Lakeshore West line

Lakeshore West is one of the seven train lines of the GO Transit system in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada. It extends from Union Station in Toronto to Burlington, with occasional trips extending to Hamilton, St. Catharines, and Niagara Falls.

Lakeshore West
A Lakeshore West line GO Transit train westbound past Exhibition in Toronto
Overview
Type	Commuter rail
System	GO Transit rail services
Locale	Toronto, Mississauga, Oakville, Burlington, Hamilton, Grimsby, St. Catharines, Niagara Falls
Stations	15 (plus 1 under construction)
Daily ridership	33,500 (2019)[1]
Operation
Opened	May 23, 1967 (1967-05-23)
Owner	Metrolinx Canadian National Railway Canadian Pacific Railway
Operator(s)	GO Transit
Technical
Line length	132 km (82 mi)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ^1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Operating speed	150 km/h (93 mph)[2] (locomotive max)
Route map km 0 Union North Bathurst Yard 3.2 Exhibition 8.2 Humber River 9.2 Gardiner Expressway 10.8 Mimico Willowbrook Yard 15.4 Long Branch Etobicoke Creek Toronto Peel Region 20.6 Port Credit 21.2 Credit River 26.9 Clarkson Peel Region Halton Region 34.4 Oakville Sixteen Mile Creek 39.8 Bronte 41.5 Bronte Creek 44.9 Appleby 51.5 Burlington 52.5 Burlington Junction QEW 55.7 Aldershot Halton Region Hamilton 59.9 Hamilton Junction 60.0 Desjardins Canal Hunter Street tunnel 63.2 Hamilton GO Centre Hamilton Yard 63.1 West Harbour 72.3 Confederation Hamilton Niagara Region 86.3 Grimsby GO 89.5 Grimsby Jordan Harbour 114.6 St. Catharines Twelve Mile Creek Highway 406 Welland Canal Niagara Escarpment QEW 132.6 Niagara Falls Amtrak Maple Leaf to New York City

History

The Lakeshore West line is the oldest of GO's services, opening as part of the then-unified Lakeshore line on GO Transit's first day of operations on May 23, 1967.[3] The first train, numbered 946 left at 5:50 am from Oakville bound for Toronto, ten minutes before service began out of Pickering.[4] During the three-year experiment, all day GO Train service ran hourly from Oakville to Pickering with limited rush hour train service to Hamilton. The experiment proved to be extremely popular; GO Transit carried its first million riders during its first four months, and averaged 15,000 per day soon after.[5][6]

Service began running west from Union, stopping at Mimico, Long Branch, Port Credit, Lorne Park, Clarkson, and Oakville. Rush-hour trains ran to Bronte, Burlington and Hamilton, at the former CN railway station at James Street.

GO trains started serving the Canadian National Exhibition in August 1967 from an older platform just west of the Dufferin Street bridge over the Lakeshore West line and the Queen Elizabeth Way. For the 1968 Exhibition season, temporary booths were set up to handle passengers, which topped 24,000 on the season's busiest day. This prompted the need for a proper station with additional capacity, and by the 1968 Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, the current Exhibition GO Station was built and put in service.[5]

Lorne Park Station closed within the first year of the line's operation. Burlington was re-located approximately 750 metres eastward in March 1980. Appleby GO Station opened on September 19, 1988, followed by Aldershot on May 25, 1992. The opening of Aldershot coincided with the extension of all day and weekend service from Oakville to Burlington, however, this was reversed due to budget cuts on July 3, 1993.[5]

Service to Hamilton was re-routed from the James Street station to downtown, at the current Hamilton GO Centre on April 29, 1996. All day service to Burlington was restored on May 1, 2000, and extended to Aldershot on September 7, 2007.[5] On June 29, 2013, all day service was increased to operate trains every 30 minutes.[7]

A third track was added between Sixteen Mile creek and the Port Credit station. Combined with additional work undertaken since the early 1990s, this gives the Lakeshore West line at least three tracks from Union Station through to Bayview Junction.

In 2009 as a pilot project, GO began operating express trains to St. Catharines and Niagara Falls on weekends and holidays during Niagara Region's busy summer tourist season. The service was provided again during the 2010 season, and was officially made permanently recurring starting in 2011.[8] In 2019, the weekend express service began operating year-round.[9]

West Harbour GO Station opened in July 2015, serving as a second Hamilton terminus for rush-hour train service.[10] This new station was built adjacent to the former CNR James Street station used by GO until 1996.

