04-04-2021, 07:12 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-04-2021, 07:13 PM by jwilliamson.)
(04-04-2021, 05:18 PM)Bjays93 Wrote:(04-04-2021, 03:54 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: I don’t understand what you’re getting at here. If GO took 60 minutes to get from Kitchener to Union, it wouldn’t be an efficient way of commuting to Toronto? And that’s not some pie-in-the-sky number; as far as I can tell if it were electrified and all the track were improved, plus additional tracks built and schedules organized to avoid waiting for other trains, that could be easily achieved since it’s only about 101km along the track from Kitchener to Union.What i was getting at is there is no way GO can get to Toronto in 60 minutes with the current number of stops, even if it was sped up. If it could get to Toronto in 60 minutes it would absolutely be a worthwhile substitute, but I'll believe it when I see it.
Now obviously improving the existing GO routes don’t cover everybody; but they don’t have to cover everybody to be a better option than adding a lane to the 401, they just have to be a more efficient way to move one lane’s worth of people.
Having an express route with limited stops would be ideal, and there's the psychological component, no matter how illogical, that if you are moving the whole time, even at a slower pace, you feel like the route is faster/more efficient than if you are moving super fast but constantly stopping.
Let's say any rolling stock can run at 160 km/h the whole way if there are no stops. That gives us 38 minutes from Kitchener to Union Station. If it takes 45 seconds to decelerate and then accelerate back to speed and a 1 minute dwell at each station, we could keep every existing station and make the run in 56 minutes.