I read this story in the toronto sun a while back and had some questions of my own. there are some goods and bad's to this. One Where would the money come from? I don't want to hear about 50 year repayment plans because we all know the Canadian government is stingy when it comes to funding large projects. They have been cutting VIA rails budget for decades now! ( the oil crisis last year is the only thing that got VIA and transit agencies there needed acceptance and funding) you really think they will take this much of a financial endeavor in today's economy ( Canada has just announced they too are in a recession). Also one other poster said they should get EMUs? That will never happen Canada would not put up that kind of cash for just 1 line. Kaback9 has the best idea dual mode locos. that can accommodate GO's current bombardier cars. GO is still taking delivery of Bomb's Bi levels, I dough they would want to start orders for new cars.
Electrification, (to Friskin) has any one looked at the cost to electrify a line now a days? your talking about the cost of electrification from 75 yrs ago, NO comparison to the cost in today's market. Once the government gets that estimate its GONE, especially since gas has come back down to a reasonable cost. This is something that should have been purposed and done back in the 80s/90s while Amtrak was updating the NEC (80s) and preparing the NEC for Acela(90s). the cost of installing centenary wire has more than doubled ( almost tripled) per mile installed since then. The lakeshore line form Hamilton to Oshawa is roughly 120km =75 miles. Cold weather has nothing to do with it, the NEC runs in the same harsh cold weather ( granted its mostly high speed), But Chicago Southshore line runs in the same harsh cold weather and that is the best example. Chicagoland & NW Indiana weather is almost identical to The GTA's weather, were in the same weather jetstream. As far as taxes if this goes into effect that 1 cent reduction to 13 cents you Canadians saw just last year will go up to 15 cents and will be for Ontario only.
I understand the earlier poster on the tree issue, one large tree fall on regular rails ,in 1 hr or less removal teams are out and service is back to normal, tree falls and takes out centenary, U will definitely need dual mode locos or your entire operation is shot for hours. I dough that would work out well for go transit riders. EMU's or full electric locos would require GO to have diesel locos to be on standby at all times for that scenario. What Dual mode loco would they use? currently in North America there are no dual modes that use diesel/centenary. everything is diesel/thirdrail. The AMT/NJT locos still have not been delivered by bombardier and thus can not be used as a possible example. Im not saying it can't be done, But at what cost and will Canada be willing to front that cost. Currently as of june 2008 bombardier contract with AMT/NJT is to build 20 locomotives at a cost of 236 million or 11.8 million a loco.
I am a supporter that we need a greener method of commuter rail transit in the GTA, I'd actually like to see all GO lines converted to centenary or third rail. But what can they do right now to help the environment. Maybe stop running these 10- 12 car trains all day and night and cut the train in half for midday, late night, and weekend runs, similar to Metra in Chicago. Order more cabs from bombardier instead of coaches so you can easily cut a consist in half when not needed. this would ease fuel usage and wear on the locomotives. Everyone knows what GO Transit does to there locomotives other rail agencies would call abuse! To ALL Don't worry the $5 a gallon / $1.50 a liter days will return. Then and only then will we see some change.
