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GO Transit
(05-06-2018, 09:40 PM)MacBerry Wrote:
(05-04-2018, 09:04 AM)Canard Wrote: Why are they suddenly exploring this route? And not Milton?

Those tracks are in terrible shape, we’ve walked the Mill Run Trail next to them.

It is an election year provincially and locally ... the Minister of Transport is from Cambridge and she will not be re-elected as the Liberals soon to be are an extinct beast. None of these rail events (Milton or Guelph) will happen ...better to make the folks of Cambridge think something is happening... Isn't it Preston that wants to be in the 1960's in transportation. While all these issues are election pandering by Craig et al.

Take the 20 year highway war to get a new highway to and from - Guelph & Kitchener. Still not a done deal except in press releases.

They should have made this "GO-NoGO" announcement on April FOOLS DAY!

This is an initiative started by the region, under the regional transportation master plan.  Your view is extremely cynical, but I know some of the staff who worked on this plan.  They're doing this because they do care about getting transportation to Cambridge, and they believe this is a more realistic option of doing so in the medium term than continuing to push for a Milton connection. Whether politicians are more likely to push for this now because it's an election year doesn't change that.

And the highway to Guelph...is literally under construction at this very moment.
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(05-06-2018, 09:40 PM)MacBerry Wrote: the Minister of Transport is from Cambridge and she will not be re-elected as the Liberals soon to be are an extinct beast.

Stopped reading your post right after that - so inappropriate and unnecessary.
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(05-06-2018, 10:06 PM)Canard Wrote:
(05-06-2018, 09:40 PM)MacBerry Wrote: the Minister of Transport is from Cambridge and she will not be re-elected as the Liberals soon to be are an extinct beast.

Stopped reading your post right after that - so inappropriate and unnecessary.

Your judgement of what I write is inappropriate. Such entitlement by a few members on this forum as their to their need to bully others is the sad part.

If you don't agree with others, Just stop reading and don't be condescending to so many on this forum.
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It is pretty hard to take you seriously though based off of comments like your highway 7 one.

Land is bought. Construction is literally in progress at the trickiest locations. And you can see work sites being cleared and fenced all along the route.

I agree politicians will be politicians. But people will also be people and think that a major infrastructure project isn’t started until the final layer of concrete is being poured before their eyes.
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(05-07-2018, 02:31 AM)SammyOES2 Wrote: It is pretty hard to take you seriously though based off of comments like your highway 7 one.

Land is bought.  Construction is literally in progress at the trickiest locations.  And you can see work sites being cleared and fenced all along the route.

I agree politicians will be politicians.  But people will also be people and think that a major infrastructure project isn’t started until the final layer of concrete is being poured before their eyes.

You are correct that I am being too cynical about the Highway 7 build.  

Until the bridge over the Grand River is built AND construction starts from the Guelph end of the new Highway 7 I will remain cynical about politics and infrastructures.
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(05-06-2018, 10:19 PM)MacBerry Wrote:
(05-06-2018, 10:06 PM)Canard Wrote: Stopped reading your post right after that - so inappropriate and unnecessary.

Your judgement of what I write is inappropriate. Such entitlement by a few members on this forum as their to their need to bully others is the sad part.

If you don't agree with others, Just stop reading and don't be condescending to so many on this forum.

Both of you, please, do tone it down. Let's keep the political discussion in its own forum and personal commentary off these forums altogether.
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In other news, I find it somewhat ridiculous that I can drive to Aldershot and GO to Union in less time than taking the express train direct from Kitchener.

Some speed enhancements will come with the Guelph work happening this year, but the line still needs more help.
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It should be said that the idea of running trains from Cambridge up onto the (now) Kitchener line is not great. In addition to being even longer than the already horrendously long journey, and taking off pressure to do the good idea of extending Milton line, now every train to Cambridge is a train that's not to Kitchener, every train to Kitchener is a train that's not to Cambridge, and we've fed back into the divisive sectarian politics that seem to define this region.
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It would be pretty cool if they used this as the beginning of a north-south GO Transit route that did not terminate at Union Station.  It's not clear from Paul's post on his website when the schedule applied.  However, in the fine print it would appear that part of this route was actually served by bus, possibly even anything north of Guelph or south Hamilton.  

Quote:"Tickets reading via Canadian National Railways between Guelph and points beyond Hamilton also between Hamilton and points beyond Guelph will be honored by Canada Coach Lines between Guelph and Hamilton"
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(05-07-2018, 01:47 PM)Viewfromthe42 Wrote: It should be said that the idea of running trains from Cambridge up onto the (now) Kitchener line is not great. In addition to being even longer than the already horrendously long journey, and taking off pressure to do the good idea of extending Milton line, now every train to Cambridge is a train that's not to Kitchener, every train to Kitchener is a train that's not to Cambridge, and we've fed back into the divisive sectarian politics that seem to define this region.

