Hamilton Closer ‘Than Ever Before’ to All-Day GO Train Service
Published September 26, 2019 at 7:42 pm
A recent blog post from Metrolinx claims more train service to and from Hamilton is ‘closer now than it ever has been before.’
A recent blog post from Metrolinx claims more train service to and from Hamilton is ‘closer now than it ever has been before.’
Earlier this week, the provincial agency sought to enlighten their Hamilton ridership on the progress they’ve made so far on the projects surrounding the city.
All in all, it seems like things are on track — pun intended — to see service increasing in the coming months and years but they do not offer any concrete timelines as to when the system will be fully operational.
A lot of planning and resources seems to have gone into a portion of the train tracks between Aldershot GO station and Hamilton that hugs Burlington Bay that is known as ‘the throat.’
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According to the blog post, this section “is a key east-west freight movement artery between Toronto and Chicago, Buffalo and the northeast US. It is a pinch-point where numerous corridors owned by two different freight carriers converge.”
Therefore, they’ve had to figure out a way to make it so that passenger trains can get around the freight traffic which can take up to two kilometres of track and which doesn’t run on a strict schedule.
The solution, it seems, was to build another track and with that come all the associated signalling and track-switching infrastructure Between Desjardins Canal and West Harbour GO Station. On the heels of these developments, testing and commissioning are required, the post says.
They do say, however, that an import portion of the project is completed that will help keep freight traffic and passenger traffic separate. They have also been doing a lot of work on a number of bridges in the city that would further help increase capacity to and from the city.
“All-day GO Train service for Hamilton is closer now than it ever has been before,” the blog post claims.
Earlier this month, Metrolinx expanded some of the services from West Harbour GO by doubling rush-hour service with four more trips – two in the morning and two in the afternoon.
That work completed so far includes:
- New third track from just south of Bayview Junction into the Stuart Rail Yard
- Completion of West Harbour GO Station
- Expansion of bridges over Centennial Parkway and Desjardins Canal
- Replacement of the bridge over Valley Inn Road
- Completion of the new layover facility on Lewis Road in Winona
- New and upgraded signals infrastructure at Bayview Junction, Hamilton Junction, Dundurn and Stuart signal plants