[Coprolite]

Air Canada has recently instituted a bus service from Hamilton to Pearson vs a plane. Not sure how well it's operating as the passengers have a choice with other airlines vs a bus, no matter how nice, it's slow

Yeah. I saw that. It makes sense given that there just isn't any good train connection from Kitchener/Waterloo or Hamilton to Pearson. You'd basically have to grab a GO train to Union then transfer to UP and backtrack and it's pretty much guaranteed to be a longer trip. And at some times of day that could be extra crappy because GO is heavily oriented towards feeding commuters into the city in the morning and taking them out in the evening.

Air Canada launches luxury bus service for travellers

Landline will operate six non-stop round trips daily to Toronto Pearson from the Hamilton and Region of Waterloo airports.

toronto.citynews.ca

 

[Habibfazil]

My wife took the AC bus from Kitchener to Pearson and said the experience was ok. You travel on an Air Canada ticket, on a branded bus with 2x1 seating, plenty of leg room and your connection is guaranteed (ie if you're stuck in traffic, they'll rebook you). Only downside is you still have to check your own bag when you arrive at the airport.

Thank you for the update, wondering how that was going

 

[Gronk!]

Federal government going ahead with high-speed rail between Quebec City and Toronto​

Trains to reach speeds of up to 300 kilometres per hour​

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/high-speed-rail-canada-1.7365835

 

[BASE]

Edmonton-Calgary next up

 

[yeggator]

Damn, we’d better get a move on. I wanna beat those easterners to high-speed rail.

 

[Barnaby]

It would be nice for the Premier and Prime Minister to put the knives away and build HSR between Edmonton and Calgary.

 

[The_Cat]

The HSR would probably run on coal.

 

[David A]

It would be nice for the Premier and Prime Minister to put the knives away and build HSR between Edmonton and Calgary.

I really doubt that would happen, but Alberta is still supposedly a quite wealthy province so if she really wants to stick it to the PM, go ahead and do it without him.

 

[Platinum107]

The HSR would probably run on coal.

Okay but what if they just brought back the TurboTrain for the Edmonton-Calgary route?? High-speed and powered by fossil fuels

 

[Platinum107]

Federal government going ahead with high-speed rail between Quebec City and Toronto​

Trains to reach speeds of up to 300 kilometres per hour​

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/high-speed-rail-canada-1.7365835

Okay but unironically, I really hope this is legit!! This project could signal a revival for passenger rail and it would be amazing if VIA restarted many routes country-wide.

I'm just praying that any federal government would support this, including the Conservatives. From their policy docs they seem like they aren't so "woke liberal agenda" minded when it comes transit, which is a good thing, and may support this project.

 

[yeggator]

The HSR would probably run on coal.

They could run it on the tears of orphans, but as long as I can get between Edmonton and Calgary in ~1 hour, I won’t care.

 

[AJo]

The HSR would probably run on coal.

They would have to re-create the A4 4468 Mallard. Fastest steam locomotive ever made at a record 203 km/h.

But seriously just run it as an Electric catenary line using the Eurosprinter. Proven technology at 200km/h. Even with a stop in Red deer it would only be 1-1/2 hours airport to airport.

 

[YEG imagineer]

Okay but unironically, I really hope this is legit!! This project could signal a revival for passenger rail and it would be amazing if VIA restarted many routes country-wide.

I'm just praying that any federal government would support this, including the Conservatives. From their policy docs they seem like they aren't so "woke liberal agenda" minded when it comes transit, which is a good thing, and may support this project.

https://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/bill/C-371/first-reading If this private members bill passes, this would become a bigger boost to passenger rail in Canada. The bill would prioritize passenger trains over freight trains, much like Amtrak has in the US. Unfortunately, I'm expecting HSR to be many more years of study before shovels in the ground.

 

[EdmTrekker]

They would have to re-create the A4 4468 Mallard. Fastest steam locomotive ever made at a record 203 km/h.

But seriously just run it as an Electric catenary line using the Eurosprinter. Proven technology at 200km/h. Even with a stop in Red deer it would only be 1-1/2 hours airport to airport.

Needs to be at least 300

 

[AJo]

Needs to be at least 300

Why? Civic Pride? One-up-menship? Impatience?

Higher speeds equal higher costs. From the initial track construction right on through to maintenance and daily running costs. The only way to absorb this is increased ticket prices which reduces potential passenger volume.
Now too slow (120 km/h) is equally bad as while it may be cheap to operate, passenger volume simply won't be there as they will either fly (for faster transit) or drive (almost as fast and less fuss).
The 200 km/h range is the break point to a sudden increase in costs. It can still be built and run cheaply enough to keep fare costs down while being faster and less fuss than the alternatives.