Expansion of Lakeshore West GO Service *CONSTRUCTION*

[Sean]

Issue Description

Current GO Train service to Hamilton is very limited. This is mainly due to scheduling difficulties involved in sharing the tracks with freight and Via service. Many people may not realize just how busy the rails are between Hamilton and Burlington. The Bayview Junction (below the high level bridge on York Blvd) sees as many as 45 train passings per day; it is the intersection of three major lines (Northeast toward Toronto, Southwest toward Brantford and Southeast toward Niagara).

In order to alleviate congestion and improve GO Service, GO Transit is adding a rail line between burlington and the Bayview junction. As outlined on the GO TRIP website:
By adding a new, third track on the main rail line, we can increase rush-hour service to Hamilton GO Centre, and, with fewer conflicts with freight train traffic, GO's on-time performance will improve. Today, we have limited opportunities for track time on this busy freight line.

Additional track capacity will also allow the all-day weekday service that terminates at Burlington GO Station to be extended to Aldershot GO Station. A short piece of track will be added at Aldershot so that GO Trains can pull in off the main line before heading back the other way.

Timeline

Construction started: 2005
Twinning of Plains Road East bridge and Hidden Valley bridge completed: 2006
Completion date: Estimated late 2007

Updates

June 2006
Track laying started

Spring 2006
Twinning of bridges at Plains Rd. East and Hidden Valley Rd. completed

[Jon Dalton]

I've been watching the progress over the last year and at this point I can count 3 tracks all the way to the Bayview Junction. I don't know what there is left but this project is due for completion in 2007.

Maybe it's finished already and they just haven't told us? I noticed when I first started taking this train in May 2006 there were frequent delays just past Aldershot, in fact I'd say the westbound trains were delayed more often than not, sometimes more than once on the same trip. Things cleared up around last winter and it hasn't got worse again.

There's also delays coming into Hamilton Go Station because of that nasty length of single track in the tunnel under Hunter St. but they don't last long.

[Sean]

I really hope they can double the tracks though that tunnel. it should be possible. Increasing GO train traffic to Hamilton is essential!

[Jon Dalton]

It looks like there is enough space but construction would interfere with the trains currently running. Maybe they could reroute them temporarily to Liuna Station? Lots of freight trains run through there and rerouting those would be a challenge. I don't think Go is even considering it because for one thing they don't own the tracks and they could also switch to Liuna Station and immediately increase the track capacity. I'm in favour of keeping the TH&B station because it is an important building and it's in a much more appropriate area. The lack of infrastructure devoted to passenger rail is a real problem in Canada, and I think in the future shifting priorities will force them to fix these issues.

[THE sean]

They would need to stop the trains at aldershot during the twinning, and run express buses as a temporary measure. It would suck for a while but would be well worth it in the long run. The need to double the tracks there can't have come as a shock to them. I would not be surprised if they already have a plan for expansion when the need arises. They sunk a lot into the th and b station, I do not think they would be that short sighted. Turning LIUNA back to a real train station is probably going to be much more difficult and painful than temporarily shutting that other line down for twinning.

[Jon Dalton]

The new track is now complete to just before Burlington station. The train used it this morning from the switch just after Bayview up to Aldershot, where it had to wait for a frieght train before switching back to the old track because the new platform there isn't finished. Once the platform work is done at Aldershot and Burlington, the Go train should be able to run without interruptions on the new line.