West Harbour station now targeted for all-day GO â eventually
New GO expansion plans say all-day train service will go first to West Harbour, not downtown â but donât hold your breath for 15-minute service.
https://www.thespec.com/news-story/9...go-eventually/
Updated GO expansion plans suggest eagerly awaited all-day commuter trains will arrive first at West Harbour station, rather than downtown â but neither station is guaranteed 15-minute service by 2025.
The service frequency models are included in an expansion business case posted ahead of Thursday's Metrolinx board meeting. The $12-billion-plus plan, which still needs provincial approval, is meant to boost train frequency and speed throughout the sprawling GO network between 2025 and 2030.
As recently as last year, Metrolinx said hourly all-day GO service would be targeted first for the GO Centre on Hunter Street and long-term expansion would bring 15-minute rush hour service to Hamilton.
The new business case suggests hourly all-day service is now destined instead for the West Harbour station on James Street North and coveted 15-minute service will not extend on the Lakeshore West line beyond Burlington â or not by 2025, anyway.
But those service frequency models are not "definitive" and will evolve based on demand and ongoing negotiations with rail corridor owners, said Metrolinx president Phil Verster in an interview Tuesday.
GO Train expansion is much easier on rail lines owned by Metrolinx. But CN owns the harbour-hugging rail corridor that brings GO trains around the bend from Aldershot to West Harbour and beyond to Niagara. Canadian Pacific owns the more southerly line that takes commuter trains to the downtown GO Centre.
Negotiations that could affect GO expansion continue with both rail companies, said Verster, who added the final plan could include a blend of new service to stations on both lines. Regardless, he emphasized Hamilton is still on track for "huge" improvements in GO train service â and residents should start to see incremental changes "long before 2025."
So when will impatient Hamilton GO users see extra trains chugging their way?
Verster would only say the timeline for improved train service should become clearer in the new year. A new $35-million east-end GO station on the same line as the West Harbour station is supposed to be completed in 2019, too. It's unclear when service to that station will start.
Those improvements are already overdue, said Charles de Lannoy.
The assistant professor of chemical engineering lives a 10-minute walk from the West Harbour station â but his wife, who works in Toronto, is forced to drive to Aldershot each day to catch a train.
(Right now, only two Toronto-bound trains leave the station each morning. The last one to return to West Harbour leaves Toronto at 5:15 p.m.)
"We were confident that commuting would be simple using GO trains, but three years after the station opened, there are essentially no practical trains for people who work later than 5 p.m.," he said.
De Lannoy was cautiously optimistic about the apparent new focus on bringing regular, all-day service to the West Harbour â but also eager for an "actual deadline" for service improvements.
City residents have been teased by the prospect of true commuter train service since 2011, when then-premier Dalton McGuinty promised all-day GO service would chug into Hamilton by 2015.
On the other hand, transit-watchers online this week questioned why Metrolinx would downgrade service frequency plans for a downtown GO station that will link to the city's planned $1-billion light rail transit line via a special "high-order pedestrian connection."
Hamilton LRT co-ordinator Kris Jacobson said he didn't anticipate any changes to the planned LRT pedestrian link even if service frequency changes over time at Hamilton GO Centre. "Wherever the details end up, they will both be important transit centres," he said.
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