SouthwestLynx: Integrated High-Performance Public Transportation for Southwestern Ontario By Greg Gormick On Track Strategies June 2018 oxfordcounty.ca SouthwestLynx: Integrated High-Performance Public Transportation for Southwestern Ontario By Greg Gormick On Track Strategies June 2018 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................................4 Executive Summary ......................................................................................................................................5 1.0 Introduction: A Question of Destiny .....................................................................................................7 2.0 Southwestern Ontario’s Mobility Gap ...................................................................................................8 2.1 VIA Rail Canada ..........................................................................................................................9 2.2 Intercommunity Transportation................................................................................................15 2.3 Urban Transit ............................................................................................................................19 2.4 Intermodal Connectivity ...........................................................................................................20 3.0 The Benefits of Integrated Public Transportation Investment .............................................................22 3.1 Rail Passenger Service ..............................................................................................................23 3.2 Intercommunity Transportation................................................................................................25 4.0 Recent Federal and Provincial Initiatives ............................................................................................27 4.1 GO Transit Expansion ................................................................................................................28 4.2 Ontario Intercity Bus Deregulation ...........................................................................................32 4.3 Ontario Community Transportation Grants ...............................................................................33 4.4 Southwestern Ontario High-Speed Rail Proposal ......................................................................34 4.5 VIA Rail Canada High-Frequency Rail Proposal .........................................................................38 5.0 The High-Performance Rail Advantage ..............................................................................................41 5.1 Phasing and Scalability ............................................................................................................45 5.2 Maximizing the Current Rail Assets ..........................................................................................46 5.3 Traction Power Options .............................................................................................................48 5.4 Maximum Speed vs. Average Speed .........................................................................................50 5.5 Joint Rail Freight Benefits .........................................................................................................52 5.6 Non-Rail Essentials ...................................................................................................................54 6.0 Successful U.S. High-Performance Rail Role Models ...........................................................................55 6.1 Michigan’s Wolverine Corridor ..................................................................................................57 6.2 North Carolina’s Piedmont Corridor ..........................................................................................59 6.3 Northern California’s Capitol Corridor........................................................................................62 7.0 SouthwestLynx Prerequisites .............................................................................................................65 7.1 Southwestern Ontario Rail Fleet Renewal ................................................................................66 7.2 A Federal-Provincial Partnership ..............................................................................................68 7.3 A New Governance and Service Delivery Model ........................................................................69 8.0 SouthwestLynx Strategic Investments ...............................................................................................72 8.1 High-Performance Rail Incremental Investments ......................................................................79 8.1.1 Aldershot-Bayview Junction Capacity Expansion ..........................................................82 8.1.2 Guelph Subdivision Upgrading ......................................................................................84 8.1.3 Bramalea-Georgetown Capacity Expansion ...................................................................86 8.1.4 CN Dundas Subdivision Capacity Expansion ...................................................................88 8.1.5 CN-CP Woodstock-Komoka Line Consolidation ..............................................................89 8.1.6 Continuous Corridor Enhancements ..............................................................................91 9.0 Advancing the SouthwestLynx Plan ...................................................................................................94 9.1 Rail Demonstration Project: North Main Line Pool Agreement and Operation .........................95 9.2 Intercommunity Transportation Service Demonstration Project ...............................................99 10.0 Recommendations ...........................................................................................................................102 10.1 Local and Regional Endorsements .........................................................................................103 10.2 Oxford County SouthwestLynx Vision Workshop ....................................................................103 10.3 Multi-County Intercommunity Transportation Development .................................................104 10.4 Federal and Provincial Government Engagement ..................................................................105 10.5 Hamilton and Niagara Municipal and Regional Outreach ......................................................106 3 Acknowledgments The author gratefully acknowledges the insights and input of numerous professional members of the Canadian and U.S. public transportation industry, who wish to remain anonymous. Thanks to the numerous talented rail photographers who contributed images to this report, especially Andy Cassidy (Vancouver), Ray Farand (Ottawa) and Walter E. Pfefferle (Beachville, Ontario). Special thanks for his encyclopedic knowledge, unique insights and constant encouragement to DAVID GUNN President and Chief Executive Officer (retired) Amtrak West Bay, Nova Scotia Dedication SouthwestLynx is dedicated to the memory of DANIEL HAMMOND (1960-2018) An accomplished telecommunications consultant, public transportation advocate and close friend of the author, Dan provided invaluable assistance in the preliminary stages of this plan. His innovative thinking, his practical and positive outlook, and his unwavering belief in the need for better rail and intercommunity transportation in Southwestern Ontario and across Canada will remain an inspiration to all who continue to work to bring about such a necessary and overdue change in our transportation system. 4 Executive Summary SouthwestLynx is a practical, affordable plan that from around the world, some of which have laid the can be rapidly deployed to address the public groundwork for the later adoption of HSR service transportation access and mobility deficiencies that to augment the original HPR services. All of these are threatening Southwestern Ontario’s economic, successful global precedents have included major social and environmental destiny. intercommunity transportation components, which By creating a high-performance rail (HPR) core have not only acted as feeders to the HPR core routes, system to significantly improve the current but also to provide stand-alone service between the Southwestern Ontario rail passenger services, points they serve. establishing a coordinated network of connecting There are three prerequisites for the implementation intercommunity transportation services and of SouthwestLynx: linking them with intermodal mobility hubs, • Complete replacement of the Southwestern SouthwestLynx can begin improving the region’s Ontario rail passenger fleet with new, proven public transportation system within one year. It is high-performance diesel-electric locomotives scalable and incremental, and it can be completed and rolling stock, and rail infrastructure at a lower and more readily verifiable cost than the improvements; still-unsubstantiated estimate of $21 billion and 14 • Coordination and cooperation among the years required for the proposed Toronto-London- Government of Canada, federally-owned Windsor high-speed rail (HSR) project. It requires VIA Rail, the Government of Ontario and only minor land acquisition, severs no agricultural provincially-owned