robmausser
Senior Member
Oh? What's the TC decision that would prohibit it?I don’t think that CN is more of a holdup in selling the line to VIA than TC allowing VIA to purchase it…
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Oh? What's the TC decision that would prohibit it?I don’t think that CN is more of a holdup in selling the line to VIA than TC allowing VIA to purchase it…
Lol! The government doesn't bribe CN/CPKC. CN/CPKC bribe the government.It's high time the feds used it's influence by offering CN/CP bribe money but with the proviso of complete pssenger corridor from QC to Win. It would end up being less expensive & much quicker to build by being slowly converted.
Sorry this is a super late reply.There are of course multiple ways for an HxR corrridor to leave Toronto, but you‘ll struggle to find a second existing rail corridor which already leaves the built-up area of tve GTHA after ~20 km, then continues in a straight line over farmland for another ~20 km while avoiding any populated areas for another ~80 km.
It‘s always worthwhile to explore alternative routibg optiond, but in the end of the day, you would require some very compelling and valid reasons to discard the Peterborough/Havelock corridor.
VIA can’t sign property acquisition contracts without TC providing the necessary capital funding.Oh? What's the TC decision that would prohibit it?
I suggest you obtain a recent satellite image from the Agincourt Yard. I also struggle to identify any of the other roadblocks which would make you consider building a ~20 km long new greenfield alignment, as you describe below:Sorry this is a super late reply.
I understand and agree with the benefits of the Peterborough/Havelock route. What I was more asking about is the options to get out of Toronto to Peterborough. I thought the main options were
1) Don Branch to Belleville sub to Havelock.
2) Stouffville to Belleville sub to Havelock
1 and 2 have been talked about a lot on this thread and seem to have serious drawbacks. On 1 you need to get space in CP's mainline through the city and over their yard. On 2 you have the same problem, but you trade a shorter distance but need to somehow manage to turn onto the Belleville sub. And then with 2 you need to use LSE to get to Stouffville.
What is the problem you are trying to fix here? LSE is going to be quadruple-tracked until at least Scarborough Junction, thus providing dedicated tracks for GO/VIA express trains, whereas I am not aware of plans for adding tracks between Guildwood and Pickering/Liverpool Junction. Conversely, the Stouffville Sub is a relatively short segment between Scarborough Junction and the Belleville Sub with a single stop, which could plausibly also be used by HxR services, due to its hub function…With smallspy's comment saying the LSE part is doable with signalling, that made me think there is a 3) with LSE all the way to 412 and then up to Havelock.
3) Seems to have some real benefits. You get all the way to Guildwood almost for free, not too much work to get to Pickering, and if you can squeeze in a few spots through to Hwy 412 then you have a straight shot up through farm/undeveloped land beside a highway to Havelock before Peterborough.
Wouldn't that be Treasury Board (TB)? Transport Canada is the regulator - I wasn't aware they doled out money.VIA can’t sign property acquisition contracts without TC providing the necessary capital funding.
It's remarkable to me how the UT discussion of the potential HxR route out of Toronto has been beaten to death, while the route into Montreal gets much less discussion.
There are exactly two double track routes over the Ottawa River at Ste Annes (both of them critical to freight) , a dubious tenancy on CPKC-CN from Dorion/Coteau to Ballantyne, and a fairly tortuous entry into Central Station through St-Henri.
If the premise is hourly service in each direction all day long, someone will need to design a way to get trains from the south to the north every half hour somewhere east of Dorion without conflicting with very long freight trains..... and just how willing will CPKC-CN be to share their capacity?
The Siemens equipment is equipped with sanders. They have far, far less trouble with slippery rail.I'm curious how they will do this when VIA has retired their entire legacy fleet? I thought they can't couple F40s to Charger/Venture trainsets in revenue service, or am I misunderstanding this?
Guelph to Silver sees enough train movements that the rails are considerably cleaner. The VIAs therefore have less trouble out there.Thanks for passing along this information! I’m kinda surprised to hear that, as today’s 84 had two units and only did about 20 mph on the relatively flat terrain between St. Marys and Stratford. I would have thought they’d struggle more on the hilly Stratford-Kitchener and Guelph-Silver segments instead.
TC, TB, I don’t care which branch of the federal government is the hold-up which prevents VIA from purchasing the Western end of the Guelph Sub - even though it’s of course not that surprising as long as VIA only operates a daily train (84/87) over these tracks.Wouldn't that be Treasury Board (TB)? Transport Canada is the regulator - I wasn't aware they doled out money.
Either bridge will need to be replaced at some point. An agreement to share them could include a funding agreement for that eventual replacement, ensuring mutual benefits.There are exactly two double track routes over the Ottawa River at Ste Annes (both of them critical to freight)
Dedicated VIA tracks could be built between Saine-Anne-de-Bellevue and until after Bannantyne (including a grade separation with the latter)., a dubious tenancy on CPKC-CN from Dorion/Coteau to Ballantyne,
The remaining double-tracked gap between Saint-Henri could be closed, thus creating dedicated VIA tracks across the entire Montreal Island.and a fairly tortuous entry into Central Station through St-Henri.
See my comment regarding the Ottawa River bridges. Interference is usually proportional to the differential of average speeds and the length of the shared tracks. Dorion to Sainte-Anne-de-Belleville is fairly short and does not allow high speeds, anyways.If the premise is hourly service in each direction all day long, someone will need to design a way to get trains from the south to the north every half hour somewhere east of Dorion without conflicting with very long freight trains..... and just how willing will CPKC-CN be to share their capacity?
In the long term, there will need to be grade separations to cross over the Belleville Sub near Agincourt and across the Vaudreuil Sub, as well as a dedicated Ottawa River crossing. I’m not convinced that all of that should be part if the initial scope, but if that makes HSR a non-starter (due to the inability to continously electrify the corridor), so be it.If the premise is HSR with a high premium on extra fast travel times, the project can't afford tight curves and freight interference.....anywhere.
In my view, it matters less how much the terminal speeds are (provided that the really small ones, like <80 km/h are minimized), but how long it takes until no more pesky GO trains are in the way and Higher Speeds (>160 km/h) can be reached - and I struggle to identify an alignment where such point would be reached faster than on the Havelock Sub (when approaching the Belleville Sub and Steeles Avenue East, respectively).That says to me that the Stouffville line routing is unacceptable for HSR, as the junction at Scarborough Jct and the curves up to Agincourt will be too slow speed. Also, there will have to be new bridges over rivers at both ends and flyovers/unders. A quite pricey proposition. But we shall see, hopefully soon.
- Pul [sic!]
20 billion? Youre looking at 100 billion each.I wonder if the best choice is to just write CN & CP cheque for $20 billion divided by the 2 of them & then they work together on their entire Win/QC corridor so HFR/HSR could be trck protected & then run the line on the current Kingston route to Mon & ditto for Wind/Lon & Mon/QC. They could slowly improve & electrify the line slowly introducing electric/bttery/hydrogen HSR over time.
It's high time the feds used it's influence by offering CN/CP bribe money but with the proviso of complete pssenger corridor from QC to Win. It would end up being less expensive & much quicker to build by being slowly converted.
And thats what would have to happen for HSR to exist on the Lakeshore route. Thats what Im saying. Anything short of an outright buyout will not be successful.Each company is worth about $100B in total. You could buy both companies outright for $100B each.