Quote:
Originally Posted by MalcolmTucker
How much of the line is corridor constrained? The tunnel under Dow's Lake, a bridge or four? Trusting people to cross the tracks might be a bigger obstacle - needing to build grade separated stations would be a big expense.
You would think double tracks with gauntlet track in those sections would perform better than trying to time everything perfectly.
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The track is grade separated but the separation was created years ago for what was a former signal track freight line. Nothing was planned for urban transit service when this was done. The problem is the number of bridges (several) needing major modification or replacement as well as the Dow's Lake tunnel and the cut to the north of that, which will require major blasting through bedrock. The original plan was going to require a 3 year closure in order to address the major modifications to the right of way but that was scrapped because of local Liberal/Conservative political dynamics. The city now figures it can apply a cheap solution, which does not address the problems with the right of way. The city has double tracked about the only places they could without major modification but single track sections remain long and this has slowed down trains because they now have to wait for signals. The second phase is going to be worse because of potential complicated train movements if service is extended to the airport and there is yet another single track bridge at a critical point on the line where the most trains need to interact for Phase 2. It is just a bad plan and the likelihood of even slower trains and less frequent service in the future is high because of the constraints of the right of way. This can only be resolved by going to the expense of replacing some of the bridges so that more double tracking can take place. However, that has not been put into the Phase 2 budget.