The Domain name: cleantrain.ca was purchased on Apr 13, and quickly a well produced web site was put up to organize opposition to the Go Transit growth plans in Ontario. Reading thought the site with it's well defined information layout, one can accept the concerns of the residents about the great amount of increased train passages thorough the inner city sections. 50 trains to 300 or 500 trains a day will even surpass the amount of passage trains that occurred during the the operation of the West Toronto and Lambton yards in the 50's thought mid 80's.
Converting the line to electric locomotives would greatly reduce the disturbance to the community - yet offload the pollution to another area where the electrical power would be generated. The current power units are diesel-electric locomotives.
The balance of the possible solutions is going to be real difficult in this situation, as the regional transit plan of Go's expansion is well intentioned for the greater good, yet those along the line will suffer,and it can be difficult. A Lot of this blog is written 25 meters from the CPR tracks and the new GO Transit locomotives are vastly nosier, with a new shrill and longer lasting wave of sound.
The sound reasoning for the extensive use of the lines and Go's growth needed in the province dictates a balance of careful sound and vibration avoidance design by the railroads and Go Transit, built with community input and third party oversight. This is gong to take some diligent work of community members and the elected persons.
Nice website! Looks like the electrification front is getting organized.
ReplyDeleteI feel if the budget (electrification is rumoured to cost $200,000,000.00) and timeline permit then electrification is the way to go but I think the website developers are using rhetoric and not facts with the following statement.
“a significant increase in the level of air pollution in the area around the rail corridor, posing a health hazard for the communities along the tracks and potentially the entire city.”
I think we need to let GO/Metrolinx and Toronto Board of Heath conduct their studies and report back with facts before we decry the entire project.
In the Junction we’re going to live with this project for a long time so let’s engage the project with open minds and not make statements intended to evoke fear.
It's about time we bite the bullet and electrify. Why don't we innovate and strive for the best quality of rail transportation? It's time to end the era of devoting so much to highway expansion and focused on more efficient and better quality rail transportation.
ReplyDeleteDear Martin, Putting aside your sarcasm, one must understand that any short term savings from deisel will no doubt be dwarfed by the costs to the ecology and public health (ergo productivity and industrial production) in the long run. Signed Ham Hyde.
ReplyDeleteHello John,
ReplyDeleteThe JRA is having a community meeting on this topic on May 14th. I’ll be leading the discussion so I hope to see you out.
I wasn’t being sarcastic at all and I fully support using electric trains for many reasons, speed, flexibility, noise and the environment. However blanket statements without facts will get you on the news but it won’t convince GO to listen.
I also think it’s naive to think money isn’t a factor in this discussion. Eventually this decision is going to land on Dalton McGuintys desk and if we want to convince him to say yes and risk voter backlash over the cost/dept we need facts not generalities.
From today's Star:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thestar.com/article/640319