VIA Rail

[yrt+viva=1system]

Why is it that all these news on the high speed train-high frequency train are always from French publications? It almost seems like they are trying to hide any news on the project from English speakers. Just a peculiarity.

 

[Urban Sky]

Why is it that all these news on the high speed train-high frequency train are always from French publications? It almost seems like they are trying to hide any news on the project from English speakers. Just a peculiarity.

Nobody stops anglophone newspapers to pick up and report on stories published by their francophone peers...

 

[Northern Light]

Why is it that all these news on the high speed train-high frequency train are always from French publications? It almost seems like they are trying to hide any news on the project from English speakers. Just a peculiarity.

It only takes one or two interested reporters; and the proportion of the market traveling by train between Montreal-Ottawa is reasonably material, particularly to the Montreal market, plus VIA's HQ is in Montreal.

Nobody stops anglophone newspapers to pick up and report on stories published by their francophone peers...

I don't think he was suggesting that.......

I do think, Toronto newsrooms are thinner than they used to be, and the number of reporters who read French probably isn't great either.

 

[innsertnamehere]

Why is it that all these news on the high speed train-high frequency train are always from French publications? It almost seems like they are trying to hide any news on the project from English speakers. Just a peculiarity.

VIA is based in Montreal and HFR is a very Quebec based project (it will probably benefit Montreal more than any other city), so it's understandable that it gets the most media attention there.

 

[Xav]

The mayor of Québec City retweeted the article and said he'd advocate for HSR when he meets with Justin Trudeau.

 

[crs1026]

The various municipal and provincial officials in Quebec have been far more vocal about wanting this project than their counterparts in Ontario.

Not surprising that the media would have made more of this in Quebec.

- Paul

 

[nfitz]

Globe seems to have coverage much of the time. I'm not sure about the other national paper.

 

[kEiThZ]

you gotta love scope creep. then the cons would be calling for the govts heads for cost escalation.

It's also an attempt by Alstom to get a larger contract with little to no additional engineering. Just ship Avelia Liberty north.

 

[kEiThZ]

https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2023/01/24/alstom-propose-a-nouveau-un-tgv-entre-quebec-et-toronto

Google translation;


I wonder if we will end up with 300km/h rail between Toronto and Montreal and he 200km/h option to Quebec. Honestly, that is what makes the most sense.

This has been covered so many times. Once you cross the threshold speed for grade separation there's no point stopping at 200 kph. The marginal cost to 300kph is low.

 

[crs1026]

It's also an attempt by Alstom to get a larger contract with little to no additional engineering. Just ship Avelia Liberty north.

For the equipment, certainly. But it’s a whole whack of right of way engineering and grade separation over and above what the vanilla HFR (if it still is relevant) requires. I presume they have a consortium helping them with the pitch.

- Paul



- Paul

 

[SaugeenJunction]

Alstom's HSR plan for HFR has leaked. Direct link to deck here.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1618243037242724353

 

[innsertnamehere]

Took a look - quite interesting.

Travel time proposals:

The asterisk is in french despite the rest of the slide deck being in English, for some reason, but google translate says that it says "conservative approach with low speed segments", which I assume is intended to say that travel times are conservative estimates and could actually be better.

 

[CapitalSeven]

Interesting play. A couple of takeaways. The maps and zooms show they envisage using the don valley route rather than the link through Scarborough. And the map shows 200-300 kph through the existing Havelock-Tay railbed section with no indication of how that could be achieved. Straightening it through earthworks and bridges, or bypassing it to the south, would cost billions. Whose billions?

 

[nfitz]

The asterisk is in french despite the rest of the slide deck being in English, for some reason, but google translate says that it says "conservative approach with low speed segments", which I assume is intended to say that travel times are conservative estimates and could actually be better.

Wow, that website is tough to navigate - here's the link for the presentation - https://drive.google.com/file/d/13dz3mo91nVOH7EYxYAl1p6Kod7wbry0Q

It is interesting to see that they achieve 3 hours from Montreal to Toronto, despite much of the route only being 144 km/hr or 200 km/hr.

It would be interesting to compare to previous studies, with more complete HFR, to see what travel time they predicted.

The presentation, in particular this figure, does make it abundantly clear why Montreal to Toronto service using the HFR model and a travel time of over 4 hours, will not attract many more travellers than now (which I've been saying for years now. Even 3 hours is pushing it. If they could upgrade Union to Peterborough, and by pass Ottawa, they might get closer to the 2.5 hour sweet spot. Assuming Hitachi's number's are correct.

For reference, the current VIA route along Lake Ontario is about 530 km, and the HFR route through Ottawa is about 555 km. Perhaps someone has the proper distances?

 

[robmausser]

Interesting play. A couple of takeaways. The maps and zooms show they envisage using the don valley route rather than the link through Scarborough. And the map shows 200-300 kph through the existing Havelock-Tay railbed section with no indication of how that could be achieved. Straightening it through earthworks and bridges, or bypassing it to the south, would cost billions. Whose billions?

Yeah this map makes no sense to me. The Toronto to Peterborough segment once outside of the city proper is actually straighter and less curved than the section they are saying they can go 200-300kmh on.