More trains in GO plan
December 18, 2008
Rachel De Lazzer
The Hamilton Spectator
http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/483661
Long given the cold shoulder for commuter rail service, Hamilton residents will have Toronto-bound GO trains to hop on every 15 minutes in rush hour and every 30 minutes the rest of the day as early as 2013.
GO Transit has released its strategic plan, GO 2020, and gave Hamilton a favourable place by including it in a core area slated to get major service upgrades over the next decade. Hamilton and other communities within the core area are poised to get two-way, all-day service by 2020.
Ward 2 Councillor Bob Bratina, who sits on the GO Transit board of directors, says multiple variables, such as a teetering economy that could see fewer commuters heading to work, make specific timelines difficult to nail down.
"It may be a little soon, it's hard to say, but I would say that's a good working date," he said of the 2013 timeline.
Bratina said the extra trains will be added in stages.
The new trains will run from LIUNA Station on James Street North when the $3-million platform facility there is complete in 2010.
But GO commuters from Hamilton won't have to wait until 2010 for better service.
GO currently runs three trains between Hamilton and Toronto at rush hours only from the Hunter Street East GO station.
Bratina said that service will pick up in January when an $8-million layover facility is complete, allowing the three trains plus one additional one departing at 7:15 a.m. to leave on time more consistently by giving them a place to fuel and dock overnight.
Currently, the trains come from Willowdale and often get held up at a railway junction near the York Street high-level bridge over the Desjardins Canal, Bratina said. He said the layover station will likely be finished in the first half of January.
rdelazzer@thespec.com
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