posted on December 04, 2010

Electrifying GO Trains a good idea

By: Josh Hume
Published: Nov 16, 2010
Source: Now Toronto

About 40 protesters walked in circles Tuesday morning outside Metrolinx headquarters at the foot of Bay Street while the board met upstairs to ruminate over a presentation on the GO train electrification study. 

Afterwards, members of the Clean Train Coalition politely intruded on the meeting in rotations of ten at a time – those were all the seats available in the boardroom. Appropriately, the doorman brought in for the day was a transit security officer.

The study in question doesn’t add a lot to what is already known.

Electrification, the report says, would be cheaper over the long term, it would be cleaner and it would slightly reduce commute times. 

The document identifies six options going forward that range from electrifying single lines to converting the whole system. And while the study makes no recommendations, it is the first time the possibility of a full conversion of all seven corridors of the GO rail system has been studied.

http://www.nowtoronto.com/daily/news/story.cfm?content=177859