Any mention of fixes to address the speed trains need to travel through Guelph?
(06-14-2016, 11:36 AM)notmyfriends Wrote: [ -> ]Any mention of fixes to address the speed trains need to travel through Guelph?
Nothing.
Those buses are the best news here, particularly in the short term. Can't wait to take advantage of them for Toronto day trips.
(06-14-2016, 11:46 AM)KevinL Wrote: [ -> ]Those buses are the best news here, particularly in the short term.
Yes. A separate freight corridor will be great, but all we have at this point is an agreement in principle, this will surely take years to become reality. 2020 at the earliest, maybe?
(06-14-2016, 11:40 AM)Markster Wrote: [ -> ] (06-14-2016, 11:36 AM)notmyfriends Wrote: [ -> ]Any mention of fixes to address the speed trains need to travel through Guelph?
Nothing.
Indirectly, announcing an agreement in principle to open discussions to consider building the freight bypass implies a desire to appear to work toward making GO west of Bramalea not suck so much. So the government is clearly very close to making a firm commitment to think about opening discussions on commissioning a study to examine the possibility of enhancing the Guelph segment.
So there are actually two parts to the agreement in principle, the second one being the separate freight corridor. From the government press release:
Quote:Through its agency Metrolinx, the regional transportation authority for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, the province has secured an agreement-in-principle with CN that will allow GO Regional Express Rail to be built along the Kitchener GO corridor.
The agreement-in-principle also begins the planning and technical analysis to build a new freight corridor that will allow CN to shift most of its freight traffic from the section of the Kitchener corridor the company owns -- roughly between Georgetown and Bramalea -- to the new corridor. That will free up capacity for more GO service through Brampton to Kitchener.
But what exactly is the meaning of the first one? Some improvement for the existing freight+GO corridor? I thought the existing GO service to Kitchener was already classified as "Go Regional Express Rail."
It's not even just Guelph where the train speeds are bad. I got stopped by a GO train when I was going north on 32 just west of Guelph. And I still managed to beat it to Kitchener. I think I had generally favorable lights but I was behind a guy that would fluctuate between 75-90 km/h on Highway 7. If the train can't beat a car along this stretch between Kitchener and Guelph, I'm not sure we have much hope of a really successful train service.
(06-14-2016, 12:17 PM)tomh009 Wrote: [ -> ] I thought the existing GO service to Kitchener was already classified as "Go Regional Express Rail."
"GO Regional Express Rail" does not yet exist; it is the high-frequency, mostly-electrical service that is planned to be rolled out over the next decade.
This agreement indicates that the network will reach all the way to Kitchener - and I understand via some tweets from this morning that this means electrification to Kitchener.
I'm disappointed that the timeline for 2-way all-day GO is still pegged at 2024.
Considering at the local federal debates last year all parties pretty much agreed it was important I think the provincial Liberals need to accomplish more on this if they want to earn any points for the 2018 election.
I'll be the first to make a crazy only partly tongue-in-cheek proposal: this should not be a CN bypass of Guelph. It should be a GO bypass of Guelph. Guelph's geometry already poses the greatest slowdown of any area of the line. With Mayor Cam Guthrie working to get rid of much weekend bus service, and having (already?) reduced even peak bus service to no more frequently than every 30 minutes, Guelph is no longer suitable as a destination for GO train users. If this is the attitude that they take, push for GO to take the detour around them to Kitchener, where GRT iXpress/ION are more than capable of quickly disseminating people from the station. Plus, if you dodge past Guelph, you probably don't need any speed upgrades to take the trip from 2h down to 1:40 or 1:30.
I don't think decisions like this should have anything to do with current administrations (we're talking about really long-term things that shouldn't be too influenced by who's in office for a given 4 year term). That being said, I think options like skipping Guelph should at least be examined. Lots of good and bad tradeoffs there but seems at least worth looking at.
(06-14-2016, 12:43 PM)Viewfromthe42 Wrote: [ -> ]I'll be the first to make a crazy only partly tongue-in-cheek proposal: this should not be a CN bypass of Guelph. It should be a GO bypass of Guelph.
Well... today's announcement was neither!
Okay, I'll go away now and let you continue talking about the Guelph part of the line.
(06-14-2016, 11:30 AM)plam Wrote: [ -> ]Buses are always less sexy than trains but it's always been surprising to me that they're not much slower for getting from X to Y, especially once you get out of the GTA. I've taken the connecting bus from Georgetown, I think, to Kitchener, and it was fast enough.
Weekend service would be great.
Outside of rush hour (which I guess is moot since there is no rail service outside of rush hour), the bus will be faster than rail, and maybe by a fair bit. I think this will be a great service.
Does anyone care to predict where the CN by-pass might go? Are there defunct right-of-ways or disused hydro corridors that the province or CN already owns that would be an easy first choice? I can imagine that this won't be a complete elimination of freight since there are still freight customers along the Kitchener line.
Likely alongside 407. Hydro One owns a corridor alongside (active, but that doesn't preclude a rail line there), so it's not necessarily necessary to buy land back from the 407.