03-11-2021, 11:52 AM
(03-11-2021, 10:56 AM)danbrotherston Wrote: AFAIK Metrolinx no longer plans to twin the entire route as part of 2WAD GO (I personally don't believe Metrolinx currently has realistic plans for 2WAD GO to Kitchener but anyway), but the trackage in these locations is already twinned.
It doesn’t need to be twinned all the way anyhow. In particular, the last 1/2 of headway of any route can generally be single-tracked without imposing significant operational difficulties. For an hourly service, this means the last 30 minutes of the route. The track distance from King St. in Kitchener to Gordon St. in Guelph, where the track is doubled around the station, is less than 23km.
So as long as the trains are scheduled so that opposing trains meet in Guelph, no double-tracking is required between here and Guelph; and for that matter the first 30 minutes the other side of Guelph could be single-tracked as well, which gets all the way to Georgetown.
I’m ignoring freight here; those would have to be slotted in as well, meaning that hourly passenger service may require double-tracking. But every 2 hours passenger service definitely does not and depending on how flexible the timing of freight activity is it might be possible to move it to lower frequency periods of time.