Raise the Hammer

Rail construction for public Commuter Rail (Regional Rail) can take a long time because of the ownership issue. There have been many GO Transit projects that were delayed in the past because the owner, CN or CP, are just not ready or willing to have major sections of THEIR track/infrastructure and freight schedules fouled up. Remember this how they make money. Now GO owns major portions of the area's mainline railway infrastructure and they have a receptive provincial government ready to spend.

It will still take a decade because of the actual construction time plus the safety and regulatory review of GO Transit's Operational Certificate which must be done by Transport Canada before the first passenger train starts running on its new schedule for the GO Transit RER Program. Any new EMU or DMU that GO decides to run must also be tested by Transport Canada. This process takes at the least a year sometimes more if the vehicle design has never run in Canada. This is probably why for cost and maintenance reasons GO will use Electric Locomotives first. They are far easier to implement and easier to manage than a system of EMU's. Any regional rail system as detailed oriented as the GO RER Program schedule must also be reviewed by Transport Canada for its basic schedule safety. Keep in mind, it took Transport Canada over a year to review and allow for "restricted passenger service" (can't share track with freight trains) Ottawa's new Alstom Coradina Lint 41 DMU's to replace the Bombardier Talent DMU's on the Ottawa's O-Train Line, now renamed, The Green or Trillium Line. It took only 3-4 months for Transport Canada to do the same thing with the original BR643 Talent DMU's back in 2000 and 2001.

For those who didn't know, the whole rail system in Ottawa is now referred to, as the O-Train System, both the LRT oriented Confederation Line (opening in 2018)and the diesel Trillium Line are all part of the O-Train System (Using DMU's not Diesel LRT's).

Considering the sheer number of layoffs and downsizing at Transport Canada (over 3200 Jobs in Ottawa alone) by the federal Conservatives, it will probably take a considerable time to review the GO RER System if it has not already started it will have to start soon.