Um

Eric Gagnon’s blog has a write up based on FOIA’s materials of which steel side cars were involved in compression and/or tear down tests, and should therefore be removed from any roster lists they may be lingering on...

Here is the Halifax Regional Municipality’s contracted study from 2015. https://legacycontent.halifax.ca/boardscom/SCtransp/documents/150924tsc913a.pdf Firstly let me say that I accept that there have been some population shifts in the intervening nine years where central Canadians have...

Both groups.io and railroad.net have posts saying that Keewatin Railway Company (central Manitoba) have acquired two (or possibly more, but two at minimum) C1 bilevel passenger cars originally built for the LIRR.

Because ONTC is already serving Ottawa’s rail station, a morning southbound service/evening northbound nominally serving Northlander could also act as a thruway from VIA service to/from Montreal into the Ottawa Valley… if there was the will to create and market that cooperation.

having a 0605 departure from North Bay arriving Ottawa 1115 would integrate with the southbound draft rail timetable (with allowance for transfers - assuming of course ONR can operate the service in a timely way). Similarly an ~1800 departure from Ottawa would arrive prior to the 2340...

Even if a second GO Caledonia platform was built now, how much use of it would occur prior to electrification given Metrolinx’ promise not to increase diesel movements as part of the Davenport overpass process? Of course, the upside would be forgoing construction inflation, and disruption during...

The government does provide some assistance like during COVID where over a billion dollars was given in assistance or forebearance, but rail is also a market which is much less liberalized - it is simply not possible to pick up a Siemens set in Northern Ontario and send it and its crew to Mexico...

Wanting a Schengen / common travel area is very understandable. However, I think it’s important for people who want to say “it can happen”, to have an appreciation of what is stopping it happening already. You don’t even have to look very far - consider free trade. As long as things are working...

Yeah but Amtrak, VADOT and NCDOT will do it without having to set up a whole other company because reasons.

Public owned passenger rail running 110-125 on publicly owned tracks??? You wouldn’t see this country doing that sort of madness, oh no.

if there was a place to detain these people, they would be detained. Defence counsel will tell you that Toronto South and other locations are warehousing pre trial detainees to their limit and beyond. Criminal activity and NCR activity on transit is serious but can’t be divorced from the reality...

Again, I think reliance on provincial governments to step in and maintain VIA / VIA services (with or without subsidy) is a reach. A provincial government cancelled Northlander. A provincial government sold BC Rail and the truncation of related passenger services. A provincial government...

I dislike Metrolinx’ “good news only” comms strategy but I don’t see what difference it makes to their effectiveness. Unless we think they are scanning forums like these for ideas to get them out of holes they dug themselves?

Why not have the American train do a backing move into the station? After all, if it’s good enough for every VIA Canadian service that stops in Saskatoon in order to save a few dollars…

that (“Ontario Hydro spur”) is what the 2024 edition calls the track beyond the Ramore Subdivision terminus in Porcupine.

Having Timmins station that far from Timmins is reminiscent of Ryanair notoriously declaring Hahn airport “Frankfurt-Hahn”. But this is a politically driven service so having the existing ONTC bus shuttle people to and from Matheson in 68 minutes (presumably faster than the train can manage via...

the same paper pushers probably drive to Montreal and Toronto rather than trust the train service. How many other significantly sized countries locate their federally owned and funded passenger railway agency away from the national capital?

I have no faith that better service can be expected from an Ontario-Quebec corridor joint venture than the Feds currently provide. Any such venture is going to be predicated on agreement by both provinces to any change or increase requiring subsidy and on one side or another an excuse to reject...

VIA seems to have reserved certain heavy maintenance functions to MMC, which then complicates a "start in the east and work west" strategy since even if the Ocean and Northern Quebec services were fully replaced in the first wave of deliveries and in theory MMC could be cleared of all HEP...