a *very real* bottle-neck. I guess you could just buy them all up and rip them down, but you still have the litany of grade crossings. Take a look at the map. Brampton is also another bottleneck, albeit I'm unaware of any other 'Go Slow' orders along that corridor like Guelph's.
[...]
"Paul Langan, of the rail advocacy group High Speed Rail Canada, said it will be difficult to solve the problem of having to slow down in Guelph on the high-speed line.
But he said the province should make improvements to the existing lines to make GO trains more reliable and faster on the Toronto route.
"Who would complain, for instance, even if you could get into Toronto in an hour or an hour and a half? You're not going to drive there in an hour unless it's Sunday morning," he said.
"Let's get GO running frequently and reduce time to get into Toronto, that's the key."" [...]
http://www.guelphmercury.com/news-story/5233025-high-speed-rail-line-likely-to-skip-guelph-report/[/QUOTE]
[...] Ironically I was looking at the trackbed just yesterday, walking through there, wondering if they planned to move the present track over, or lay heavier rail with concrete ties. There's no sign though of the re-asphalting at the many grade level crossings taking that into account. And as much as it's rarely brought up in these forums, and perhaps I'm far more aware of this being an electronic tech, but 25kV AC running that close to adjacent residences is going to cause massive EMI problems. It's bad enough (for anyone old enough to remember AM radio in your car) with streetcar overhead 600V DC (albeit very 'dirty', huge number of spikes, hash and chatter) as to the consequences for near-by receivers, so running that stretch electrified is in itself, hugely problematic, not to mention it's not walled or fenced off, so anyone can wander across the tracks, or walk down them as I used to do with the dogs. There's so many level crossings securing it is nigh impossible.
[...] I disagree with aspects of this "report" not the least that it's a pipe dream, but the latest VIA proposal, done in conjunction with GO, is very sane [...]
[...] I'm not discounting past studies. Just saying that VIA HFR proposal was specific to Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal. And I've seen no evidence yet that VIA is interested in this Toronto-Kitchener-London proposal. Indeed, we could end up in a situation where TKL becomes entirely a GO HSR commuter operation. And VIA decides to take southern route through Mississauga and Hamilton onto London and Windsor, with through service to Ottawa and Montreal. [...]
Indeed, we could end up in a situation where TKL becomes entirely a GO HSR commuter operation. And VIA decides to take southern route through Mississauga and Hamilton onto London and Windsor, with through service to Ottawa and Montreal.
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