Details on Niagara GO expansion remain elusive
Metrolinx made a presentation on GO Transit earlier this month to Niagara Regional council.
It was vague on details. But one message was clear: there’s a lot of work to be done to bring daily GO train service to Niagara.
In delivering that message, Metrolinx may have done us all at least one favour. It should stop absurd chatter among local politicians about how, with a keen lobbying effort, the province could be persuaded to move up the 2021 target date for the service’s arrival in Grimsby. (It will take another couple of years to bring trains to St. Catharines and Niagara Falls.)
It’s actually quite funny when you think about it. Believing a government could work faster at bringing a project to fruition. And the fact that Niagara Region — the overseer of the Burgoyne Bridge replacement — is one of the believers makes it even more hilarious.
Egads, man, the GO expansion announcement was made almost a year ago and as far as I can tell people are still planning how to plan the plan of action.
At any rate, I tried to see if I could shed any more light on what’s happening, an endeavour sparked by an invitation to speak with Gerry Chaput, chief capital officer of Metrolinx, in the days following his presentation to the Region.
Given the amount of required work that was itemized by Chaput, I was curious if there was an overall estimated price tag for the expansion to Niagara and how those costs might be split. After all, Metrolinx has assured the Region the necessary money has been set aside, which makes sense when you consider a rather loud and public commitment has been made.
I was also interested whether Metrolinx had determined how frequently the service would go to and from Toronto.
Last June, Greg Percy, Metrolinx’s chief operating officer, said studies show 85 per cent of local residents who work outside Niagara do so in Hamilton. Based on this, some of the morning rush-hour GO train trips will end in Hamilton and come back to Niagara, said Percy. In other words, not all trains leaving Niagara in the morning will necessarily go all the way to Toronto.
Plus, I wondered who was ultimately in charge of building or retrofitting the train stations in Grimsby, St. Catharines and Niagara Falls. And does Metrolinx see the large number of level rail crossings in Niagara as a problem. More specifically, would it insist on some overpasses being built, and, if so, who would pay for such work?
Alas, any light being shed is of the two-watt bulb variety.
Rather than speak with Chaput, I corresponded by email with Metrolinx’s communications staff.
Spokesperson Kelly Hagan said the agency is in the “very early stages” of planning the expansion.
No plan of service — i.e. number of trips to Hamilton or Toronto — has been determined yet.
It is also working closely with Niagara Region and CN “to complete the feasibility study which will determine the exact cost for how much civil enabling work … must be done to make the track-laying portion of the expansion possible.”
If nothing else, I’ve learned some new bureaucratese — “civil enabling work.” In this instance, it means bridge widenings, culvert extensions and level crossing upgrades.
As for the new or upgraded sta- tions, Hagan said the needs “will be assessed by Metrolinx working in concert with Niagara Region and the local municipalities.”
The design process can vary widely, “but typically a new station design is led by a technical advisor who works with Metrolinx and the local government(s) to design a station that meets all federal, provincial, municipal and industry standards, including barrier-free, Disability Act-compliant access for all our customers.
“This also means including customer-experience upgrades such as integrating PRESTO technology and infrastructure into each station, elevators, upgraded monitors, electronics and software.”
(PRESTO is a smart card payment scheme used on participating public transit systems in Ontario.)
As for level rail crossings, there are 33 of them between Grimsby and Niagara Falls.
“We will be working closely with Niagara Region and CN to update level crossings where necessary,” said Hagan.
Sounds like there are a lot of GO stories to be written between now and 2021.