I have fond memories of train trips. Travelled all over Europe in them. Lots of memories...stopping in the middle of nowhere as a couple of French thieves pulled the stop cord and hopped off the train followed by guards on the way to Marseille. Waiting for a Turkish engine to replace the Greek one in no mans land with machine guns pointing at us from guard towers on the way to Istanbul. Having to quickly switch carriages to avoid going into East Berlin as we were on the wrong part of the train without the correct papers when the Berlin wall was still a thing. Being used as an ashtray while sleeping on the floor travelling through former Yugoslavia (not so fond...but memorable). I loved waking up in a new country and I really liked the old carriages with corridors where both seats pulled out and formed a massive bed and the doors were manual and you could open them and catch a breeze while the train was moving.
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Just for kicks….
Toronto - Montreal
Nov 5 - Nov 7
Flight: $625 return
Train: $283 return
Practically half price. Thought it’d be closer.
Toronto - Vancouver
Nov 7 - Nov 21
Flight: $547 return
Train: $1,090 return
Toronto - Montreal
Nov 5 - Nov 7
Flight: $625 return
Train: $283 return
Practically half price. Thought it’d be closer.
Toronto - Vancouver
Nov 7 - Nov 21
Flight: $547 return
Train: $1,090 return
Toronto-Montreal driving.
540 km * 2 * 0.59 (CRA rate, obviously debatable what rate to use)= $637.20. By eliminating time and resources required to get to and from the stations at each end, roughly the same price as the train for two people. If mass-transit is more efficient, it should be able to blow a low-occupant vehicles out of the water. If your vehicle is ~0.26/km to operate, it would be the same price as a train for one occupant.
Mad Mike
Well-known member
My $20 rate was a shot in the dark. VIA currently charges $11/segment if you buy the commuter book. Pretty good deal, you can commute from Kingson to Toronto on VIA for $2 less than Barrie Toronto.
I just bought TOR train tickets, $192 return for Nov 17-18. My outbound is $49 (Coach), return $121(Biz -- which includes biz car, dinner plus domestic beer/wine are included for the return trip).
Annnnd its more convenient to have your vehicle to get around places if transit isn't good at your destination. Otherwise then train becomes useful again as you'd need to have parking space for the vehicle which can get $$$.
And then there's also the fatigue factor of driving 5 hours, it's not hard but it does take a toll. Perfect scenario for long trips would be an overnight train where i can sleep and wake up ready to tackle the day at destination the next morning #fantasyland
Thats the one time i wouldnt mind all the delays
Mad Mike
Well-known member
The CRA rate is a TCO model that covers the life of a car. The cost of a trip is really the incremental cost of fuel, wear, and maintenance for the trip - for my 1.4T beast that's about .10/km - or about $110 for the return trip. If I book ahead, the train would cost exactly the same - $49/each way when I book ahead, ($172 if I decide on the meal and drinks included on the return trip) (one of our guys drives me in MTL). It's almost as fast as flying, a lot more relaxing and you almost always meet interesting people on the train.
Regarding high speed in the corridor, when I worked for Bombardier we had a few meetings years apart to discuss this very project. One of the key issues was that every crossing needed to be isolated; no level crossings allowed. A big argument against going ahead was trying to convince everyone along the route to give up their easy access across the line. I always figured a slightly elevated line down the middle of the 401 made sense, there already were no level crossings to deal with. Anyway, that was over 20 years ago, and we still don't have that line in place, or any real plans for it. And, it's just going to keep getting more expensive the longer it is delayed.
They are 90% sure when your renting a car in Ft Mac your going to drive it out to 'site' , most of those roads are well graded and with the mine sponsored secret traffic police your not doing 5kms over the limit, but its all gravel and the cars get beat to crap. Plus nobody wants to drive from Edmonton to Mac if they can avoid it, the car wreck expressway.
when the were filming the reality TV show highway to hell that was originally on a BC mountain road they had to wait for a snowstorm , when they moved filming to the secondary highway from Lac La Biche to ft Mac , all they had to do was wait for tomorrow.
I’ve been to most sites out here
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