St. Thomas now building railroads?

go_leafs_go02 · #1 Posted **Apr 3, 2013, 4:56 PM**

over the years, tracks have slowly vanished out of St. Thomas, but as of today, 1600 feet of new track to extend the St. Thomas/Port Stanley train north to St. Thomas have been announced.

http://www.lfpress.com/2013/04/03/st...tract-approved

Wonder if they'll connect it up to the rail line out of London, and perhaps make a go out of a few tourist trips per year from London to Port Stanley?

Pimpmasterdac · #2 Posted **Apr 3, 2013, 7:28 PM**

Good for St. Thomas & Port Stanley. Hopefully will give their economies a boost! I would like it if it ever came back, the railway is literally in my backyard, would be great to take a trip down to Port Stanley on the train. But I wouldn't hold my breathe for it.

Unfortunately this new rail won't connect the former L&PS railway in the north of St. Thomas to London. CN owns the section and use it for industry. They don't have passing sidings for multiple trains so doubtful passenger rail would ever come withot significant investment. As well CN has changed the junction in London so it heads away from the VIA station, so getting any passengers to or from London would be a good amount of work. CN previously sabotaged Port Stanley Terminal Rail's efforts to extend to London...

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realcity · #3 Posted **Apr 13, 2013, 1:52 PM**

Why train tracks get ripped out and nothing replaces or gets developed just astounds me. It should not be allowed , for all we know trains will be the future.

Pimpmasterdac · #4 Posted **Sep 21, 2013, 9:13 PM**

Construction has been completed and passenger trains are now going from refurbished Talbot st station in St. Thomas to Port Stanley. They're talking of someday extended the service back to London. While I won't hold my breathe I wish them the best of luck!

http://www.lfpress.com/2013/09/20/st...nding-strategy

ssiguy · #5 Posted **Sep 22, 2013, 7:14 PM**

I'm a bit confused............are there now trains running between Port Stanley and London?

Pimpmasterdac · #6 Posted **Sep 23, 2013, 11:09 PM**

There are no trains, passenger or commercial, currently running between London and Port Stanley.

The former L&PS line was torn up in St. Thomas and is no longer fully connected. The south portion is used by Port Stanley Terminal Rail, which is the tourist passenger rail that was extended to Talbot St. in St. Thomas to an old rail stop on the former L&PS. The north portion is the CN Talbot subdivison line and only carries commercial rail now. Also it no longer goes towards the downtown London VIA Rail station, but east of downtown.

It would require a good amount of work if they ever do reconnect the rail line, but would be interesting to see and ride.

manny_santos · #7 Posted **Mar 5, 2014, 2:22 AM**

http://www.lfpress.com/2014/03/04/sh...ndon-area-jobs

This could be good news for St. Thomas, as well as eastern Elgin County.

MolsonExport · #8 Posted **Mar 5, 2014, 5:25 PM**

good news....I worry about the safety standards of these short line railways, after the disaster in Lac Megantic.

Snark · #9 Posted **Mar 7, 2014, 1:22 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

good news....I worry about the safety standards of these short line railways, after the disaster in Lac Megantic.

Actually, (mostly) American corporations have been leasing (defacto owning) a large portion of the trackage in SW Ontario and operating them as short lines for many years now. Just one example:

http://www.gwrr.com/operations/railr...exeter_railway

ssiguy · #10 Posted **Mar 12, 2014, 6:12 AM**

This would be great news for St.Thomas and London.

The railways and maintenance for St.Thomas as well as the resurrected Ford plant for London. London seems to have a real growing food manufacturing industry. This is very opportune due to the just signed Korean Free Trade Deal. Apparently, and I didn't know this, one third of all Canadian exports to Korea are food manufacturing goods. Apparently it is the food manufacturing, especially in Ontario, that will benefit most from the trade deal............interesting timing.

MolsonExport · #11 Posted **Mar 13, 2014, 1:18 PM**

^I don't know if the facts bear up the claim to growing food industry. Kellogg's is shutting down and Heinz too (although in the latter case, apparently some deal has been reached to retain about a third of the workers under employee-ownership).

go_leafs_go02 · #12 Posted **Jan 5, 2019, 2:14 PM**

From what I've seen on Facebook (St. Thomas Railway History Group), this year the tracks will be linked back up a bit further north, meaning it would be possible one way or another to take a train from London to Port Stanley. Who knows what this may mean for future rail trips.

Djeffery · #13 Posted **Jan 5, 2019, 5:07 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by go_leafs_go02

From what I've seen on Facebook (St. Thomas Railway History Group), this year the tracks will be linked back up a bit further north, meaning it would be possible one way or another to take a train from London to Port Stanley. Who knows what this may mean for future rail trips.

Is there an actual news story on this happening? I know the guy that posted that thread is a teenager that goes to school with my daughter and also posts on the If You Grew Up In London group that he thinks Wally World can re-open too, so I don't know how much of that story is truth or wishful thinking.

