That time in Toronto

It's nice to be able to live again, without a cloud hanging over every aspect of my family's life. I am happy to share that our family is safely in our new home and our nightmare is pretty much over. That said, let's talk about trains. 

In early June, my family made a quick trip to Toronto to a Blue Jays game, which was a first for my two daughters. You can read about what we saw on the way to Toronto in this post. After we arrived, we stayed at the hotel attached to the Rogers Centre, so it was conveniently located near the downtown Metrolinx/Via tracks, which made for some great railfanning for me. Never mind the quick visit I was able to make to the Toronto Railway Museum, right across from the baseball stadium. I will leave those images for another post. 

Obviously, on a game day, my family was around the baseball stadium, which meant we were able to see plenty of GO Trains. I did even see one still being pulled by an old F59, but I was not quick enough to get an image of that one. But I did like this shot taken in front of the city's convention centre. The mix of old and new Metrolinx green is quite common on GO Trains still.

This shot below was taken from a pedestrian walkway above the tracks right beside the Rogers Centre. I like that this image captures the length of the train, the shadows mid-train and the signals. The lighting was tricky to work with, but a bit of colour correction helped define the train a little more clearly.

I wasn't able to devote a lot of time to train watching, as our goal was to fulfill a Christmas promise to take the girls to a game and let them choose one piece of team memorabilia at the team shop. However, given the steady stream of commuters to and from downtown, there was lots to shoot in a short period of time.

In addition to the GO Trains making their way to and from Union Station, I also managed to get a few shots of the UP Express, short for Union-Pearson Express. This is the three-car consist making its way past the convention centre. The UP Express has both three- and two-car consists plying the rails to and from the airport. The frequency of these trains was pretty steady as I was trackside. I know a few people who have made use of this service. They tell me it is a great experience. You can just see my daughter's hand in the bottom of the photo.

I have to admit that I hung out at my hotel room window way too much when I returned from the game. I found the steady flow of trains and the gentle rumble of the diesel engines oddly captivating. Here's a shot of a P42 with a Love the Way wrap leading a LRC consist past my window. The final car in this train was a refurbished HEP silver streamliner. The architecture of the hotel room meant I could not entirely crop out the part of the building that jutted out and obstructed my view. The grey cityscape really makes the yellow Via logo on the P42 stick out. It was fun to get shots of trains from up high. It's not something I've been able to do often.

Speaking of wraps. Here's a GO coach with a Desjardins message for riders.

Call this next shot a milestone shot, even if it was taken through a window at an impossible angle with some issues with glare. It's a moral victory for me because this is the first time I have ever captured the Canadian. You can see the multiple F40 units on point, as the consist backs into Union Station as a GO Train heads in the opposite direction with the control cab leading the way. The Canadian was on the track closest to my hotel, which made it hard to capture. It took me a moment to realize what this train was. I'm glad I was taking photos of it all the same. You can see some of the gargoyles from the Rogers Centre obstructing the view. Nothing to be done. Beggars can't be choosers.

I thought I'd finish with this shot. If you've ever been in Union Station and find yourself descending the ramp from the main hall to the area where people line up for their trains, you might notice this old plaque off the to the side. I find it interesting that the railway thought enough of its employees that it felt it had to erect a small monument saluting their service to our country during wartime. The plaque doesn't specify any war. It's quite a contrast to the railways of today, spanning continents and more focused on shareholder value than their employees sacrificing their lives for the cause of freedom. I'm not mentioning this as a critique, per se. Times change. It's just interesting to have a glimpse of where the CPR's corporate mentality was, once upon a time.

Those are my images trackside in downtown Toronto. It was fun to get a brief look at big city railroading. It made the awful baseball game we watched all the more palatable.

Trackside observations in Toronto

So our house is packed and the waiting game nears an end. We are officially ready to move, but we don't have possession of our new home yet. I'm at my work desk in the basement and there's a lull in my day. I figured it was a good time to go over some of my observations from Toronto on June 1, when my family made a quick visit to the city to take our kids to a Blue Jays game (they lost) and the Ripley's Aquarium. You can read about the westward rail journey to Toronto in my previous post.

