[generalcanada]

sigh more depressing news.

 

[cplchanb]

Another ML l, govt funded fail lol

 

[dowlingm]

Metrolinx cunning plan - get around their Davenport Diamond electric promise by running on battery through that section of track.

 

[crs1026]

The article is welcome news.... good to see evidence that ML is grappling with its fleet strategy

Personally I'm glad to read what the pro's are thinking and what they see as the constraints and opportunities.... far more insightful and informed than posts from foamers dreaming about specific preferred brands or models.

The mixed-mode locomotive is a really interesting concept. Can't wait to see it play out. The point being....stringing wires thru the built form of Toronto's rail corridors is really, really expensive and the obstacles are real, and literally cemented in place. Creative workarounds will get some form of electrification in place sooner and at much lower cost. That's a plus, not an absurdity (so long as the solutions are simpler and effective, of course)

The vindication of the F59 and the bilevels as extremely long life designs is something we in Ontario should be proud of..... designed and built here, and adopted by so many others.

- Paul

 

[innsertnamehere]

This remains the key quote to me..

Nevertheless, Union Station and the Rail Corridor running for 6∙5 km either side of it remain critical constraints, so ‘we’re modelling how new fleet and scheduling strategies can improve flow and reduce dwell times’. The extent to which Union is wired is emerging as a critical question in the GO Expansion programme, given the building’s heritage status and limited access options. One proposal being considered is only wiring the platforms at the south end of the complex used by Lakeshore Line trains, but this in turn raises the prospect of discontinuous electrification being rolled out across the GO network to augment or enhance the resilience of battery traction.

Like how is Metrolinx still dancing around that damn train shed? rip the thing out already.

 

[T3G]

If the shed has heritage status, I presume they cannot be flippant about it and just rip it out without any kind of due process. Which is a very good thing - the fact that the particular shed is ugly and of not much value changes nothing about it. If we let corporations rip out any heritage building that gets in their way, our already trivially small share of heritage buildings in this city will be gone in the blink of an eye.

Due process is a good thing to have in our society.

 

[crs1026]

If the shed has heritage status, I presume they cannot be flippant about it and just rip it out without any kind of due process. Which is a very good thing - the fact that the particular shed is ugly and of not much value changes nothing about it. If we let corporations rip out any heritage building that gets in their way, our already trivially small share of heritage buildings in this city will be gone in the blink of an eye.

Due process is a good thing to have in our society.

And if they do eventually decide to seek permission to demolish, they will need to show that they have considered all the alternatives and their detailed analysis shows that demolition is the best or only viable option. It's one thing to offer an opinion, it's another to deal in data and fact.

- Paul

 

[cplchanb]

This remains the key quote to me..



Like how is Metrolinx still dancing around that damn train shed? rip the thing out already.

When they built that glass box they should've done it for the entire shed instead of just the middle. Now it looks like the project went broke partway through and we just stopped after the central portion....

 

[cplchanb]

If the shed has heritage status, I presume they cannot be flippant about it and just rip it out without any kind of due process. Which is a very good thing - the fact that the particular shed is ugly and of not much value changes nothing about it. If we let corporations rip out any heritage building that gets in their way, our already trivially small share of heritage buildings in this city will be gone in the blink of an eye.

Due process is a good thing to have in our society.

Double edged sword.... some things aren't meant to be saved...I agree with the station building but the shed itself is a rusting, rotting piece of junk. I've worked with an overzealous toronto heritage dept that forced us to save a rotten wooden door that was on its way out. It was only after much trouble did they finally acknowledge that it wasn't worth saving and more practical to get a new replica. The heritage dept for most of the time behaves like junk hoarders in keeping everything just because its old.

 

[cplchanb]

The article is welcome news.... good to see evidence that ML is grappling with its fleet strategy

Personally I'm glad to read what the pro's are thinking and what they see as the constraints and opportunities.... far more insightful and informed than posts from foamers dreaming about specific preferred brands or models.