On January 7, 2019 one weekday round-trip was extended beyond West Harbour station to Niagara Falls.[11]

Service

On weekdays, trains run on the Lakeshore West line every 30 minutes or better between approximately 5 a.m. and 10 p.m. eastbound from Aldershot, and between approximately 6 a.m. and midnight westbound from Union. Service starts an hour or two later on weekends and holidays. On weekdays, eight trains serve Hamilton directly in the morning and the evening rush hour, four at Hamilton GO Centre and four at West Harbour GO Station. At other times, buses connect Hamilton GO Centre to Aldershot and to Union Station. One of the weekday trips to West Harbour station also continues to Niagara Falls.[12]

On weekends, local service operates every 30 minutes between Aldershot and Union, and additional express trains operate between Toronto and Niagara Falls stopping only at Exhibition, Port Credit, Oakville, Burlington and St. Catharines.[13]

All off-peak trains, as well as some peak trains, are through-routed with the Lakeshore East line to Oshawa.

Future

As part of the 2008 Metrolinx regional transportation plan entitled The Big Move, the agency identified an express all-day service between Hamilton and Oshawa (via Toronto Union) as one of its top 15 priorities.[14] Metrolinx has also committed to eventually providing service every 15 minutes on the line, as well as electrifying railways. This project, dubbed Regional Express Rail, is expected to reduce some trip times by 20%.[15][16]

Metrolinx is currently planning to significantly expand regular service between Burlington and Niagara Falls, with new stations to be built in Stoney Creek and Grimsby, in addition to the existing stations in St. Catharines and Hamilton.[17]

Construction began in 2017 on the new Confederation GO Station in Stoney Creek, with completion expected in 2019.[18][19] In June 2016, Ontario Minister of Transportation Steven Del Duca announced that regular service would be extended to Grimsby, with the Grimsby GO Station expected to open in 2021.[20] In 2023, enhanced service is expected to begin to the St. Catharines and Niagara Falls Via Rail stations which will be upgraded to support increased GO service.[21] In addition to station upgrades, the extension project would include more than 25 kilometres of new track.[17]

In November 2018, Metrolinx halted the delivery process for the stations in the Niagara extension because the newly-elected Government of Ontario rescinded its funding for their construction. In order to be constructed, the stations would instead be dependent on private financing.[22]

In early 2019, Niagara Falls, New York officials expressed interest in having GO Transit expand rail service over the border to the Niagara Falls station in New York.[23] Metrolinx stated that there are specific restrictions when a train leaves Ontario, or any province in Canada, that require a different set of inspection criteria and standards in order to legally enter the United States which would make a stop at the station difficult.[24]

Ownership

In order to facilitate service expansions, GO Transit's parent agency Metrolinx has gradually acquired portions of the Lakeshore West corridor from the freight railway companies Canadian National Railway (CN) and Canadian Pacific Railway (CP). Most of the Lakeshore West line operates along the Oakville subdivision, which was entirely owned by CN prior to 1998.[25]

On March 31, 2010, GO acquired its first segment of the Oakville subdivision, between Union Station and 30th Street in Etobicoke (just west of GO's Willowbrook yard).[26] On March 27, 2012, GO purchased a second segment immediately to the west, extending its ownership to a point just west of Fourth Line in Oakville.[27] On March 22, 2013, Metrolinx purchased a third segment extending its ownership westward to a point just west of Burlington station, where the CN Halton Subdivision joins the line.[28]

In addition to the Union Station Rail Corridor, these three segments represent Metrolinx's current ownership of the line. CN continues to own the tracks between Burlington and the Desjardins Canal, as well as the Grimsby subdivision that carries trains into Niagara Region. CP owns the tracks between the Desjardins Canal and the Hamilton GO Centre.[29]

Station list

Most off-peak trains, as well as some peak trains, continue as part of the Lakeshore East line after stopping at Union Station, with no train change required.

Service legend
L	Local	Operates at all times
E	Express	Operates on weekday peak periods in the peak direction
W	Weekend express	Operates only on weekends

Station	Municipality	Services			Connections	Notes
		L	E	W
Union	Toronto	●	●	●	Canadian/Corridor/Maple Leaf TTC	Through service to the Lakeshore East line
Exhibition		●	｜	●	TTC
Mimico		●	｜	｜	TTC
Long Branch		●	｜	｜	TTC
Port Credit	Mississauga	●	｜	●	MiWay	Future connection to Hurontario LRT
Clarkson		●	●	｜
Oakville	Oakville	●	●	●	Corridor/Maple Leaf Oakville Transit
Bronte		●	●	｜	Oakville Transit
Appleby	Burlington	●	●	｜	Burlington Transit
Burlington		●	●	●	Burlington Transit
Aldershot		●	●	｜	Corridor/Maple Leaf Burlington Transit
Hamilton	Hamilton		●		Hamilton Street Railway	Bus service only during off-peak
West Harbour			●	｜	Hamilton Street Railway	No service off-peak
Confederation			｜	｜	Hamilton Street Railway	Rail service will begin in 2021[30]
Grimsby	Grimsby		｜	｜	TBD	Opening TBD[31]
St. Catharines	St. Catharines		●	●	Maple Leaf St. Catharines Transit	Peak hours service on weekdays Limited excursion trains on weekends
Niagara Falls	Niagara Falls		●	●	Maple Leaf Niagara Falls Transit WEGO Niagara Falls Visitor Transportation