As for actually taking the train from London to Port, it hasn't really been that long since that railway link in downtown St Thomas was removed, and I don't remember the last time the train actually came to London when it had the ability to, so not sure if they would now either. And I wonder where they would go to in London with it.

ssiguy · #14 Posted **Jan 7, 2019, 7:39 PM**

It would be great if they could bring in some kind of commuter rail system linking ST to London and maybe provide extended summer trips to PS.

Does the old London/PS railway still carry any commerical traffic?

Djeffery · #15 Posted **Jan 7, 2019, 10:14 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ssiguy

It would be great if they could bring in some kind of commuter rail system linking ST to London and maybe provide extended summer trips to PS.

Does the old London/PS railway still carry any commerical traffic?

Yes, I still get stopped at Adelaide and Commissioners every so often. I've sat down on Greenvalley Rd watching flat beds of what I'm assuming are frames going to or coming from Formet going by as well.

Pimpmasterdac · #16 Posted **Jan 8, 2019, 3:37 AM**

The Talbot Sub/old L&PS line has commerical trains, its literally in my backyard.

While it would be great to see commuter trains from London to St Thomas or Port Stanley, it is and only will be a dream; number of issues need to be addressed to make it remotl realistic:

As mentioned PSTR trackage still doesn't connect to the Talbot Sub. No real plans, beyond speculation from St Thomas rail fan facebook group, even exist.
The Talbot Sub section has poor track quality, there are many broken rail ties and CN seems to do the bare minimum of maintaining the track; its limited to 15 MPH throughout its entire length. At this speed its not economically viable or comparable to private vehicles.
CN rail will always give priority to their freight, Talbot Sub has no sidings for trains to pass.
The current connection from Talbot Sub to CN Mainline goes eastbound past Horton to the CN yards. When their was commuter rail it use to goes westbound to the CN/VIA train station directly. Because of this change Any train would have to detour, at 15 MPH to the shunting yards then get on the Mainline to downtown. Again CN gives priority to their freight operations, they won't hold things up for a small hobby train.

I really do wish that there was commuter rail but I don't see CN really wanting to give PSTR access or maiking it viable for them to use the rails.

Stevo26 · #17 Posted **Jan 12, 2019, 4:27 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pimpmasterdac

The Talbot Sub/old L&PS line has commerical trains, its literally in my backyard.

While it would be great to see commuter trains from London to St Thomas or Port Stanley, it is and only will be a dream; number of issues need to be addressed to make it remotl realistic:

As mentioned PSTR trackage still doesn't connect to the Talbot Sub. No real plans, beyond speculation from St Thomas rail fan facebook group, even exist.
The Talbot Sub section has poor track quality, there are many broken rail ties and CN seems to do the bare minimum of maintaining the track; its limited to 15 MPH throughout its entire length. At this speed its not economically viable or comparable to private vehicles.
CN rail will always give priority to their freight, Talbot Sub has no sidings for trains to pass.
The current connection from Talbot Sub to CN Mainline goes eastbound past Horton to the CN yards. When their was commuter rail it use to goes westbound to the CN/VIA train station directly. Because of this change Any train would have to detour, at 15 MPH to the shunting yards then get on the Mainline to downtown. Again CN gives priority to their freight operations, they won't hold things up for a small hobby train.

I really do wish that there was commuter rail but I don't see CN really wanting to give PSTR access or maiking it viable for them to use the rails.

Well, I suppose if the feds wanted to make this a reality in the name of developing (relatively) inexpensive commuter rail networks, they could always lean on CN a little to provide access.

The bigger problem is whether there would be sufficient demand to make a service like this break even at least.

This seems to be another pipe dream, like having a fast ferry running from Port Stanley to Erie, Pennsylvania.

JakeLRS · #18 Posted **Jan 22, 2019, 1:19 PM**

(Deleted - Wrong Topic)

manny_santos · #19 Posted **Jan 28, 2019, 4:17 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stevo26

Well, I suppose if the feds wanted to make this a reality in the name of developing (relatively) inexpensive commuter rail networks, they could always lean on CN a little to provide access.

The bigger problem is whether there would be sufficient demand to make a service like this break even at least.

This seems to be another pipe dream, like having a fast ferry running from Port Stanley to Erie, Pennsylvania.

I think the only possibility for those tracks to be used for commuter rail would be if CN divested the tracks, for example abandonment or sale to a short-line railway (as CP has done with its subs to Tillsonburg and St. Thomas).

The lack of a proper link to the VIA station is also a problem. A new connecting track could be built of course, but it appears there's now a storage facility right on top of the old L&PS ROW near Colborne Street.

Another factor is that St. Thomas is a car city - I highly doubt St. Thomas residents would be interested in taking public transit to London, except for people who cannot drive. I don't think there's even a bus service to the city from London anymore, due to lack of demand.