LILLEY: German firm taking over GO trains promises increased efficiency

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The stereotype of German efficiency is coming to the GO Transit train system in four months’ time. That’s when Deutsche Bahn, the largest rail company in the world, takes over the backend of train operations for the province’s commuter rail system in the new year.

Starting Jan. 1, a 23-year contract will see a company called ONxpress Transportation Partners run behind-the-scenes aspects of the rail system that services Toronto, Hamilton, Oshawa, Barrie, Kitchener and more.

“Unprecedented in its scale and complexity, this multi-billion dollar capital program will transform the regional rail network with electrification, more frequent service, shorter journey times and a more modernized system for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Region,” Infrastructure Ontario said in announcing the new partnership in April 2022.

The entire company, a consortium, taking over the running of the system includes Aecon Construction Group, ALSTO, FCC Construccion, and Deutsche Bahn International Operations. 

“This will include operating and maintaining GO Trains, train service planning, introducing new operational technology solutions and providing maintenance services for new assets like electrification and signaling,” Metrolinx said in a news release last January.

Speaking with Niko Warbanoff, the CEO of Deutsche Bahn’s international operations, the promise is clear. He says that by applying new IT, built around industry standards, there will be 12 more trains available to service commuters without actually adding any cars to the rolling stock of the Go Train system.

“So, one result will be, and we know that already today, that by using the new IT, that we will be able to have 12 additional trains per day, more on the network than today, and this increase in capacity is without any changes in the infrastructure or anything else,” Warbanoff said during an interview in Toronto last month.

The way they will do this is by bringing in new IT systems and new ways of doing things that have not been adopted by GO Transit and Metrolinx in the past.

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“Our objective is clearly to increase capacity, and one way to do that is that we will introduce a lot of new IT systems in order to professionalize, digitalize, a lot of the processes,” Warbanoff said.

Right now, he says, much of the system is still being run the same way that it was decades ago.

Discussing the improvements that his firm has brought to travel customers in Germany, Warbanoff notes how many in that country now opt for the train rather that flying. That is something that could become a reality if rail options were made more attractive in areas like the Montreal-Toronto-Ottawa triangle or between areas like Calgary and Edmonton and Calgary and Vancouver.

The Europeans, thanks to companies like DB, have figured this out. Sadly, we have not.

Going forward though, the GTHA will benefit from having an international partner at the table when it comes to improving commuter rail.

“Toronto will benefit directly, because whatever we have developed in Germany, we can reuse also here,” Warbanoff said.

Let’s hope that the promised efficiencies take place and the increased train capacity happens. The commuter system run by GO and Metrolinx isn’t a bad one, but it could clearly benefit from some European efficiency.