The mixed-mode locomotive is a really interesting concept. Can't wait to see it play out. The point being....stringing wires thru the built form of Toronto's rail corridors is really, really expensive and the obstacles are real, and literally cemented in place. Creative workarounds will get some form of electrification in place sooner and at much lower cost. That's a plus, not an absurdity (so long as the solutions are simpler and effective, of course)

The vindication of the F59 and the bilevels as extremely long life designs is something we in Ontario should be proud of..... designed and built here, and adopted by so many others.

- Paul

While theyre at it the might as well investigate the possibility of making power cars out of the bi levels like their original concept so they can make cheap D/E/BEMUs with their vast bilevel stock

 

[dowlingm]

The thing about the mixed mode idea is that it "improves" the newest locomotives in the fleet, unless MLX have some notion of rebuilding the MP40-T2 cohort with AC motors, QSK60s removed from the T4s, and whatever else bits and pieces. But then to balance that, more F59 tier "0+"s running around

 

[innsertnamehere]

If the shed has heritage status, I presume they cannot be flippant about it and just rip it out without any kind of due process. Which is a very good thing - the fact that the particular shed is ugly and of not much value changes nothing about it. If we let corporations rip out any heritage building that gets in their way, our already trivially small share of heritage buildings in this city will be gone in the blink of an eye.

Due process is a good thing to have in our society.

It's the province - they can do whatever they want and in fact regularly do this on other files, including metrolinx projects. Heritage legislation, like the planning act and building code, can be willingly ignored by the province if they so wished.

Nobody will shed a tear about the shed other than perhaps a few of the most ardent heritage and railroad fanatics in the province.

 

[T3G]

Double edged sword.... some things aren't meant to be saved...I agree with the station building but the shed itself is a rusting, rotting piece of junk. I've worked with an overzealous toronto heritage dept that forced us to save a rotten wooden door that was on its way out. It was only after much trouble did they finally acknowledge that it wasn't worth saving and more practical to get a new replica. The heritage dept for most of the time behaves like junk hoarders in keeping everything just because its old.

I suspect that the reason why the heritage department is so overzealous is as an overcorrection to decades of the exact opposite being true. It makes one weep to look at photos of downtown from the early 1900s and to see how many fine buildings got replaced with unsightly post-war brutalism - or even, more recently, were torn down to be replaced with bland, cookie cutter condo projects. If it means less of that will happen in the future, then I think the inconvenience of said overzealousness is well worth it.

It's the province - they can do whatever they want and in fact regularly do this on other files, including metrolinx projects. Heritage legislation, like the planning act and building code, can be willingly ignored by the province if they so wished.

Nobody will shed a tear about the shed other than perhaps a few of the most ardent heritage and railroad fanatics in the province.

As I already noted, I don't think the shed is particularly nice looking, and I don't think its loss would be significant. But it's about the principle of the thing - you set a precedent for someone to steamroll something inconvenient at the stroke of a pen, and where does it end? Why even have any kind of legislation, if the argument is that when it's inconvenient to do so we should just ignore it? The times of inconvenience are precisely when 'silly trivialities' like this are the most important to have around.

As I argued on here when the Osgoode Hall garden debacle was on-going, the goal of the transit system is to serve the city, and not the other way around. By all means, let's open the discussion about whether demolishing the shed is the only way forward - but to even suggest that Metrolinx should just "rip the thing out already" without due process should be alarming to anyone who doesn't want to live in a corpogovernmental anarchy. I hope for your sake that the next thing they decide is inconvenient and in the way isn't your house.

 

[ProjectEnd]

It's the province - they can do whatever they want and in fact regularly do this on other files, including metrolinx projects. Heritage legislation, like the planning act and building code, can be willingly ignored by the province if they so wished.

Nobody will shed a tear about the shed other than perhaps a few of the most ardent heritage and railroad fanatics in the province.

 

[CapitalSeven]

Didn't Metrolinx say a few years ago that electrification could go through without removing the Bush shed? Or at the very least, they were working on it. Close to a decade later, nothing is clear. Much of the problem with Metrolinx is that they will never answer a question directly, clearly, or definitively. I suspect they have a thick file on this but would never let anyone see it, so that no one can disagree with them.