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Mad Mike
Well-known member
I would be with you in the freight thing if we were talking about a euro style network. We are a century away from that, urban centers are just too far apart and too small, that would be about as practical as saying the 40x highways should be free of freight. Remember, we have a 10th of the people and massive distances between urban centers, those tracks would be idle most of the day and almost all of the night.
Mad Mike
Well-known member
Chip and container shortages are probably holding up your order.
Flying car completes test flight between airports
The vehicle runs on regular fuel and can travel up to 1,000km while airborne, its creator says.
www.bbc.com
You’re probably correct. Add in that I don’t think Via has any interest in making east/west transport routes actually more accessible since it’s such a tourist moneyspinner. Ever looked at the prices of the Rocky Mountaineer train tickets?
I think a TO-Ottawa and TO-Montreal high speed link could work but it would be run on a green initiative rather than a profit making concern.
It's only green if the train is reasonably full and it is taking travellers that were going anyway. JT leaves out that tourism is canada has a huge carbon footprint. Staying home for the weekend instead of going to Ottawa or banff reduces carbon emissions by a crapton. For the vast majority of the GTA (excluding toronto proper) transit leaving from downtown is useless. It is faster and much cheaper to drive. From my house, by the time I got to union, I would have been almost half way to ottawa and trains in canada are very rarely on time (and far far too many stops as politicians screw them up). Making the "green" choice take much longer and cost much more means few take it and it is no longer green.
Mad Mike
Well-known member
From what I recall, the Windsor to Halifax rails are capable of handling 250kmh trains, however they are limited to 150kmh because there are too many level crossings with roads.
I'd focus on high population areas (money makers) and routes that can easily be electrified.
Mad Mike
Well-known member
I'd leave Ottawa out, its way off the corridor. I'd go Windsor-London-Toronto-Kingston-Montreal-QCity-Moncton-Halifax. Flat rate, $20 between each stop. 3 trains a day end to end, 16 a day Tor-Mtl.
Well..it could be powered by the excess hydroelectric power Quebec usually sells to the US and in return we let them have Montreal connected at the end of the line!
Yes, lakeshore east and west go all day from early till pretty late at regular intervals. The other ones are very "commute-centric" and not made to be alternatives to car trips. It's ridiculous
Mad Mike
Well-known member
Toronto Mtl is always a tough call for me. Fir me you get to out Montreal office, I spend 1hr getting from home thru checkin at YYZ. 1:45 later I touch down in YUL, rent a car then drive 15km to to office is another 45 minutes. Best case 3.5 hours . Driving is just under 5hrs, train is about 6.5 hours. If the train did and didn't stop 7 times, and maintained 150kmh, it would compare to flying.
For those kinds of prices, I'd consider it. I think the prices would be far higher than Via. Via for Toronto to Kingston starts at 45 (business class at 121 and up). I suspect high speed on the same trip would be ~$100 a segment, not $20. Now, the government may subsidize the trip by $80 per segment as with other public transit but rural Canada won't like that one bit. Even at your theoretical $20, getting to union (and potentially leaving a car there as transit to union with more than one person would be painful) probably makes the train the more expensive option over driving if you are doing two stops or less. If you have more people, the train falls further behind economically. A family of four from Toronto to Halifax return is 800. At my prices, it would be $4000.
UP Express is ~$0.50 per km. You think they can implement high speed rail and sell tickets for an order of magnitude less per km? If for no other reason than the airlines have lobbying power (obviously as the govt was picking up 75% of pilot salaries instead of dumping them to cerb where they belonged), I can"t see ticket prices beating a flight by more than a token amount.
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I wonder how the airline industry / lobby would feel about high speed rail within the corridor. I’m sure they wouldn’t like it one between TO-MTL-QC as that would directly tie into their major revenue stream if more people commuted via train instead of plane.
D
Deleted member 50930
Guest
S.Korea style transit please.. Something like the KTX train and subways where one pass works on everything.
competition is a lovely thing!
As a business, lack of competition, or even better, the appearance of competition protected by the political overlords is far better.
sburns
Well-known member
That would make too much sense, never happen here....
Never going to happen. Population will never support it here.
EDIT: the Presto card in theory works for everything. GO/TTC/MiWay all work with it and you get a discount on crossing multiple platforms. I believe I had a discount on MiWay tickets when I used the GO within X min/hr of one another.
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Public transit should cost you $0.xx per km. Crossing boundaries should be seamless to the the user. Magic lines where you need to pay a fare again are bad for everyone (IIRC, TTC even has those lines within their system). With presto, it knows where you got on and off (I think it does tap off??) and the backend could distribute money appropriately. If municipalities wanted to stick with flat rate as opposed to per km, backend could give each system money based on the percentage of the trip in that system. Doubling (or 1.5x with a discount) fare because you went a few blocks passed an imaginary line discourages transit use.
When had my Piper Cherokee 180 I calculated the results of a bet if I was sitting at home and challenged to an immediate race to a site in Ottawa. The competitor has a car. and would drive at reasonable speeds. My Cherokee cruised at 120 MPH and would fly a straight line roughly 240 miles, so 2 hours air time.
When I calculated in the trip from my place to Brampton, pre-flight inspection, flight planning and weather checks, all before the internet I was already losing the edge. I would likely end up at Rockcliff and have to arrange for tie downs and ground transportation.
In short I wouldn't bet the farm if I had one.
The return could be worse because of headwinds or a kick in the head if flight conditions became IFR. The you take a bus home and return to Ottawa for the plane when conditions improve.
The only trip we took that paid off time wise was a day trip to Syracuse NY.
Years back I had to go to a trade show in Montreal and since we were staying downtown next to the event and the train station, I took the train, first class. It was great. Lots of leg room and comfort.
The return trip was the opposite. The train was crowded and they had put in more seats. I suspect the engines were over loaded as the train surged like a slinky all the way back. Never again.
The twits at the top have to get over the attitude that the public will accept without complaining. I didn't complain but I never went back. I suspect many other did the same. Get it right or don't bother.
That was 30+ years ago and public tolerance of discomfort is now probably worse.
A couple of years ago I delivered a bike to Windsor and took the train home. It was crowded but the trip was pleasant only because of being seated next to person that was easy to talk to. If I was seated next to a bar fly it would have been an endurance trial.
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