Doubling-Up Lanes at Canadian Nationals in Distance Events??

I entered Canadian Masters Nationals planning to re-taper and re-shave on the heels of U.S. Nationals. In reading the fine print in the meet materials, I discovered a reference to the possibility that they may double up lanes in the distance events. Assuming that they would never actually do this, but needing confirmation before committing to another ~10 day taper, I e-mailed the meet organizers and asked them to confirm that there would be only one swimmer per lane in competition. I received a response from a very helpful and friendly meet official, who said that they would know about doubling up soon, but that I shouldn't worry because they've done it in the past and it "works well". I responded by urging the meet organizers to abandon the notion of doubling up lanes, contending that it significantly compromises the quality of the competition for the sake of moderate time savings (they have 20 racing lanes available). From my perspective, doubling up lanes in distance events "works well" only for those whose sole concern is to get the distance events over with as quickly as possible. In any event, I don't want to pester the meet organizers any further (particularly as a no-big-deal swimmer), but I do have a few follow-up questions that I figured someone here can answer. The threat of the doubling up was enough to convince me to cancel my taper and shave (just not worth it), but now I'm trying to decide whether to swim the 1500 at all. First, if you've seen this done before, how does the race start? Is it a staggered start? Blocks at opposite ends? One off the blocks and the other in the water? Second, do they use the electronic timing system when they do this, or just watch times? Third, does it even comply with USMS rules? Would appreciate thoughts if you've witnessed this.