In that post, I detailed some interesting observations from our train journey from Ottawa's Fallowfield Station all the way through to Cobourg. Our ride included a meet with two CN freight trains, a westbound container train parked in Belleville and another westbound mixed that had stopped for us around Brockville. This was the best shot I could get of the front end of that train from my small window in the ex-CP HEP car. I think the clouds and the trees make this image more interesting. I would have liked to get more of the cab, but this is what you sometimes get when you take photos while in motion.

But let's focus on Toronto. As our train pulled into Oshawa, I was able to get a quick shot of a parked GO Train with the power facing east. Oshawa is usually a busy station, with a yard that holds autoracks for a nearby automotive plant and other freight cars on any given day. I like the fact that these are images I could not otherwise get trackside.

As we headed west, we passed the Metrolinx GO Train maintenance facility in Whitby. It was not easy to get a proper image of the yard, since the glare from my window and the narrow vantage point made it a challenge. I had to touch up this image quite a bit to account for the glare and reflections on our window. I like how this one turned out. There are a lot of trains visible.

This shot also had to be touched up to account for the fact that it was taken behind a narrow window in our passing HEP car. I liked how this one turned out as well. Most of the quick shots I took passing by didn't turn out. But it's always cool to get a behind-the-scenes look at railway facilities from a vantage point that you could never get from public property.

When we entered the home stretch of track leading to Union Station, I didn't expect to see much, but I still kept an eye out for anything. I did make sure to get a shot of this trackside building on Cherry Street. I remember always seeming to notice this building when I rode the train in my university days. It brought back a lot of good memories seeing it again. It's nice to know that, despite all the changes in Toronto over the last few decades, a few old vestiges of its gritty past remain. You can see some light rail (street car?) right-of-way in the bottom right corner of the image.

The tracks leading into Union Station are the exclusive domain of GO Trains, Via Rail intercity corridor trains and the Union Pearson Express. But once in a while, you might catch a few freight cars that are being used for maintenance of way purposes. This was an unexpected catch.

A few ties were on this flat car, but I wasn't sure if they were old ties that had been removed or new ties that were awaiting placement on one of the lines. My guess is they are old ties, given they seemed to be thrown onto the car without any thought to organization. I would expect new ties to be in a neat bundle.

End of the line for us as our train pulled in under the now brightly lit platforms of Union Station. This is quite the contrast with Montreal's platforms, which I was also able to see later in the summer on a quick trip to Montreal with my daughter. The windows and lighting makes for a better first impression of Toronto than travellers had from the old platform. A gleaming GO Train awaits its next run east as we pulled in.

In my brief time in Toronto, I managed to get a bunch more material but I will save that for another post. It has been a really rewarding summer for me as a railfan, as I have taken three trips and acquired a fair bit of new material. It's always good to have too much, for a change.

CPR's forgotten "Union" Station

When I was researching the fate and legacy of the Canadian Pacific Railway’s station in Westboro, there was an associated bit of Ottawa railway history that I stumbled across for the umpteenth time. This week, I decided to take a deep dive and unearth a little more of Ottawa’s railway history. This week, let’s look at CPR’s original Ottawa train station, the Broad Street Station.

The station hosted passenger trains for the CP for four decades, not to mention freight activity in its six-track yard.

Try looking for any trace of this station now and you’ll get nowhere. That’s because Broad Street no longer officially exists. Some crumbling asphalt is still there near Albert Street if you look closely enough, but the road itself is largely covered over by decades of neglect, unchecked weeds and planning incompetence. The street itself saw all its remaining structures emptied and razed as the LeBreton Flats were emptied in the 1960s. For those interested, Broad Street, or what’s left of it, is on the western half of the LeBreton Flats, just west of Booth Street and the Pimisi O-Train station.

