Metrolinx, the provincial agency in Ontario, Canada, that manages most of the region’s public transportation, expects to conduct a C$5 million feasibility study on hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered GO Transit regional/commuter trains, the Toronto Star reported on June 15.
(Editor’s note: The following is the full version of a story published in the June issue of Railway Age.) It all began on a lovely Spring morning in 1967, Canada’s Centennial Year: Startup of North America’s arguably most successful new commuter rail service, GO Transit.
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne announced on May 19 that the province will move forward with plans to build Canada’s first high-speed line after a report by David Collenette, Ontario’s special advisor on high-speed rail, concluded the project has a positive business case.
The government of Canada will provide C$1.8 billion (US$1.35 billion) to the GO Transit Regional Express rail (GO RER) project in the Greater Golden Horseshoe Area.
A study on commuter train diesel exhaust and its potential effects on passengers conducted by two chemical engineering professors at the University of Toronto with support from Metrolinx indirectly makes a strong public-health-related case for the latter’s planned electrification of Toronto’s GO Transit network.
Toronto and Hamilton transport authority Metrolinx has purchased an additional 125 Bombardier double-deck coaches for the the Go Transit commuter rail network in a deal worth $C 428 million ($US 328 million).
Ontario, Canada, is undergoing unprecedented growth in all forms of passenger rail. GO Transit is undertaking long-term expansion plans, and in Ottawa, the city’s first LRT is under construction. GO Transit regional/commuter
GTA (Greater Toronto Area) region public transportation agency Metrolinx outlined the four options being considered for the core of the Toronto Regional Express Rail (RER) network at a board meeting on Feb. 10, 2016.
GO Transit’s first MP54AC Tier 4-compliant diesel-electric locomotive from the MotivePower Inc. (MPI) Division of Wabtec has been delivered and underwent testing on the weekend of Dec. 12-13, 2015. No. 47 is part of a $4 million order for 11 MP54ACs announced in 2012.
VIA Rail on Nov. 14, 2015, commissioned CTC (centralized traffic control) on its entire North Mainline (Guelph Subdivision) between Georgetown and London, Ontario.