Barrie line

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Barrie GO Transit train line

Barrie line

Ridership (2006):	2,310,200
Service type:	rush hour peak (4 trains)

Barrie South	95.0 km
Bradford	66.8 km
East Gwillimbury	57.4 km
Newmarket	55.0 km
Aurora	48.1 km
King City	36.5 km
Maple	29.5 km
Rutherford	26.8 km
York University	19.8 km
Union	–

Train lines
A	Lakeshore West
B	Lakeshore East
C	Milton
D	Georgetown
E	Barrie
F	Richmond Hill
G	Stouffville

Bus terminals
Ajax Bus Terminal
Barrie Bus Terminal
Finch Bus Terminal
Guelph Bus Terminal
McMaster University Bus Terminal
Newmarket Bus Terminal
Oshawa Bus Terminal
Richmond Hill Centre Terminal
Scarborough Centre Bus Terminal
Square One Bus Terminal
Union Station Bus Terminal
Yorkdale Bus Terminal
York Mills Bus Terminal

Barrie is one of the seven train lines of the GO Transit system in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada. It extends from Union Station in Toronto in a generally northward direction to Barrie, and includes ten stations along its 95 kilometres (59 mi) route.

From 1982 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 2007, it was known as the Bradford line, as that community then constituted the line's terminus. With the opening of the Barrie South station on December 17, 2007, the Barrie nomenclature was again restored.

1 History
2 Stations
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

Train service to Barrie through Bradford was once provided by Canadian National Railway, which was required to operate this service by the Canadian Transport Commission. Service began on April 1, 1972, and responsibility for the operation was transferred to VIA Rail in 1978.^[1] As a result of federal government financial cutbacks to VIA Rail, the provincial government integrated the line into the GO network on September 7, 1982, but terminated the run at Bradford. ^[1] On September 17, 1990, the line was extended to Barrie, but was again cut back to Bradford on July 5, 1993.

On September 8, 1998, GO Transit added a second train to the line. In the early 2000s, GO Transit opened four new stations on the line: Rutherford on January 7, 2001^[1]; York University on September 6, 2002^[2]; East Gwillimbury on November 1, 2004^[3]; and Barrie South on December 17, 2007.

On October 5, 2005, GO Transit issued a press release stating that the number of trains on the line would be expanded to four for the morning southbound trip, and four for the afternoon return.^[4] This also affected all connecting bus lines with links to the train line, especially GO bus service from Barrie and Keswick.

On April 10, 2006, GO Transit announced the construction of a bridge at the Snider diamond,^[5], which is the junction of the north-south line used primarily by GO transit for passenger service, and the east-west line used primarily by Canadian National Railway (CN) for freight service. Since CN controls both corridors, passenger trains are often delayed in passing through the diamond while waiting for freight trains to clear the intersection. The grade separation resultant from the construction of the bridge will eliminate the delays. Construction of the bridge began in February 2006, and the bridge was completed and opened on December 2006. The entire project was completed on June 2007.^[6]

GO Transit received some federal and provincial funding to extend the Bradford rail line to Barrie. The new station, named Barrie South GO Station, is located at the southern end of the city. Construction of the station began in June 2007, and it opened on December 17, 2007.^[7]. The project entailed "upgrading rails, ties, signals, and crossings" on the already existing rail system between the Bradford and Barrie South GO train stations",^[8] as well as building 20 kilometres (12 mi) of new track and a layover facility. Overall, the project cost $25 million, of which one third was covered by the municipal government of Barrie.^[8] Project construction began February 2, 2007.

The government of Ontario announced funding to Metrolinx for network expansion on December 13, 2007 which included $20 million to build a second track to enable all-day two-way service between Union Station and Newmarket, possibly extending to East Gwillimbury station.^[9]

Should the expansion of the TTC's Yonge-University-Spadina line proceed as planned, a new GO station would likely be built to interchange with the new Sheppard West subway station; this would not be until 2012 at the earliest.^{[citation needed]}