But the station itself was long gone by the time the Flats were cleared in the sixties. In fact, by the time the National Capital Commission decided to clear the entire area, the Canadian Pacific had already moved its passenger operations twice. The second Broad Street station closed in 1920, which meant some of Canadian Pacific’s passenger operations were shifted to Ottawa’s Union Station. I say some, because it’s not that simple, of course. I’ve spoken to more than one rail historian and they have different takes on how much passenger traffic was shifted to the downtown station after Broad Street closed.

That’s because there’s the matter of the Ottawa West station to consider. The original Ottawa West station was built at the same time as the Broad Street Station was closed in 1920. CP also operated the Bayview Avenue Ottawa West station as an additional passenger station up until the 1960s. So, the operations at the Broad Street Station were shifted in two directions. The CP did indeed use the Union Station downtown for some of its operations, but photos of the Dominion calling at Ottawa West station back up what one rail historian told me a few years ago. That was that the Ottawa West station was used for transcontinentals at one point, while the Union Station was used to support corridor passenger operations. Also, early schedules for Ottawa West in the 1920s showed that it hosted the Trans-Canada Limited as well.

 Broad Street Station in 1908, with Ottawa streetcar out front

Look at a timetable from the 1950s, as I did, and you will see designations in the schedule on some trains that read “Ottawa (Union),” especially on corridor trains. This makes me think that there was a shifting division of the passenger operations, although it’s not clear to me exactly what trains departed from Ottawa West and Union over the years and why. The reason I get confused is, despite pictures of the Dominion calling at Ottawa West, the schedule I consulted from 1956 listed only two trains as using the Ottawa West station, one from Ottawa to Brockville and the other from Ottawa to Chalk River.

It wasn’t always this confusing, of course. Although Ottawa’s Union Station was meant to be a passenger station for the Grand Trunk (later Canadian Northern and finally Canadian National), Canadian Pacific and New York Central, CP used its own station on Broad Street from the 1880s until 1920. And CP wasn’t alone. The New York Central also had its own terminal on Mann Avenue, near the edge of what is now the University of Ottawa campus.

What’s interesting about the Broad Street Station is that it is was once considered to be Ottawa’s Union Station, a designation that clearly predated the construction of the downtown station that was also known as the Union Station. The original CPR station opened in 1896, to replace the Canada Central depot that burned down in 1895. The CPR, of course, took over what became the Carleton Place Subdivision from the Canada Central years earlier. But a railway presence on Broad Street goes back to 1871, when a station opened its doors there to connect two major railways at one point. In 1879, construction wrapped up on the Prince of Wales Railway bridge to connect Quebec rails to this original union station.

The original CPR Broad Street Station (see above behind another streetcar) was destroyed by the great Ottawa-Hull fire of April 1900. The second CPR station on the site was opened in January 1901 (top two photos). If it looks familiar, it should. The moment I saw the images of the station, it reminded me of the CPR Windsor Station in Montreal. The architect who designed the Broad Street Station was from Montreal and was responsible for a number of other CPR stations. The station also bears some striking similarities to the Chateau Laurier.

The fact that it opened in 1901, eleven years before the opening of the downtown Union Station, might account for the CPR’s decision to stick with the station even after the magnificent downtown GTR station opened its doors. I would imagine it would be a tough pill to swallow to bail out of a station that wasn’t even 20 years old.

However, that is just what CPR did in 1920 when it moved its operations to Union Station downtown and to the Ottawa West station. A few articles I read pointed to the opening of the Interprovincial Bridge in 1901 (Alexandra Bridge) between downtown Ottawa and Hull as the turning point for railways. Over the years, more activity began to focus on that bridge, which once carried trains over the river. That might have been the reason for CP to transfer much of its trains to the downtown station.

It's hard to find accurate information about when the Broad Street Station was officially torn down, but it seems as though it was around until the 1930s before it was demolished. A real shame too, given what a beautiful structure it was.

