[crs1026]

I just hope that GO and the Minister understand just how embarassing the track speed west of Stratford is.

I watched the moving map tonight - 50 km/hr is the highest speed that VIA ran between St Mary's and the outskirts of London.

Note the time used for the 9 miles from Stratford to St Mary's - 29 minutes.

I'm accustomed to seeing VIA being placed in untenable situations - will Ontario do the same with GO to London?

- Paul

 

[Bordercollie]

I just hope that GO and the Minister understand just how embarassing the track speed west of Stratford is.

I watched the moving map tonight - 50 km/hr is the highest speed that VIA ran between St Mary's and the outskirts of London.

Note the time used for the 9 miles from Stratford to St Mary's - 29 minutes.

I'm accustomed to seeing VIA being placed in untenable situations - will Ontario do the same with GO to London?

- Paul

View attachment 341652

Is that 20mph track speed? What would it take to upgrade it to 40mph?

 

[ShonTron]

Is that 20mph track speed? What would it take to upgrade it to 40mph?

50 km/h is roughly 30 MPH.

That’s the result of GEXR maintaining the track for many years at a minimum speed for its freights. Though CN recently took back the Guelph Sub between London and Kitchener, it’s still in poor shape. VIA only runs one train a day through there anyway these days.

 

[Bordercollie]

50 km/h is roughly 30 MPH.

That’s the result of GEXR maintaining the track for many years at a minimum speed for its freights. Though CN recently took back the Guelph Sub between London and Kitchener, it’s still in poor shape. VIA only runs one train a day through there anyway these days.

So in exchange for allowing GO to run to London could they not fix up that track?

I mean if you add up the crew hours over time if you spend 100k on track repairs you would make that back in crew hours.

Or make it part of the agreement with CN. They are getting revenue per axle anyways.

That might be why they are doing test runs to see where they can optimize the speed with the funds available.

 

[crs1026]

What would it take to upgrade it to 40mph?

New everything. I suspect it's just plain worn out. Specifically

- grub (remove vegetation)
- clean out culverts and restore drainage
- undercut to remove the existing ballast (which is likely mostly dirt at this point)
- new crossties
- new rail and fasteners
- new ballast, attention to subgrade, maybe geotextile in places
- resurface, restore superelevation on curves
- rebuild crossings (There are 46 of them between the platform in Stratford and Egerton Ave in London)
- new crossing protection devices
- repair bridges, replace deck

But that's by no means complicated, or even that expensive. No fancy engineering required. No large civil works, mostly just a decent sized mechanised track crew.

The cost of raising it to 75 mph or greater is probably not that much greater than the cost of 40 mph, so do it once and make it right.

- Paul

 

[robmausser]

Fun story time: I used to take the VIA train from Sarnia to Toronto through Kitchener all the time in the mid 2000s. It was the old HEP1 cars. I can remember that the part between London and Kitchener, the train cars would rock and sway back and forth like crazy, honestly if you walked between cars it was like a rollercoaster. Then, I took it again in the 2010s and I noticed that it was much slower and steadier of a ride.

Well, years later I was at a VIA Rail meet and greet thing, and I brought up with one of the upper staff about how much slower the Sarnia train is now through London-Kitchener and he kinda chuckles and goes "Yeah, about that. So someone at GEXR messed up and the track speed got misunderstood from km/h to MPH (which is the actual rail standard, they use MPH) and so for a while it was posted as 50MPH when in fact the rail was rated for 30MPH (50 km/h). Whoops!"

 

[felix123]

Fun story time: I used to take the VIA train from Sarnia to Toronto through Kitchener all the time in the mid 2000s. It was the old HEP1 cars. I can remember that the part between London and Kitchener, the train cars would rock and sway back and forth like crazy, honestly if you walked between cars it was like a rollercoaster. Then, I took it again in the 2010s and I noticed that it was much slower and steadier of a ride.

Well, years later I was at a VIA Rail meet and greet thing, and I brought up with one of the upper staff about how much slower the Sarnia train is now through London-Kitchener and he kinda chuckles and goes "Yeah, about that. So someone at GEXR messed up and the track speed got misunderstood from km/h to MPH (which is the actual rail standard, they use MPH) and so for a while it was posted as 50MPH when in fact the rail was rated for 30MPH (50 km/h). Whoops!"

Wow. We really should standardize railways to km/h already. If thousands of cross-border truckers can handle it, trains can as well.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Why are airlines using knots?

They should express all speeds in kilometres per hour. Or warp speed?

 

[rbt]

Why are airlines using knots?

They should express all speeds in kilometres per hour. Or warp speed?

Airlines and boats are already a bit different; their speeds are relative to the fluid they are in (mostly), not the ground they pass.

 

[lenaitch]

Why are airlines using knots?

They should express all speeds in kilometres per hour. Or warp speed?

Here's a decent explanation as it relates to navigation. There are several online.

Ask the pilot: Why is airspeed on planes measured in knots? | Scandinavian Traveler

Even the most experienced travelers have many questions about the inner workings of airplanes. 
The experts with all the answers are, of course, the pilots.

scandinaviantraveler.com

 

[reaperexpress]

Wow. We really should standardize railways to km/h already. If thousands of cross-border truckers can handle it, trains can as well.

What?! And use the same units of measurement on the Waterloo Spur for both the light rail AND freight trains?!!

 

[SaugeenJunction]

Heads up, evidently another GO to London test is occurring tonight. The train is en route currently, having cleared Baden 10 mins ago. Saw in a rail fan Facebook group.

 

[SaugeenJunction]

Here is today’s test train at Stratford:

 

[Garuda]

Here is today’s test train at Stratford:

Fight

Feels like whoever recorded this has spent years using a VHS camcorder and bam last year they get a 4K function. They really like that zoom function.

can some fleet ethsuthsists please explain why the new locos can’t pass over the st Mary’s trestle?

 

[jamincan]

I'd be interested in knowing more about that restriction as well. I quite enjoyed the style of the video and her commentary.