You are so right! Just did a short motor trip between Ottawa and Georgian Bay. It was the tale of two cars both using GPS, both following two completely different routes and in our car, two GPS's basically arguing with each other since they wanted to follow different routes. At a T...

Mayor JIm Watson has announced that RTG has achieved substantial completion of the Confederation Line. Next step is a 12 day trial of regular service. This must be successfully completed before the Confederation Line can be turned over to the city. Once the line is turned over to the city, it...

Don't count reliable arrival times. I took the Canadian from Vancouver to Winnipeg at the start of May. We had to stop repeatedly for freight trains along the route. Our arrival time in Winnipeg was around 10 pm. The train actually arrived at 5 am. Be prepared!! Nevertheless, the Canadian...

Aw, Pickering Airport. The justification for Doug Ford's Pickering subway. At how many $Billion?

It is normal that all lightly used rail line will need new track to be effective for transit use. This should be expected. However, once the tracks are lifted, it usually almost impossible to bring back rail service.

You are assuming more than the points I was making. I fully support HFR. My statement about 3 hrs 59 minutes between Montreal and Toronto should be a goal because it was achievable in the past. . Whether it is achievable now is another question. I was saying this simply because nothing is...

Yes I have seen the 'meet' issue on the Alexandria sub. The passing sidings are not long enough to allow trains to maintain reasonably high speeds. Speed limits are only part of the story as your comment suggests. How long can trains in reality maintain those speeds? If what VIA offers is...

My only point was that a significant section of track between Dresden and Berlin allowed trains to run much faster than elsewhere. It was clear that this was achieved with the upgrade of the track on that section. It was very noticeable that the ROW and track was designed to a higher standard...

Speed limits are one thing. Service delivery is another. If there is a 100 mph limit on a good portion of track on the Alexandrria sub, then why has there been no time improvement for VIA Service between Ottawa and Montreal? It is still 2 hours, about the same length of time as driving...

Sometimes I wonder. We are seeing this increasingly here in Ottawa where big event tickets include prepaid transit tickets. I presume those prepaid tickets are heavily discounted since not everybody uses transit. However, some of these 'free' events are actually much bigger and anybody using...

I stand by what I said. As was presented, they are aiming to upgrade track between Dresden and Berlin to 200 km/hr. Obviously, they had not achieved that when I used the service in 2015, however, trains did run on the section of track I was referring to at a speed considerably faster than VIA...

Don't some events in downtown attract 1,000,000 people, the Pride parade, Carabana? Do they get this extra service?

I don't know what speed we were travelling at but it was really fast (I was being mesmerized just looking out the window) and the track was very straight, no level crossings and highly segregated with high fences. Perhaps, they needed new trains to reach a full 200 km/hr or part of the route...

Become a Jehovah Witness and find out

If we get the current HFR plan built, I can see HFR being extended to London and Windsor in some format. In the long-term, run this to Detroit and Chicago. This will generate more ridership if we can find effective border crossings. I have always said, that we can improve track sections to...

Who cares about subways versus REM versus RER versus LRT versus streetcars versus BRT versus bus lines. Just deliver faster, more frequent service to more locations. Ridership figures give the best measure of the success of a transit system.

I will also like to point out that there is something like 17 departures today from Toronto to Montreal and Ottawa. Going to 18 departures with HFR in a way is underwhelming.

First departure from Ottawa to Toronto based on the current VIA schedule is 5:30 am I have been on a 1 am departure from Pearson to Ottawa, which gets you into Ottawa around 2 am. Surely, late departures and arrivals by rail will also work.

The goal for Montreal-Toronto should be 3hr 59min with HFR. Now, how to achieve that? I have commented before about using the Winchester sub for express trains, which will bypass Ottawa. Since that would be almost 100% rural and straight, is it feasible and cost effective?

The corridor will require a major improvement. Surely a trail can be built adjacent in that process.