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GO Transit
(03-19-2024, 04:47 PM)Bytor Wrote: The Milton line options is only better if you're not going the full length of that line and want to get to Milton or Mississauga. If people are going to Toronto, then this route is better because it's a few minutes quicker with the possibility of a lot quicker as more work on the Kitchener line gets done, and it also gets you to Guelph, where probably a lot more Cambridgites actually work than Toronto or Mississauga (based on common commuting patterns).

I'd be willing to bet that $500M on this spur line gets you a far bigger ROI from Guelph-Cambridge economic benefits than spending billions to extend the Milton line to Galt.

Of course, I think we should have both Guelph and Milton, and the Lakeshore West Hamilton→Brantford extension that takes back the Paris rail trail and loops up to Cambridge.

You have to look at more than just the commute patterns. The reason Toronto is a better destination is because it a) has better local transit and b) is really bad and expensive for driving. Guelph might have more people travelling there, but even the nicest train connection isn't going to help much when the last 5 km of your journey is a 45 minute local bus that you can drive in 3 minutes.

This is why building transit to Toronto specifically (and also a few areas around Toronto) is so effective, even in Canada. I'm all for building more transit, but I also recognize that building valuable (and cost effective) transit is the best way to get more transit. And I'm not saying that there shouldn't be transit between Guelph and Cambridge...frankly, it's ridiculous that we're discussing investing (wildly optimistically) half a billion on a train, when the city hasn't even bothered to run a bus line...

Like, you understand how difficult the ION was to get through politically at a similar cost (the original estimates were around 500 million) and those had decades of bus service predating them with massive ridership demand.
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(03-20-2024, 09:01 AM)SF22 Wrote:
(03-19-2024, 10:20 PM)nms Wrote: If they can pull this off, it could be a good case study for how to build other secondary rail connections to the main, 12-car train, GO train line. How many other communities along the various GO routes have underused or abandoned rail-spurs that could be used as feeders into the network?  What if something similar was used to shuttle people from New Hamburg, Baden, (and heck even Shakespeare) to the Kitchener terminus? And since Milton was mentioned, something could be run between Milton and Georgetown too.

On the other hand, if they want to start smaller, how about a north-south GO bus route that connects Brantford, Cambridge and Guelph? GO could also add a triangular route that did a Cambridge-Hamilton-Brantford loop.

I love drawing lines on maps.

I know it would cost an absolute fortune, but imagine if we could buy up the land to build an entirely NEW RAIL LINE from Cambridge to Hamilton. You could use part of the old Paris Rail Trail to get up into Galt downtown, and maybe tunnel the train for the last kilometre in to hook up underneath of the LRT terminus, much like the Hamilton Centre station tunnels to the northwest. And then loop over and stretch it alongside old highway 8 until you can hook into an existing CN rail line to swing you into Hamilton downtown. It would probably be 45km from end-to-end, most of it new rail except for anything reused in Hamilton.

I hope someone in government dares to dream big, one of these days.
I would be upset if they took away the Cambridge to Paris Trail. Cycling from Kitchener to Paris is one of my favourite trips. With the connecting trails, you can go through Brantford to Port Dover or Hamilton.
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It's an amazing trip! I'd hate to lose it. I remember doing a bit of my PhD work on Georges Bataille/Martin Heidegger and architecture while travelling this...lol. All I recall is having some awful beer and was sleeping in a tent, trying to get to Long Point just to say I did. Could have drove a car but I wanted to stumble upon random structures on foot.

It's a beautiful trail. I don't think they'd ever convert it back to rail, though.
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A lot of the abandoned rail lines in the country were actually not very good rail lines. It’s far from clear that a route laid down over a century ago and abandoned for decades is the right route for a new service, especially through the country where obtaining another right of way isn’t as difficult or expensive as in the city. Many old rail lines had poor grade and curve profiles. Additionally, removing a trail is the opposite of what we should be doing, so I would hope that rail trail closures are off the table. Even if a rail trail is the right route for a new service, I would hope that the trail would be retained alongside the re-instated trackage. If necessary the right-of-way could be slightly widened to allow for this.
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(03-21-2024, 08:59 AM)ijmorlan Wrote: A lot of the abandoned rail lines in the country were actually not very good rail lines. It’s far from clear that a route laid down over a century ago and abandoned for decades is the right route for a new service, especially through the country where obtaining another right of way isn’t as difficult or expensive as in the city. Many old rail lines had poor grade and curve profiles. Additionally, removing a trail is the opposite of what we should be doing, so I would hope that rail trail closures are off the table. Even if a rail trail is the right route for a new service, I would hope that the trail would be retained alongside the re-instated trackage. If necessary the right-of-way could be slightly widened to allow for this.

So many historic trains ran at 50km/h with level crossings. Not great for modern service. I read a book about the NZ historic rail network. It was extensive. Service standards weren't great. People still preferred trains to buses.
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