Monarch Butterfly
Superstar
French lawmakers approve a ban on short domestic flights
From link.Helps when France has real high-speed trains.
Meanwhile, in Ontario...
nothing
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- Thread starter ehlow
- Start date
Helps when France has real high-speed trains.
Meanwhile, in Ontario...
nothing
kEiThZ
Superstar
Not quite. Takes 2 weeks to take effect. That's why they tell you to stay home for two weeks after getting the shot.
But by May long weekend at least half the population will have been vaccinated and hopefully most of those taking the train will be outside the two week period.
nfitz
Superstar
They'd up the lockdown rules (mostly Toronto and Peel) before the shutdown was announced. Also there's been no school in Peel (Mississauga/Brampton) for 12 days now. And one bizarre day of school in Toronto during that period - which was about half-empty from what I hear (we kept our kids home that day, as did many others).
If you look closely at the numbers, Toronto and Peel have been flat or down for the last two days, though rest of province is up.
Might be closer to 10 days not 2 weeks. Also note that York has now significantly overtaken Toronto in terms of cases, not having any restrictions until the shutdown started.
Hopefully the downward slope is steeper too than the last couple of times, with the vaccine spreading (though I guess this being the variant now, could outweigh that, and make it shallower than the previous times, or even just flat).
I suppose the best example is the UK - the first ones to deal with the UK variant. They simply ended up locking down completely in mid-February for 2 months. I'd guess then that this stay-at-home should last until sometime in early June, unless we vaccinate faster than UK.
dowlingm
Senior Member
It's like France is a different country with a different attitude to state planning, with a different attitude to "national champion" industries, and with a transnational rail framework which allows train operators to bid on a fair basis for access to the network, twice the population of Canada, and six percent of the Canadian land area.
dowlingm
Senior Member
And if VIA doesn't or can't (fearing a CTC complaint) mandate vaccine passports? Can it even guarantee vaccination for its own crews, given the amount of vaccine hesitancy we have seen in LTC staff?
4156 cases in Ontario alone today. I watched the Corridor VIAs pass at Monarch Park last night and it sure as hell didn't look a comforting sight. The average length of train journey for Canadian is much longer. I would not restart before June 30. Yes that will have impacts but the public health emergency absolutely overrides those impacts.
MisterF
Senior Member
While I get your point, the population density of Canada as a whole tells you next to nothing about the role that trains can play in our society. Our population is very concentrated in a handful of regions. The Windsor-Quebec corridor has more than half the population of Canada and is almost as densely populated as France. We can learn a lot from what other countries are doing and the example of France is a lot more relevant than China, which gets brought up a lot here. The story about France banning short domestic flights is a glimpse of what could eventually be possible in this part of Canada if we start investing in intercity rail again.
kEiThZ
Superstar
We can't have this nationwide in Canada. But we could certainly achieve elements of this in the Quebec-Windsor and Calgary-Edmonton corridors. We just need better air-rail integration to accompany more inter-city rail. Montreal needs the Dorval REM extension. And Toronto needs the Pearson Transit Hub. Those two pieces of infrastructure with HFR would allow for reductions and downgauging on existing flights. Upgrade to HSR and more flights can be removed later.
Allandale25
Senior Member
Another article in the French Canadian press, published yesterday (I don't think it's been posted here). HSR Canada tweeted it out today. Not sure how this publication fares compared to JDM.
Corridor Québec-Windsor | TGV ou TGF, faites le bon choix, Monsieur Trudeau !
À l’aube de la présentation du prochain budget de la ministre des Finances, Chrystia Freeland, le cabinet fédéral annoncera probablement un important programme d’infrastructures. La construction, dans le corridor Québec-Windsor, d’une voie réservée à un train à grande vitesse (TGV) devrait être...
www.lapresse.ca
SFO-YYZ
Active Member
It's just an opinion article with zero new content, by a local tourism professor at UQaM. He's basically repeating the same old "HSR or nothing" mantra that HSR Canada has been touting out for the last 20 years.Another article in the French Canadian press, published yesterday (I don't think it's been posted here). HSR Canada tweeted it out today. Not sure how this publication fares compared to JDM.