Sources: 
All links will take you to information specific to this station. The Branchline Magazine link takes you to the most comprehensive selection of photos of the old Broad Street Station

Colin Churcher’s Railways in Canada

Traingeek.ca

Old Time Trains

Wikipedia

Branchline Magazine

Ottawa's Railway Station gets a little respect

Say what you want about Ottawa's Railway Station, but you can never accuse it of being boring. The station, which was opened in 1966, has always had a couple of factors working against it. But in the past few years, it has begun to gain a little respect.

Let's start with some surprising facts about this station. Did you know the Tremblay Road station has been open 50 years? That means it has been open for business just three fewer years than Ottawa's Union Station, which operated as the main railway hub in Ottawa's downtown from 1912 to 1966.

Did you know that the Tremblay Road station won a Governor General's Medal for architecture in 1967? Or that it was ranked as one of the 500 most significant buildings produced in the last century by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada in 2000? Or that in 2007, it was presented the Ontario Association of Architects’ Landmark Award? Or that it was designated a heritage railway station in 1996, just 30 years after opening? Pretty impressive for a building that doesn't get a lot of love.

July 8, 2013 view of the platforms at Ottawa's Central Station as a Montreal-bound corridor consist eases out from the platforms. You can see the main building in the top right hand corner of this shot.

Many locals still bemoan the fact that the city's original Union Station was moved from the downtown to Tremblay Road, which is not exactly central like Via Rail's stations in Montreal, Toronto or Quebec City. The Tremblay Road station will also never measure up to the historic charm of the old Union Station, which is now the Government Conference Centre and soon to be the temporary home of Canada's Senate.

However, a few developments in the last few years promise to ensure that the Tremblay Road railway station gets a bit more respect in the years to come.

First, a pedestrian bridge has been built over Highway 417, which now connects the station to the neighbourhoods north of the highway, not to mention the city's baseball stadium, RCGT Park, home of the 2016 Cam-Am League champions, the Ottawa Champions (rather presumptuous name, but we backed it up with a championship).

Second, the city's Confederation Line light rail system is in the process of being built right through the station's property, which promises to directly link the Via Rail station to the downtown in a way that has been lacking since the station was built. Commuters will soon be able to board the LRT and get to the railway station without minimal fuss.

Finally, more than $21 million is being spent on ongoing renovations that will greatly enhance each traveler's experience at the station. Indeed, these are exciting times for the station.

June 26, 1971 view from the west side of the platforms when both CN and CP passengers trains used the Beachburg Subdivision.

The most obvious change that travelers will notice at the station will be the platforms. They will all be raised so that travelers will be able to board their coaches without walking up any steps. This will replicate the platforms that Via Rail has at its Montreal and Quebec City stations. The other major change is these platforms will be heated. If you have the misfortune of coming to Ottawa in the winter via train, this scene below is what you might face when you get off the train

Winter storm in early 2014.

The image below shows you what the platforms will look like when they are finished next fall.

Via Rail Canada publicity image

The station will also get new elevators that will improve access to the platforms. The station already has an aesthetically pleasing tunnel below the platforms, which ends with a massive and impressive circular ramp that you can take to the main concourse, if you decide to skip the escalators. I've done this a few times, just to prolong the experience a bit.

The station will also get roof repairs, electrical repairs, Business Class lounge renovations and washroom renovations.

Beginning in November, the railway also boosted the number of departures from Ottawa Station by two, meaning that there are now nine departures to Toronto and Montreal each day. This station accommodates 800,000 travelers each year, making it the third busiest railway station in the country.

Via Rail Canada publicity photo

When you think of how much has happened in the past 20 years around this station, it's hard to believe that there was so little surrounding this depot at one point. For example, most local take for granted that Trainyards retail development. Some might not remember that much of this land was railway property and some of it housed railway tracks.

Closer to the station, a few office buildings have been built in recent years on railway land that sat unused for quite a long time. Up until very recently, there were a few dilapidated railway structures on the other side of the chain link fence that surrounds the station's tracks.

Even on the other side of the highway, a fair bit of retail development on Coventry Road has really quickened the pace of the area around the station. When you think of the pedestrian bridge and light rail connection, the disrespected station in the middle of no man's land seems to be a little less lonely these days.

