GO Transit

[kps]

It would be incredible if they could electrify everything too, but even diesel would be fine. I could imagine a small trains like this able to serve nearby towns...Stratford, Woodstock, Elmira or whatever;

WCRX just got some lovely new RDCs. One of them even runs.

[danbrotherston]

It would be incredible if they could electrify everything too, but even diesel would be fine. I could imagine a small trains like this able to serve nearby towns...Stratford, Woodstock, Elmira or whatever;

WCRX just got some lovely new RDCs. One of them even runs.

WCRX?

When I search it all I get is a college radio station in Chicago and Warner Chilcott stock symbol.

Edit: Oh, I see from the video, Waterloo Central Railway then.

[KevinT]

In high school back in the 80s I always imagined that an RDC service could run from Fairway to Waterloo Town Square using what's now the Iron Horse Trail as a short circuit of the slow #7 bus. The overlap of the two rail lines between Victoria Park and Mill street would be exploited to provide a passing section/station connection to the 1 Queen bus. Of course that was long before I understood CN and CP's great hatred of all things passenger rail on their track.

I love cycling on the Iron Horse Trail, but I still close my eyes and dream of our own little S-Bahn sometimes.

[ac3r]

Of course that was long before I understood CN and CP's great hatred of all things passenger rail on their track.

Haha...it's true, yet they were the original passenger operators themselves. Not sure why they have such animosity to passenger services using their track these days, though. On the contrary, for example, Union Pacific happily allows Amtrak to run on their track as do most other Class I rail operators in the USA.

[danbrotherston]

Of course that was long before I understood CN and CP's great hatred of all things passenger rail on their track.

Haha...it's true, yet they were the original passenger operators themselves. Not sure why they have such animosity to passenger services using their track these days, though. On the contrary, for example, Union Pacific happily allows Amtrak to run on their track as do most other Class I rail operators in the USA.

Do they have an animosity? Beyond the simply preference to running their freight service as a top priority?

[KevinT]

Passenger trains run at higher speeds than freight but make more stops, making them an absolute pain in the _._ to schedule freight around, especially when they need to merge onto and off a portion of a freight line as between Georgetown and the 407. The lions share of the profits for CN and CP will always come from freight, so of course it will get the priority. We really need dedicated passenger tracks in this country, but the moment a new line is suggested the public gets up in arms about government waste in way that they just don't when new or wider roads are proposed. It's a chicken and egg thing, people see rail as a waste of money because the service they've seen in their lifetime has sucked, but until more money is properly invested it will continue to suck. The missing link was visionary, the latest "See? We don't need no stinking missing link" announcements from Metrolinx are merely half assed stop gaps. They mostly address current needs with no scale for future ones. I hope at least that VIA gets their HFR plan funded.

[nms]

Given that the Fergus subdivision (ie the from Guelph to Cambridge) has a heavy level of freight traffic, I doubt that any kind of LRT vehicles would be able to run the route. The report did mention a potential to double track the line if traffic warranted it. Other than the O-Train vehicles, which had a special arrangement to run on tracks that were also occupied by freight traffic, is there any equipment that would easily be able to get approval in Canada (or North America)? A couple car trainset would do nicely. I too would like to see smaller trains make it to the other outlying areas of the province. (A Collingwood Ski Train would definitely be welcome I'm sure!)

[tomh009]

The original O-Train sets (Bombardier Talent) haven't been scrapped ... quite yet. An opportunity for someone, to buy cheap trains -- and then enjoy the negotiations for freight line access!

[neonjoe]

Some ramblings by a bitter has-been politician.
https://outline.com/gJcRCJ
Based on what he is complaining about I didn’t know which thread to add this to. Also don’t know why Greyhound is something our region should be embarrassed about.

[danbrotherston]

Some ramblings by a bitter has-been politician.
https://outline.com/gJcRCJ
Based on what he is complaining about I didn’t know which thread to add this to. Also don’t know why Greyhound is something our region should be embarrassed about.

He's also probably just wrong. I mean, it depends on how you count a "city" and "population" but Thunder Bay has ~100,000 inhabitants and no passenger rail. There are probably other examples too.

And he complains that the region did not support Milton to Cambridge GO Transit, but I definitely recall that being a project that was advocated for. It's Metrolinx which refused.

[Bytor]

Some ramblings by a bitter has-been politician.
https://outline.com/gJcRCJ
Based on what he is complaining about I didn’t know which thread to add this to. Also don’t know why Greyhound is something our region should be embarrassed about.

Craig's position on train service to Cambridge is so laughable considering how he worked to deliberately underfund Cambridge Transit in the 1990s, and then was one of the reasons why GRT originally had that crappy split-funding model.

Cambridge's lower transit uptake compared to K-W today falls on his shoulders.

[KevinL]

I think he oversells how willing CP was to open their tracks. Every other source I've heard from indicates they were the largest obstacle.

[danbrotherston]

I think he oversells how willing CP was to open their tracks. Every other source I've heard from indicates they were the largest obstacle.

That's what I hear. Frankly we should regulate them into submission.

[ac3r]

I think he oversells how willing CP was to open their tracks. Every other source I've heard from indicates they were the largest obstacle.

That's what I hear. Frankly we should regulate them into submission.

It would be great if we could, but would likely be very hard to accomplish. Nationalization of the railways in the United Kingdom was an absolute mess for example and they still debate whether or not their rail system was better as a national or private service.

[ijmorlan]

That's what I hear. Frankly we should regulate them into submission.

It would be great if we could, but would likely be very hard to accomplish. Nationalization of the railways in the United Kingdom was an absolute mess for example and they still debate whether or not their rail system was better as a national or private service.

Also don’t forget that it’s not all bloody-mindedness: they want their freight traffic to move smoothly, and so do the rest of us; making railway freight work more poorly so that shippers end up shifting even more to trucks would not be an improvement.

That being said, my impression is that right now they basically just say “no” rather than actually applying their creativity to figuring out how to accommodate passenger traffic better.