Corridor Québec-Windsor | TGV ou TGF, faites le bon choix, Monsieur Trudeau !
À l’aube de la présentation du prochain budget de la ministre des Finances, Chrystia Freeland, le cabinet fédéral annoncera probablement un important programme d’infrastructures. La construction, dans le corridor Québec-Windsor, d’une voie réservée à un train à grande vitesse (TGV) devrait être...
Also, fun fact, the author represents the Transat Chair in Tourism, which is wholly funded by Air Transat. Go figure
AHK
Senior Member
On a totally separate note - last night (Tuesday, April 13, around 7:30 PM) a VIA Canadian train consisting of four locomotives and around 25 - 30 passenger cars, including multiple observation cars, two of which were the end of train ones, as well as one of the newer, non-stainless steel cars, was headed west from Union Station towards the Mimico yards. No idea where they had been sequestered over the past year, but clearly heading for a check-over and freshen up in the Mimico shops before going back into service.
An boy, does it look strange to see an end-of-train observation car with additional passenger cars connected behind it...
An boy, does it look strange to see an end-of-train observation car with additional passenger cars connected behind it...
Allandale25
Senior Member
I think someone caught it leaving Vancouver on April 2nd: https://www.facebook.com/groups/VIA...08JzPpNCl3XC3N_tQ3r7_ev9fvLTdwY&__tn__=,O,P-R
(from the VIA Rail #1/2 "The Canadian" Facebook group)
ssiguy2
Senior Member
I think the French style HSR will be great and I can't wait for Ottawa to study it over the next 5 years so they can create another new report.
The problem for VIA {besides too little funding and grotesque political interference} is that it has a HUGE financial burden it is going to have to overcome in the next 20 years............decarbonizing it's fleet.
There is no way, in hell, that Ottawa will be able to dictate zero emissions targets for transportation but give it's Crown Corporation a pass. The entire network from Coast to Coast is going to have to switch over to zero emissions vehicles and the cost won't come cheap from both new vehicles and the needed infrastructure. That's not just the busy Corridor but also ridiculously remote service like to Churchill & Prince Rupert. That means the huge expense of HSR in the Corridor will have to be backed up by a clean nationwide fleet and when the costs are tabulated most Canadians will bulk at the idea.
The problem for VIA {besides too little funding and grotesque political interference} is that it has a HUGE financial burden it is going to have to overcome in the next 20 years............decarbonizing it's fleet.
There is no way, in hell, that Ottawa will be able to dictate zero emissions targets for transportation but give it's Crown Corporation a pass. The entire network from Coast to Coast is going to have to switch over to zero emissions vehicles and the cost won't come cheap from both new vehicles and the needed infrastructure. That's not just the busy Corridor but also ridiculously remote service like to Churchill & Prince Rupert. That means the huge expense of HSR in the Corridor will have to be backed up by a clean nationwide fleet and when the costs are tabulated most Canadians will bulk at the idea.
crs1026
Superstar
I believe the commitment is to net-zero rather than absolute zero. Hypothetically VIA and other government agencies could offset emissions, for example, by planting trees.
This is not to say that VIA won't have to implement new motive power technology. But I would worry more about the impact on plenty of things before I would say VIA will be placed at risk by this commitment.
- Paul
TerryJohnson
New Member
The mayor of Perth hasn't given up on an HFR stop:
lake88.ca
Mayor Fenik hopes VIA considers Perth as High-Frequency stop - Lake 88.1
Fenik described the idea as a "game-changer" for residents of Perth.
lake88.ca
EnviroTO
Senior Member
... and they are worried about the undue traffic jams that 10 trains a day might cause.