Happy 50th Birthday to Ottawa Station. I often rave about Ottawa's old Union Station, but I have to admit I truly do like this station. Here's hoping it remains a busy fixture in the city.

Via Rail Canada Facebook image

37th Heaven

Toronto Part IV - The following post is the fourth of four I have put together to chronicle the various trains I saw on a recent trip to Toronto with my family in mid-March. You can read the first three parts here, here and here.

Call it a Moveable Feast.* When my family spent a few days in Toronto last month, I was thrilled that we were treated to a trackside seat to all the comings and goings at Toronto's Union Station. As I have mentioned, our rented condo was just west of Union Station, in between Spadina Avenue and Bathurst Street.

This week, I thought I would share some of my favourite aerial shots of the railway action that were taken from the 37th floor balcony, which fronted onto Toronto's busy passenger rail corridor. Let's begin with a Via Rail combined train. I saw this consist twice over my three-day stay. I like this shot because it captures the entire consist heading beneath Spadina Avenue. The first engine is trailed by three coaches while the second is trailed by six. I have only seen this type of consist on other people's blogs, so it was a real treat to see something like this in person. Via Rail's J-Train has been shot a number of times in Quebec and other points east of Toronto. Does anyone have an idea what this consist might be? I didn't think it was the so-called J-Train.

Another scene I have rarely seen outside of Ottawa's Central Station. As you see below, two Via Rail corridor trains cross paths on their way to Union Station. In this case, the F40 consist was stopped while the P42-pulled streamliner consist proceeded ahead to Union. It was cool to see a diversity of Via Rail equipment from up high.

This perspective gives you an idea of where my perch was in relation to the tracks. In this shot, a Via Rail corridor train heads west out of Union, just beside my spot. This is what a train looks like from 37 floors almost directly overhead. You can see some bundles of rail and ties beside the train.

As I mentioned, I saw the Via Rail combination consist twice. This shot, again, shows you what these trains looked like from a vantage point that was almost directly overhead In this shot, you can see an F40 consist with four cars leading the second consist, also being pulled by another F40. Those tracks you see at the top of the shot comprise the GO Transit North Bathurst Yard, where GO Trains park during the off-peak hours.

An aerial shot of a few GO Trains parking in North Bathurst Yard following the morning rush. The weather over the days I was in Toronto was quite misty, which made getting sharp images a little tricky. Still, it was fun to see these trains backing into the yard. The outer tracks in this yard were all stubs. It looked as through there were connected to the main line at both ends at some point.

Four trains in one shot. This is a record for me that will likely never be broken. These four GO consists met right next to old Fort York, just west of the Bathurst Street bridge, which is in the bottom of the frame. You can really notice the mist in this shot.

Here's an action shot of a GO Train backing into North Bathurst Yard right after the morning rush. What makes this shot even better is the combined Via Rail consist making its way to Union Station, to the left of the shot. Both trains are passing beneath the Spadina Avenue bridge.

 

And with that, you have a somewhat complete picture of what I saw in Toronto last month. I have loads of other shots I will share on an infrequent basis.

 

* - A Moveable Feast is the title of Ernest Hemingway's unfinished memoirs, which were published following his death. In my opinion, his greatest work will always be For Whom the Bells Tolls, a fictionalized account of an American fighting with the Spanish guerillas during the Spanish Civil War.

GOing to extremes

Toronto Part III - The following post is the third of four I have put together to chronicle the various trains I saw on a recent trip to Toronto with my family in mid-March. You can read the first two parts here and here.

 

It didn't get much better than this. For three days, I was able to watch one of the busiest rail corridors in the country right from my living room window. My family was staying in a condo in downtown Toronto, just steps from Spadina Avenue. This meant that I was able to watch trains, even when I was doing something else. At one point during our brief stay in Hogtown, my wife asked me to walk down the street to see what the line was like at the Ripley's Aquarium (see previous post), which was the main family activity we had planned for our little stay. I jumped at the chance to do this, since it allowed me to walk trackside and get more photos of the railway action. In this post, I am sharing some of the more interesting shots I collected while on this short walk, no to mention a few others I captured from the 37th floor condo. In this next post, I will share the most interesting aerial shots from the condo perch, which are far too numerous for this post.

