Jozhua
Established Member
- Joined
- 6 Jan 2019
- Messages
- 1,856
Not seen a thread on this project, but essentially it seems VIA are looking to upgrade what is essentially the Canadian equivalent of the NEC. That seems pretty good, eh?
It is involving de-segregation of passenger and freight trains as unlike the NEC, the route shares tracks with freight operators, creating many the same problems at their buddies to the south, Amtrak, have on Southern/Western routes.
Liberals announce plans for new 'high frequency' rail lines from Toronto to Quebec City
My Thoughts
BIG IF TRUE - A recurring theme through the Anglosphere is the announcement and then shadow cancelling of these projects. While full HSR would be nice, this plan arguably meets the lower requirements for high speed rail anyway and seeing a 90 minute reduction between two of Canada's biggest cities is seriously big news. Current journey times are just less than 5 hours to cover 400km (250mi). That's probably just about equivalent to flying downtown-downtown and about 30-45 minutes slower than driving (assuming you don't stop, so probably about equal). A 90 minute reduction will take that down below 4 hours to 3hr 15m, which is actually pretty competitive, even on an international scale.
From looking at the VIA site the three a day services seem to be pretty booked up, so I can imagine there is a lot of room for growth, even with services being run every two hours and within fairly sociable hours. In many ways, HFR will likely reduce VIA's overheads as rolling stock and staff can make more journeys in the same day (easily being able to make 1x return trip, so no hotel expenses, etc.) alongside electrification reducing fuel costs, which is a big positive considering Canada's Hydro/Nuclear energy supply.
I hope the success of this project helps build more public and bi-partisan political support, as Canada does generally better than their neighbours to the south in terms of city public transportation, but worse in terms of inter-city rail. The high quality metro/bus services should feed a fair few riders in to the system!
It is involving de-segregation of passenger and freight trains as unlike the NEC, the route shares tracks with freight operators, creating many the same problems at their buddies to the south, Amtrak, have on Southern/Western routes.
Liberals announce plans for new 'high frequency' rail lines from Toronto to Quebec City
My Thoughts
BIG IF TRUE - A recurring theme through the Anglosphere is the announcement and then shadow cancelling of these projects. While full HSR would be nice, this plan arguably meets the lower requirements for high speed rail anyway and seeing a 90 minute reduction between two of Canada's biggest cities is seriously big news. Current journey times are just less than 5 hours to cover 400km (250mi). That's probably just about equivalent to flying downtown-downtown and about 30-45 minutes slower than driving (assuming you don't stop, so probably about equal). A 90 minute reduction will take that down below 4 hours to 3hr 15m, which is actually pretty competitive, even on an international scale.
From looking at the VIA site the three a day services seem to be pretty booked up, so I can imagine there is a lot of room for growth, even with services being run every two hours and within fairly sociable hours. In many ways, HFR will likely reduce VIA's overheads as rolling stock and staff can make more journeys in the same day (easily being able to make 1x return trip, so no hotel expenses, etc.) alongside electrification reducing fuel costs, which is a big positive considering Canada's Hydro/Nuclear energy supply.
I hope the success of this project helps build more public and bi-partisan political support, as Canada does generally better than their neighbours to the south in terms of city public transportation, but worse in terms of inter-city rail. The high quality metro/bus services should feed a fair few riders in to the system!
