Aurora has another big building project in the works. Since rails have been connecting the town with Toronto on Lake Ontario, there has only been a single track to serve north and south bound trains. That works when there are only a few trains running in a day, they can be scheduled to take turns. Now that Eco-friendly transportation is being implemented, (less single passenger automobiles, more use of trains) a second set of rails is required to service both north and south bound trains every half hour.
The upgrading of the station has been going on in phases for years with the integration of various bus lines and the rail service to form a transportation hub. The current phase is the addition of the extra track. A later phase will be a subway for automobiles to eliminate the level crossing. With more trains, there will be more delays in the road traffic on this major east west road.
This video gives a couple of views of the construction. The second half is a closer view.
Here comes the southbound train. It is a double-decker with the upper level for quiet reflection of getting that extra 45 minutes of sleep. The trip from Aurora to Toronto with five stops takes about one hour.
The interior is clean but not very comfortable for a nap.
The windows are tinted but still offer a good view of what is happening outside of the coach.
I don’t think I’ve ever been on a double-decker train before. I love that it’s for ‘resting’. I appreciate your sharing the development. I often admire how mass transit in other countries looks so modern and wish we had the latest in technology here as well. I’m glad they are keeping up with the eco-friendly demand. Where I live, we don’t have mass transit, and it’s a shame. Thank you for sharing, once again, as a non-traveler, I enjoy going on trips with you.
Hi Fran, Thanks, it is always great to have your company.
Have you heard of any high-speed trains in North America? I only hear about the slow ones falling off of the tracks and colliding with one another.
Toronto is the forth largest city in North America and being one of the fasted growing, it keeps changing places with Chicago for third place, depending on who has done the most recent survey.
I don’t know if any high speed trains in North America.
Besides taking the Long Island railroad as a kid to NYC and traveling on the Alaskan EXPRESS train ride to Canada when I was in Alaska, those are the only times I’ve been on trains. We also have a tri-rail that’s in fort Lauderdale area that I’ve been on. But I have fantasized about going across the country by train.
The view from the upper level is great. You can see over some of the barriers.
I’d enjoy that.
Love the post. Not sure about the tinted windows, but cool. So many places to see! Fun!
The tinted windows are good at cutting down on the heat from the sun but give a blue tint to the photos. I have to edit the pictures to make them more natural.
Doug, some day by road and train across Canada is our plan.. We love taking the train, and my son’s favorite way to get from his college town to back home is actually the train – The Coastal Starlight (so of course!) even though it takes a little longer than by road..
Our train takes a little longer than the same trip by bus because it wanders a bit across country rather than taking a direct route. It also has more scheduled stops. Outside of regular rail service times, an express bus has access to special high occupancy lanes on the highway making for about a 20% reduction in the duration.
If you are limited in the amount of time you have in Canada, you may want to consider a travel package which includes some air travel over the boring expanses of the country and focuses on the cities and feature you are most interested in. It is more beautiful in the summer and a month will get you to most of the major centres from the east to west coast. If you are interested in winter sports, that is a different trip.