Questions about GO Transit Expansions.

When will GO begin service to places such as Barrie, Cambridge and resume service to Guelph?

As well will they ever increase service on the Georgetown line?

MikeCDN

So far the only publicly announced expansion plan is to extend the Bradford train back to Barrie. Barrie is currently the terminus on two GO bus routes. This will take some time since GO will have to replace the track that CN took up a few years ago. For a news report on this see The Alliston Herald.

I am hopeful that the extension of service from Milton to Cambridge and the reintroduction of (former CP/VIA) service to Peterboro and Havelock will happen soon. I don't think GO trains will return to Guelph (as well as Rockwood and Acton) for a long time since GO buses and a VIA commuter train already serve this route.

Is there still a plan in the works to increase track capacity (and therefore the number of trains) into Hamilton?

Is there still a plan in the works to increase track capacity (and therefore the number of trains) into Hamilton?

Yes, the plan is still there but there's no money available to do this and CP won't even consider additional trains without it.

Interesting. I didn't know CP was the roadblock. I thought the bottleneck existed more on the CN track beyond Burlington Stn.

Do you know if the proposed new track (if it ever comes to be) would allow the trains to travel in and out of Hamilton at a faster speed? They slow to a crawl a little ways after Aldershot and stay that way all the way into Hamilton.

Can I dream that someday there would be an NFTA-funded expansion from Hamilton to Niagara Falls? heheh... (Bring back the Buffalo-Toronto RDC!!)

-otto-

Otto Vondrak wrote:Can I dream that someday there would be an NFTA-funded expansion from Hamilton to Niagara Falls? heheh... (Bring back the Buffalo-Toronto RDC!!)

-otto-

You can dream but that's about all. Niagara Falls is very low on GO's priority list unless the Casino ante's up some money. The Buffalo-Toronto RDC last ran the day before Amtrak's Maple Leaf started service.

NFTA would have no jurisdiction over a Niagara Falls-Hamilton route, as it is not only out of their two-county service area, but out of the country as well. Some increase in service throughout the Toronto-Hamilton-N.F.-Buffalo corridor would be ideal, but the largest problem would be an efficient customs process. The Maple Leaf is excessively burdened by the customs check and a similar structure would doom any potential commuter-type service. See Amtrak's ending of the International at the Michigan/Ontario border as proof.