 

So, here's the first shot I liked. It's a GO Train headed west, having just left Union Station. On point is MP40PH-3C 643. While I watched these GO Trains over my three-day stay, I noticed that most consists have these locomotives pushing or pulling. That means the old F59PHs are largely being phased out. Notice that the first coach in the consist is newly painted in the Metrolinx light green scheme. I didn't see as many of these newly painted cars as I thought I would.

 



I noticed that GO would begin backing up trains early in the morning in the North Bathurst Yard, which was right across from my condo. I shot a lot of aerial shots of these moves, but I did make sure to get a few shots from the Spadina Avenue bridge, including this image. The misty weather tended to obscure many of the details in my shots, but I still like how this one turned out.

I was thrilled with this shot simply because it captured all the elements of a busy rail network in a big city that I wanted to get. In this shot, you can see the pedestrian bridge between Iceboat Terrace and Front Street (yellow), the Bathurst Street bridge, a newly installed signal gantry, two diverging rail pathways, two signal towers and the main attraction, the UP Express, heading east to Union Station. This is one of my favourite shots from Toronto.

A quick peek at a UP Express wrap on a GO Train in North Bathurst Yard. What's that expression? One hand washes the other? In this case, one Metrolinx operation touts the other. This was the only wrap I saw.

Another GO Train makes its way east to Union Station, passing by North Bathurst Yard. The frequency of GO Trains blew me away, particularly an Ottawa resident not accustomed to commuter rail of this magnitude.

This is one of the features of the new GO equipment that I almost missed. I caught this new cab at the end of our stay.

And as I mentioned, the F59PHs are almost phased out, but I did catch a consist with an F59 on each end. In this case, this consist stopped right in front of our building and waited for clearance to proceed. At one point, multiple GO Trains were lined up on a single track, some within a few dozen metres of each other, all waiting for clearance to go. It was like watching planes lined up next to a runway. I have never seen that before. It was a treat to watch. In the image below, you can see the GO crew taking a breather while they await instructions to proceed. Made for an amazing shot.

 

 

Usually, I tend to stay away from railfanning posts, but I couldn't resist. There really is no story or editorial content here, just a few memories of a great few days spent watching trains. 



Union Pearson Express: Take note, Ottawa

Toronto, Part I - The following post is the first of four I have put together to chronicle the various trains I saw on a recent trip to Toronto with my family in mid-March.

What do the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, the 2015 Pan-American Games and Canada's 150th anniversary have in common? Maybe the better question would be what should these three events
have in common? Well, in my opinion, they all should be good news for commuter rail. In the case of the Olympics and the Pan-Am Games, both host cities used their events to dramatically improve their commuter rail between their downtowns and their airports. Meanwhile in Ottawa, the potential to link Ottawa's downtown to the city's airport remains less than certain. And that's a shame. Especially considering that next year would be the ideal year to have this project done.

But, let's focus on the positive first. The Union Pearson Express (UP Express) is a rail service that connects Toronto's Pearson International Airport with the city's Union Station. The commuter trains make the connection in 25 minutes each way at intervals of 15 minutes. Without getting into the history of this rail line (there is quite a history), the most important element to highlight is that the service began operation last year in time for the Pan-American Games in Toronto. This is crucial, I think, because the UP Express is proof that, given a sense of urgency, we can find the political will to get important projects like this done. A world-class city needs a rail link between its airport and downtown. End of story.

I also referenced Vancouver. In the case of that city, its Sky Train commuter service was extended to the airport via the Canada Line. By all accounts, this expansion of that service has been a hit in the Lower Mainland and is exceeding ridership estimates. Again, this is an example of a special event providing the impetus for an important infrastructure project to get done.

