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High Speed Rail: London - Kitchener-Waterloo - Pearson Airport - Toronto

ssiguy2 said:
I don't understand your response. You state what I said as "categorically false" and then proceed to give reasons why it's not false. As I stated, there will be a short-term lull in traffic as people use the new transit service but that is short lived. If traffic flow improves on the current highways due to more people moving over to transit, people quickly turn to the highway as it's all of a sudden becomes less congested and as more people do that the traffic builds up again to where it was..........induced demand. It takes very little time for a highway to "re-congest" after a transit line is built in a fast growing city like Toronto. The GTAH is growing at 150,000/year so it will take no time at all to fill that highway up again.

Traffic in Toronto is bad and it will only get worse. Period. Transit lines may slow down the increase in traffic that would have taken place without the transit expansion but that's the most Toronto can hope for. This goes for the London-Toronto HSR line as well. It gives people a fast alternative to the highways which they don't have now but the traffic on the 401 will only go up and the most they can hope for with HSR is that the traffic increase will be slower than before the HSR line was considered.
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You are ignoring the fact that induced demand is a direct result of reduced congestion. It doesn't matter what you do to reduce congestion you will always have induced demand when you do it. The difference between induced demand when widening a highway and induced demand from the congestion reduction of a new transit line is the overall reduced footprint needed to move essentially the same number of people.
 
Just thinking about the timeline here. If the EA is supposed to start in May 2018, wouldn't the process to hire the consultants already be up on MERX or be known? Anyone know if it's started yet?
 
News release/presser from today.

2Hdat66
 
^There are advisory panels for a number of the Metrolinx projects, sometimes within the EA process. This one is a little more high profile. Isn't it an advisory panel that just recommended Ontario not proceed with the Halton/Peel highway project?

This particular panel was announced last October. So, three months just to find out if Collenette - who was already on the scene - was interested. I would expect this panel will be named and formally in office by the election..... so Wynne can claim that progress is being made, and setting up the other party to wear the black hat for cancelling it if the election goes unfavourably.

It's not a bad idea, politically. Gives the politicians some place to redirect the tiresome opposing voters to without tying up their own time or effort. And it does suggest that Wynne is setting the stage to begin an EA..... if the voters keep her around.

FWIW I was out driving back roads in Oxford County yesterday, and didn't see a single anti HSR sign.

- Paul
 
crs1026 said:
FWIW I was out driving back roads in Oxford County yesterday, and didn't see a single anti HSR sign.
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I don't know Oxford County that well, is it super flat or are some rolling hills with Ravines. With HSR, they'll have to bridge some of these rolling hills with viaducts, viaducts that could allow for farm equipment to pass under.
 
Garuda said:
I don't know Oxford County that well, is it super flat or are some rolling hills with Ravines. With HSR, they'll have to bridge some of these rolling hills with viaducts, viaducts that could allow for farm equipment to pass under.
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It's the flattest country in the area, which is what makes this proposal so appealing. So few culverts and earthworks required. Only the Nith River needs a bridge.

You make a good point about farm equipment, however. These days, the equipment is HUGE, as anyone who ever met a farmer coming the other way on a concession road can attest. Traditional underpasses won't cut it, and farmers' crossings and HSR probably shouldn't mix. This will have to be well thought out.

- Paul
 
Interview here with David Collenette. Two aspects of note:

1) "assessment is expected to take 18 months to two years to complete."
2) "Collenette expects train fare to cost 20 per cent more than existing rail options in Southwestern Ontario."
 
^ current Presto fare on GO is about $15.72.....so a high speed fare would be ~$19?

Of course I think the VIA fare is higher than GO so maybe it will be VIA plus 20%?
 
Credit where credit due:

Never in my lifetime, that even the mere planning of high speed rail, has finally come this far.

As for price, I think anything at that cost, would attract a lot of regular commuters.

But at the end of the day, will HSR be economical? Big question. But the spinoff benefits (Freight Bypass, electrification) go very far beyond simple HSR costs, benefitting transportation alternatives along the Corridor.

Nontheless, I now think I can actually look forward to riding a Canadian High Speed Rail route within my lifetime. I think 2030-2040, allowing for delay by politics and a few government changes,
 
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^ Speaking of planning, I know there have been many HSR studies over the years, but has there ever been a public and detailed track plan ever made available? I'm thinking of a track plan at the same level of detail as any LRT, BRT, subway, or GO expansion project.
 
Allandale25 said:
^ Speaking of planning, I know there have been many HSR studies over the years, but has there ever been a public and detailed track plan ever made available? I'm thinking of a track plan at the same level of detail as any LRT, BRT, subway, or GO expansion project.
Click to expand...

I'm not aware of any at the level of detail that would tell property owner x 'We are coming across your land, and not down the way' or "we will build an overpass here". The 1995 study was fairly rigourous, but in an inspect-the-topographic-map-and-count-the-culverts kind of way. It's all benchmarks and typical cost per km until somebody goes out and actually digs some boreholes and decides exactly what the bridges will look like.

- Paul
 
mdrejhon said:
Credit where credit due:

Never in my lifetime, that even the mere planning of high speed rail, has finally come this far.

As for price, I think anything at that cost, would attract a lot of regular commuters.

But at the end of the day, will HSR be economical? Big question. But the spinoff benefits (Freight Bypass, electrification) go very far beyond simple HSR costs, benefitting transportation alternatives along the Corridor.

Nontheless, I now think I can actually look forward to riding a Canadian High Speed Rail route within my lifetime. I think 2030-2040, allowing for delay by politics and a few government changes,
Click to expand...
I'm looking for a North American HSR train at some point, yet alone Canada. Gotta book some time to go to California in 2026..
 
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