sixrings
Senior Member
If there’s plenty of space to add more tracks on the Milton line why hasn’t it been done already.
|
|
|
- Thread starter innsertnamehere
- Start date
nfitz
Superstar
Really?
north-of-anything
Active Member
I'd love to see GO electrified ASAP. But right now it just isn't possible. If we put up all the catenary this summer, we would still need a power generation or supply, and the tracks themselves have loads of bottlenecks and pinch points.
As long as GO doesn't have tens of billions of dollars coming in for infrastructure upgrades, electrification sadly has to be put off into the medium term.
As long as GO doesn't have tens of billions of dollars coming in for infrastructure upgrades, electrification sadly has to be put off into the medium term.
generalcanada
Senior Member
I guess my only question is how true these figures from last fall's board meeting were. They have used these numbers for like 5 years now.
Were they expecting money that never came?
Were they expecting money that never came?
Allandale25
Senior Member
What do you mean by "expecting money that never came"? As in, Metrolinx was expecting funding from the government and it never came? Or are you referring to the footnote for On Corridor (aka the electrification piece) that says
(emphsis added)
Will be interesting to see later this week when the June board package is posted and if this chart is posted again and/or updated.
Bojaxs
Senior Member
Come on man! How many times have we already discussed this on these forums?
CPKC doesn't just own the tracks, but also the immediately adjacenting land beside the tracks.
For GO to lay down tracks along the Milton line requires extensive negotiating with CPKC.
nfitz
Superstar
I'm not sure your point.
If you think that part is expensive, then the construction costs will floor you! Or heck, having to negotiate with hundreds (thousands?) of different owners for a Greenfield alignment!
Bojaxs
Senior Member
I don't doubt that. I'm sure construction costs WILL be high.
But CPKC will charge GO a lot to build tracks on their land. It's an extra cost on top of the already high construction costs.
IIRC, I head somewhere on this forum that when Metrolinx was working on the Kitchener line for the UP Express, CPKC charged GO an arm & a leg for every foot of track they laid between Bloor and Weston GO.
crs1026
Superstar
With hopefully some explanation of what work is included in "Early Works" (which at this point is almost completely spent, meaning we would expect the results to be visible) and what work is supposedly funded in "On Corridor" (which is largely unspent) and "GO Extensions" (ditto)
The other question is whether this money is actually considered released, and what the cash flow for the next five years will be. It's unlikely that there is a single account with all this funding sitting in it, so the actual authority to spend is likely limited to whatever is doled out periodically by QP.
- Paul
nfitz
Superstar
Metrolinx is involved. Construction costs WILL be high.
If you found a Greenfield alignment, managed to move the entire CP midtown corridor somewhere, then the amount of track that CP will be charging Metrolinx to lay will be even more than building a 3rd/4th track on the Milton line.
Though substantially more, as CP would have all sorts of other things to charge Metrolinx for. Like grading, level crossings. Grade separations. etc., etc., etc.
I hear even putting a pedestrian pathway along railway tracks can cost $75 million per kilometre!
ssiguy2
Senior Member
Funny how ML says they don't have the money but they somehow found the money to put up industrial sized parking garages all over the damn place.
ML/GO also has a store of money if it got it's act together and decided to use it............the parking lots around their stations. The MANY stations that have parking garages do not need the parking lots as well. They should sell that land and let a developers build housing on it with a certain percentage going towards affordable housing. GO would get the money and create even more riders. The cities would also love it as the more housing built, the more property tax revenue they get. Added to this, ML/GO could also start charging parking fees for their garages. Even at $3/day with just 25,000 parking spots taken up, that would result in $75k a day for electrification and/or reducing fares etc. The only people who should be able to park for free is the disabled.
ML/GO also has a store of money if it got it's act together and decided to use it............the parking lots around their stations. The MANY stations that have parking garages do not need the parking lots as well. They should sell that land and let a developers build housing on it with a certain percentage going towards affordable housing. GO would get the money and create even more riders. The cities would also love it as the more housing built, the more property tax revenue they get. Added to this, ML/GO could also start charging parking fees for their garages. Even at $3/day with just 25,000 parking spots taken up, that would result in $75k a day for electrification and/or reducing fares etc. The only people who should be able to park for free is the disabled.
Dan416
Senior Member
I think the idea of charging GO users for parking is absurd in GO's current state. I don't even park at the GO station regularly anymore, but I still think it's a bad idea. Maybe once GO reaches true S-bahn/RER status we can think about that. But GO is in no position to do that. People would rather drive than pay for parking. You need to understand your market, and GO's market is very much based on free parking. Let's worry about actually improving GO service (the carrot) before worrying about the stick.
EllaW
New Member
Shouldn’t it depend on how much parking is overwhelmed at the individual station? For example, people in my neighbourhood always complain about how early the parking fills up at the Scarborough GO station and find it really surprising when I mention I bike or take the bus to it. It seems like it would make sense to at least charge just enough to incentivize some people who live at the right locations to hop on the bus or bike there instead and leave some later parking spaces open to people who truly have to take a car to get there.
Bojaxs
Senior Member
Until municipalities fix their buses and provide more frequencies, and better connections with GO stations, it's not fair to charge riders for parking.
sixrings
Senior Member
I’m confused by your question. Maybe I’m missing something. The problem with the Milton line is that is a shared freight line. If tracks could be added then wouldn’t all day service be possible. If there’s so much space wouldnt this be cheap to do. If it was cheap to do wouldn’t it have been done already.