The Missing Piece in Toronto's Regional Rail System

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You keep saying costs will go up in the future, but, considering how much we’re overpaying for everything, getting those costs under control might actually make things cheaper in the future.🤔

Has GO Transit just given up on picking an actual shade of green? :D

It’s hard to overstate how important the Go Transit Lakeshore East track separation was. It allowed for 20 minute service (that ended with the pandemic) which made travelling from the east end to downtown as easy as driving from Pickering to the Oshawa Centre. It’s was amazing how many people would go in to the city to “look around” because it was easy. The 30 minute service that is currently in place is comparable and a good compromise Also, I never really considered linking to the Junction. That whole Dundas West area would be well served with a line like that. As always this was a great video to spark discussion

Isn't it kinda funny that I used to watch your channel in 2017-18 because I liked train footage, now in 2023-24 I'm watching urbanist content on a completely different YT account and I somehow end up with the same youtuber making completely different content which is aligned with my same new hobby. What are the coincidences? This is beautiful!

Speaking of the Midtown Line, I recently looked at it on Google maps. As far as I can tell, there's exactly one industry with a direct connection to the line between the junction of the Milton and Kitchener lines and CP's yard on the other side of the city. That industry is... the TTC, where they unload their streetcars from trains. Aside from that, the whole corridor is just a through route for CP. I'm sure something can be sorted out between the TTC and GO to make the midtown corridor useable

I've wanted to have in/out service on the Milton line for years.... And now that they're trying to do it, I'm leaving! Problems I see are stations like Dixie which only has one platform vs Streetsville which has more than it actually needs. With the existing infrastructure, you can have 2 way service but not frequently. I am so very much going to miss this GTA. I'm going to hope that I can at least live near Oshawa Go

I'm leaving my beloved KW for a new home in Milton in about a week. I was thrilled to hear this new and definitely can't wait to see more service and better connections to the west side of the suburbs.

I was just in Amsterdam and couldn't help but think how wonderful GO rail service would be if it was packed with NS Sprinters running on similar frequencies as in NL

rebuilding Cooksville station before setting this plan in motion was a rare Metrolinx W

When Freight/switching yards are made... they are made in low-cost rural areas... If you see rail-yards in dense areas, it is because the city has grown arounds it... There is no reason to run freight trains through downtowns. Both Montreal and Toronto have huge railyards in relatively dense parts of town. I would think moving the railyards away from the city centre, and building new freight corridors that avoid the downtown entirely would free the downtown rail corridors more cheaply than building new passenger ones which need to be where they are. That would also free up a lot of land in dense areas for urban re-development and thus be self funding by the freight railways.

Midtown GO line is my ultimate dream

Good video! I think Milton is critical to build. Very thoughtful analysis.

I'm a piecemeal guy. The first thing they should do asap is add siding tracks everywhere along the Milton Line that are the easiest to do, so ignore doubling the Lambton bridge etc. Adding just 2 sidings to the Barrie Line allowed for a huge jump in off-peak bi directional service. The same approach should be done for Milton and could be done in 2 years.

to add, this separate tracks-same corridor thing is exactly what UTA did for Frontrunner from the start, now it's reached the point that Frontrunner has completely different signals and can't run on UP if it wanted to

They should extend it on the east as well ( Bowmanville, Port Hope, Cobourg)

What happened to High-Speed rail in Ontario? Windsor to Montreal corridor. We used the High-Speed rail in Italy. It was excellent. Thailand is already working on developing their network. Maybe the Ontario government wants everyone in their SUV's.

In my toronto fantasy map, I've always wondered how it would be like if we made a express regional rail system with frequencies similar to the metro and that they have their own dedicated tracks to avoid conflict with other trains sharing the tracks. I could put their tracks on the widest highways (because I think that an 6+ lane highway is nuts) to sacrifice some of hte lanes and that there would be less cars now that people would be riding the train. I'm even doing this in my vancouver fantasy

The Milton line could serve the Midtown area of Toronto if it was rerouted to Summerhill and it could possibly become a crosstown service if it was extended east to Agincourt and possibly Oshawa. That would be possible if CN and Canadian pacific service was rerouted along Ontario’s highways.

Torontonian who lived in Japan for a few years here. As a railway fan, everytime I was commuting on the rail network in Japan, I was always subconsciously thinking how we can take tid-bits from Japan's world class railway system and apply them back home in Toronto. The lack of commitment to EMU's here is certainly staggering and the issues with Canadian Pacific and Canadian National owning/sharing the rails with commuter trains is something we need to overcome. I will always be of the opinion that good public transit and rail offers more freedom than cars. I wish you could be the head transit expansion project boss and manage planning and usage of funds!!! You have my vote of confidence lol :)