I can't see any other way to view it than this. I understand (well, to an extent) the challenges of extending service on the Milton line, but it's far and away better than this idea of running up to Guelph and then on the Kitchener line. And the timing really does seem like it's a politically-motivated attempt at making it seem like something might be happening for Cambridge; I don't think you need more than a healthy dose of cynicism to wonder how serious the idea is.

Branching means reduced frequency. The last thing we need as a Region is splitting the Kitchener line in two. If getting residents of Cambridge to downtown Toronto is really best done along the Kitchener line (I don't think it is), we'd be better served by continuing to advocate for fast frequent service to Kitchener, along with some kind of rapid service from Cambridge to Kitchener.
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(05-07-2018, 07:48 PM)MidTowner Wrote:
(05-07-2018, 01:47 PM)Viewfromthe42 Wrote: It should be said that the idea of running trains from Cambridge up onto the (now) Kitchener line is not great. In addition to being even longer than the already horrendously long journey, and taking off pressure to do the good idea of extending Milton line, now every train to Cambridge is a train that's not to Kitchener, every train to Kitchener is a train that's not to Cambridge, and we've fed back into the divisive sectarian politics that seem to define this region.

I can't see any other way to view it than this. I understand (well, to an extent) the challenges of extending service on the Milton line, but it's far and away better than this idea of running up to Guelph and then on the Kitchener line. And the timing really does seem like it's a politically-motivated attempt at making it seem like something might be happening for Cambridge; I don't think you need more than a healthy dose of cynicism to wonder how serious the idea is.

Branching means reduced frequency. The last thing we need as a Region is splitting the Kitchener line in two. If getting residents of Cambridge to downtown Toronto is really best done along the Kitchener line (I don't think it is), we'd be better served by continuing to advocate for fast frequent service to Kitchener, along with some kind of rapid service from Cambridge to Kitchener.

We're already planning rapid transit from Cambridge to Kitchener, but that's actually worse for Cambridge than going to Guelph, which is a more direct route.  Also, Cambridge <-> Guelph is itself a valuable route.

Branching wouldn't be ideal, but there's probably room on the Kitchener line (once enhancements are done) for say 10 minute service with 20 minute service in Kitchener and 20 minute service in Cambridge which I think would be reasonable. But that's to say nothing of the option of simply having Cambridge <-> Guelph be a shuttle.  Even better, if enhancements to the Kitchener line are substantial enough (say for HSR), it could even be competitive with or faster than the CP route.

The bottom line is, Milton seems to be a dead end.  Yes, it would be nice, but short of appropriating the line from CP, it doesn't appear to be politically or technically feasible.  I don't really know why, but nobody seems willing to touch it, Metrolinx has consistently failed to put it on their long term plan.

On the other hand, this appears to be a reasonable plan that could get actual useful transit to Cambridge.

At the end of the day, we can be cynical or blindly hopeful about the motivations of those involved, but realistically, I don't care how we get transit to Cambridge, what's important to me is that it happen, and if this is a more viable option (which I argue it is) then we should pursue it.  I think the dream of the optimal solution that it appears we cannot have could get in the way of realistic solutions we can have.

Not to say I wouldn't support continuing to press on Milton (frankly, *both* wouldn't be unjustified I think, given that travel to destinations other than Toronto is also useful), and the best argument against this is that it could reduce the business case for the Milton line, but it all depends on if you think Milton could actually happen in a reasonable timeframe, which seems to not be the case.
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(05-07-2018, 08:33 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: Branching wouldn't be ideal, but there's probably room on the Kitchener line (once enhancements are done) for say 10 minute service with 20 minute service in Kitchener and 20 minute service in Cambridge which I think would be reasonable. But that's to say nothing of the option of simply having Cambridge <-> Guelph be a shuttle.  

A shuttle would probably make sense until such time that the Cambridge ridership numbers are big enough.

Does anyone have GO bus ridership stats from Kitchener and Cambridge?
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Yes, that was my thought - a shuttle doesn’t affect the current Kitchener schedule at all, so there’s no harm to it.
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On a mid afternoon wb route 30, I've seen anywhere from 3 to 30'passengers over the post few months.
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So this was surreal.  As I'm walking up to the office this morning there's a Wynn bus in the parking lot and Steven Del Duca, MPP, Minister of Economic Development and Growth, former Minister of Transportation standing right by the office door. So I shook his hand, thanked him for his work on the transit file and told him how important I think 'the missing link' freight bypass is to the region. What an odd encounter...
...K
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