References

1. "Ridership Performance" (PDF). Metrolinx. September 2019. Retrieved 20 November 2019.
2. "Quick Facts: GO Trains (Sept 2012)" (PDF). GO Transit. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-04-19. Retrieved 2012-11-04.
3. GO celebrates 40 years of success
4. GO 50th Anniversary
5. Garcia et al.: Lakeshore corridor
6. Sergeant, Ch.4: Buying the trains.
7. Kalinowski, Tess (19 April 2013). "GO trains to run every 30 minutes all day on Lakeshore lines". Toronto Star. Toronto Star Newspapers. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
8. "Summer GO Train Permanent". Niagara This Week. 15 April 2011. Retrieved 2019-05-20.
9. Staff (August 15, 2019). "Metrolinx adding 84 new weekly GO train trips in GTHA". The Canadian Press. Global News. Retrieved August 16, 2019.
10. "First commuters ride GO from Hamilton's new West Harbour station". CBC News. 9 April 2015. Retrieved 2015-07-15.
11. "New GO train service to Niagara". CBC News. 6 January 2019. Retrieved 2019-05-20.
12. "Lakeshore West Schedule" (PDF). GO Transit. 5 January 2019. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
13. "Niagara Falls – Toronto schedule" (PDF). GOTransit.ca. GO Transit. Retrieved 16 Aug 2019.
14. The Big Move Archived 2010-06-18 at the Wayback Machine, Section 5.2: The first 15 years. Retrieved July 23, 2010
15. Lakeshore West GO line
16. Tess Kalinowski, Transportation reporter (17 April 2015). "GO to add almost 50 per cent more trains in next 5 years". Toronto Star. Retrieved 2016-03-30.
17. "Metrolinx: For a Greater Region - Niagara". www.metrolinx.com. Retrieved 2018-03-23.
18. Ontario Investing Up to $1 Billion for Light Rail Transit in Hamilton
19. Hamilton to get a new LRT and GO Train station
20. "Work begins in 2017 on GO train expansion into Niagara". The Canadian Press. 28 June 2016. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
21. "Boards for St Catharines" (PDF). Metrolinx. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
22. LaFleche, Grant; Sawchuk, Bill (30 November 2018). "Grimsby GO station plan 'will be stopped'". The St. Catharines Standard. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
23. [e-mail], Rick Pfeiffer. "Falls officials want to bring Canadian commuter train across the border". Niagara Gazette. Retrieved 2020-01-03.
24. "Niagara Falls, N.Y. mayor says he wants a GO Train across the border | The Star". thestar.com. 30 January 2019. Retrieved 2020-01-03.
25. http://www.metrolinx.com/en/docs/pdf/board_agenda/20130627/20130627_BoardMtg_GO_Transit_Update_EN.pdf
26. http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/711421/cn-sells-commuter-rail-line-segment-west-of-toronto-union-station-to-metrolinx-for-c-168-million
27. "CN - CN sells Greater Toronto Area rail lines to Metrolinx for GO Transit services". newswire.ca.
28. "CN - CN sells Oakville-Burlington, Ont., line segment to Metrolinx for GO Transit commuter rail service". newswire.ca.
29. Metrolinx Rail Corridor Ownership
30. "Stoney Creek Public Meeting Presentation Boards" (PDF). Metrolinx Engage. November 27, 2017. p. 8. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
31. "New Weekday GO Rail Service Planned Between Hamilton and the Niagara Region". News Release. Ministry of Transportation. June 28, 2016. Retrieved 28 June 2016. a new station on Casablanca Boulevard in Grimsby

General references

• Daniel Garcia and James Bow. "GO Transit's Lakeshore Line". Transit Toronto. Retrieved 11 June 2015.

Bibliography

• Sergeant, Wilfred (2004). "Building GO-Transit: The Rail Commuter Initiative of The Government of Ontario & Canadian National Railways, People in the project 1965-1969". Starkville, MS: HTA PRESS. Archived from the original on 2006-05-13. Retrieved 2015-06-11.

External links

• Lakeshore West GO Train and Bus Schedule
• Niagara GO Hub and Transit Stations Study at Regional Municipality of Niagara