GO ALRT (Government of Ontario Advanced Light Rail Transit)
was a
rapid transit
Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as heavy rail or metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. A rapid transit system that primarily or traditionally runs below the surface may be ...
system proposed by
GO Transit
GO Transit is a regional public transit system serving the Greater Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario, Canada. With its hub at Union Station in Toronto, GO Transit's green-and-white trains and buses serve a population of more than seven millio ...
in 1982. The ALRT system would have been implemented along two new lines in the
Greater Toronto Area. It would have used a new electric train to provide interurban service, also then referred to as "inter-regional rapid transit", along the existing and new GO corridors. The system was based on an enlarged
UTDC ICTS vehicle that was designed to offer a compromise between passenger capacity and the level of infrastructure needed to support it. The project was cancelled due to budget cuts of the Tory government in 1985, although a number of the proposed lines were later implemented using conventional heavy rail systems, including the eastern portion of the Lakeshore East GO train service route from Pickering station, to Whitby station, in Durham region.
Fleet
A number of vehicle design concepts were considered during the life of the GO ALRT Project, with an initial design similar to the Mark 1 ICTS vehicle, with later modifications making the vehicle larger and longer. Such a vehicle would have been designed and built by UTDC, although the crown corporation was sold off to Lavalin Inc in 1986, becoming known as UTDC Inc, before being sold to Bombardier in 1992.
Cars
The proposed line would have used a modified version of the
Urban Transportation Development Corporation
The Urban Transportation Development Corporation Ltd. (UTDC) was a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Ontario, Canada. It was established in the 1970s as a way to enter what was then expected to be a burgeoning market in advanced l ...
's
ICTS
Information and communications technology (ICT) is an extensional term for information technology (IT) that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals) and computers, ...
car, which would undergo about two additional railcar vehicle redesigns over the course of the program's iteration. This proposed
ALRT car was a two-car articulated vehicle, as opposed to individual cars with articulated
bogies. The original vehicle design consisted of a unit of three married articulated ICTS cars forming a single train. As time progressed, however, the dimensions of the cars increased, mainly in length, until they reached the same length as a regular passenger rail coach. Also, the GO-ALRT cars were to have used an overhead catenary for power pickup instead of an alternating current third rail, and conventional traction motors were to have been used instead of a linear induction motor. The decision to launch the program was made after a study was published examining several options including the use of electric multiple units, standard diesel trains, electric trains, and ALRT.
* Design 1: 124 passengers - 36.0 m articulated car set
* Design 2: 147 passengers - 45.6 m articulated car set
Stations
List of the planned stations on the ALRT routes (stations listed west to east):
* Western section: , , , , , Fourth Line,
* Eastern section: , , , Hopkins, Stevenson, Harmony
Cancellation
The GO-ALRT program died at the hand of the
Peterson government in 1985, but there are other factors that were considered:
* Unproven technology and concerns over problems with the same ICTS on the
Scarborough RT
Line 3 Scarborough (originally known as the Scarborough RT or SRT) is a light rapid transit line that is part of the Toronto subway system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The line runs entirely within the suburban district of Scarborough, encompas ...
[
* Access to right-of-way on the southern route
Since the cancellation, there has been no similar plans for GO in Toronto. GO Transit does operate bus service along ]Highway 401
King's Highway 401, commonly referred to as Highway 401 and also known by its official name as the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway or colloquially referred to as the four-oh-one,
is a controlled-access 400-series highway in the Canadian provinc ...
that parallels the northern ALRT route. Expansion of the Lakeshore line also provides similar servicing offered in the southern ALRT route.
As for ICTS technology, it was acquired by Bombardier Transportation when it acquired UTDC
The Urban Transportation Development Corporation Ltd. (UTDC) was a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Ontario, Canada. It was established in the 1970s as a way to enter what was then expected to be a burgeoning market in advanced l ...
and is now showcased in the Bombardier Advanced Rapid Transit platform, or as the transit vehicle technology is referred to as now as the Bombardier Innovia Metro
Innovia Metro is an automated rapid transit system manufactured by Alstom. Innovia Metro systems run on conventional metal rails and pull power from a third rail, but are powered by a linear induction motor that provides traction by pulling o ...
300, as part of a grouped transit vehicle technology lineup of the Bombardier Innovia product line.
Reflection
The GO ALRT project was an idea that was ahead of its time. As there had been inter-regional inter-urban rail service provided earlier in the 20th century, obviously the loss of the inter-urbans, or radial cars as is referred to in Canada, to expressways and urban renewal was a decision that was short sighted at best. Coming to more recent times there is more of an emphasis of attempting to revitalize as well as reconceptualizing the suburbs as having urban infill development, similar to the store fronts with apartments on top as seen in downtown Toronto throughfares, with light rail transit similar to European low floor tramways providing a transportation linkage for such a newer concept of built space. Providing a long distance high speed rail rapid transit connection would be similar to the Bay Area Rapid Transit or the Hong Kong MTR
The Mass Transit Railway (MTR) is a major public transport network serving :Hong Kong. Operated by the MTR Corporation Limited (MTRCL), it consists of heavy rail, light rail, and feeder bus service centred on a 10-line rapid transit network ...
, although as of late there is little discussion of linking the suburbs with a BART
Bart is a masculine given name, usually a diminutive of Bartholomew, sometimes of Barton, Bartolomeo, etc.
Bart is a Dutch and Ashkenazi Jewish surname, and derives from the name ''Bartholomäus'', a German form of the biblical name ''Bartho ...
like system.
The spiritual successor to GO-ALRT is the GO Transit Regional Express Rail
GO Expansion, previously known as GO Regional Express Rail (RER), is a project to improve GO Transit train service by adding all-day, two-way service to the inner portions of the Barrie line, Kitchener line and the Stouffville line, and by inc ...
project. The project is expected to electrify and increase frequencies on existing GO train lines to every 3-8 minutes during peak-times and every 6-15 minutes off-peak on five of the corridors. The project once complete will be similar to other European regional rail networks such as the Réseau Express Régional
The Réseau Express Régional ( en, Regional Express Network), commonly abbreviated RER (), is a hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system serving Paris and its suburbs. It acts as a combined city-centre underground rail system and suburbs-t ...
in Paris. Operating at metro-like frequencies throughout the Greater Toronto Area.
References
External links
The GO ALRT Program
{{GO Transit
Rapid transit in Canada
GO Transit