I will mention Ottawa in a minute, but first, here's a shot below of a two-car consist (Nippon Sharyo diesel multiple unit) crossing below Spadina Avenue near the GO Transit North Bathurst Yard, where a parked GO Train awaits its evening run.

The UP Express heads west beneath Spadina Street and past parked GO Trains in North Bathurst Yard on March 14, 2016

Now, I am not going to pretend that this service is the pinnacle of what commuter rail should be. Those who have followed the story of this train know that there have been complaints about the high fares charged by Metrolinx (these fares were recently reduced), the falling ridership and the fact that an electric train was not used when the service launched last year. To me, the electric train argument is the product of those who don't realize how complex this project was and those who don't understand just how green these trains are (EPA Tier Four compliant).

This shot below shows another Pearson-bound trainset passing by the condo I rented for my family during our brief stay in Toronto. I will have many more photos to share from this high vantage point in later posts.

The UP Express heads west between Spadina and Bathurst streets in Toronto on March 13, 2016

This brings me to Ottawa and the opportunity this city will miss to have a downtown-airport rail link in time for 2017, when Canada's 150th birthday will make Ottawa a destination for a number of special events (like an expected Grey Cup and the Olympic curling trials) and many more tourists than usual. An extension of the existing O-Train Trillium Line to the airport will not happen anytime soon. The visionaries at City Hall here are still talking about this airport extension as a nice addition to the city's second phase of light rail expansion, if the money can be found. The proposed $100-million airport extension, which would make use of the existing remnants of the old CP Prescott Sub, would require a spur be built to the airport, since the existing rail is not close enough to the terminal. The city has said that passengers would have to change trains at the end of the current Trillium Line and board a separate train to the airport, if a link is built. That is a big problem, but it should not be a deal breaker. I am amazed that the city does not see this airport link as a bigger priority.

The current end of the line for the O-Train at Greenboro Station. This view shows the existing track that leads south through airport lands. It is currently CN trackage that is sporadically used to service the National Research Council's surface transportation research facility on Lester Road.

The biggest problem I have about this dithering is that an airport extension would not only largely make use of an existing right-of-way, it would also serve as a crucial link to Barrhaven and Riverside South, two massive south-end neighbourhoods that need better commuting options more than most other areas of the city. So, if the city can't find the will to build an airport extension, should it not place a heavy emphasis on connecting Barrhaven and Riverside South to the LRT network as soon as possible? If they did, the airport extension would be more of a natural add-on to the network.

So what, you may think. Ottawa doesn't have a rail link to its airport. Big deal, right? Well, it is a big deal because getting to Ottawa's airport is already a hassle. The airport is served by a single city bus route, the 97, which is a milk run route, to say the least. The 97 bus originates it the city's west end, Bells Corners to be more specific. Anyone wanting to get to the airport via bus will have to budget at least an hour in transit to get to the airport.

Also, the "parkway" serving the airport is insufficient, to say the least. The road is a two-lane road, which very often bogs down when traffic is heavy. Making matters worse, until recently, the city had an Airport Parkway and an Aviation Parkway, which served the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum. So, unless you know the city, you could very easily get confused. Thankfully, the Aviation Parkway has been renamed. But, I still find the Airport Parkway is a road not easily accessed as it stands now, tacked on to the end of Bronson Avenue. The alternate route to the airport, via Uplands Drive, is also a route you need to know in order to get to the airport on time.

My point is a rail link would simplify transportation to the airport immensely. Right now, your best bet getting to the airport is taxi or car, if you know the route and if you don't get lost or bogged down in traffic.

So, let's end on a positive railfanning note.

UP Express, top right, headed west for Pearson International Airport, passes an eastbound GO Train headed for Toronto's Union Station on March 13, 2016

I caught a bunch of great meets at this junction, just west of Bathurst Street and north of Fort York. Here we see a GO Train bound for Union Station while a two-car UP Express heads for the airport. I saw two- and three-car UP Express consists while in Toronto and was impressed with this little train. There may still be challenges ahead for this train, but it does add a great element to railfanning in Toronto.