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VIA Rail

Bordercollie said:
But in Europe there are different level of trains on the same route. Commuter, local, semi express and express.

VIA doesn't have that. You need to be able to take the local train that stops at all stops and transfer to a semi express or express train.

For example you need a local train making all stops which will take you from Port Hope and take you to Belleville or Kingston where you transfer to the express train to go to Ottawa or Montreal. Or take the GO from Eglinton to Oshawa and then transfer to the express train to Kingston where you can catch a local to Napanee. You could even have smaller stops like Brighton whici would be a good spot for a commuter train to take passengers to Belleville or Cobourg.
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Yes, but it's untenable so it's a moot point. You might be able to eventually make some more north-south connections that aid with connections though. You've already got an east side connection between Smith Falls & Brockville, so you could do a similar one on the west or do a diagonal between Peterborough and Kingston (probably the best option).
 
Bordercollie said:
But in Europe there are different level of trains on the same route. Commuter, local, semi express and express.

VIA doesn't have that. You need to be able to take the local train that stops at all stops and transfer to a semi express or express train.

For example you need a local train making all stops which will take you from Port Hope and take you to Belleville or Kingston where you transfer to the express train to go to Ottawa or Montreal. Or take the GO from Eglinton to Oshawa and then transfer to the express train to Kingston where you can catch a local to Napanee. You could even have smaller stops like Brighton whici would be a good spot for a commuter train to take passengers to Belleville or Cobourg.
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From the riders perspective, what difference does it make if the express train doesn't physically run in the same tracks as the semi express and local trains?

If a rider needs to take Toronto to Montreal, who cares if the express train takes a different route?

There WILL be express, semi-express, commuter and local on the same route. They will just be offered by two different lines.

The route that HFR/HSR will take in the North will really be pointless to stop at more than a couple stops as its quite empty up there. But the Lakeshore route to Montreal and the route to Ottawa will continue to operate semi-express and local/commuter services.

You can just look at HFR/HSR offering the express trains for that service, just on a different routing.

But there's no reason that it literally has to run on the same route.
 
robmausser said:
The route that HFR/HSR will take in the North will really be pointless to stop at more than a couple stops as its quite empty up there. But the Lakeshore route to Montreal and the route to Ottawa will continue to operate semi-express and local/commuter services.
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Isn't that a bit of an assumption? Right now, I would assume that riders between the three major cities are providing a huge amount of the revenue. When that revenue is lost, and in the hands of the consortium, the subsidy rate for the Lakeshore route will look a lot worse. Will the government actually continue to adequately service the Lakeshore route? A lot of people are skeptical about that.
 
wopchop said:
Isn't that a bit of an assumption? Right now, I would assume that riders between the three major cities are providing a huge amount of the revenue. When that revenue is lost, and in the hands of the consortium, the subsidy rate for the Lakeshore route will look a lot worse. Will the government actually continue to adequately service the Lakeshore route? A lot of people are skeptical about that.
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The consortium is taking over the Lakeshore route along with the new HFR, so the subsidy will be a lump sum towards the consortium.

The government has stated that they will be setting service levels for the corridor, not the consortium, and that they will be increasing service along the Lakeshore Line along with the HF/SR system.

Whether the government keeps with that, I don't know.

But all of that is a moot point anyways! It doesn't matter if an HSR system along the Lakeshore Line or north in the HFR routing is built, they would take away service from the Lakeshore Line exactly the same way, because the HSR system would stop at the same stops regardless of where its built! It wouldn't be stopping at every small town along the way. So whether you do Toronto direct to Ottawa or Montreal without stopping along the way, what difference does it make how you get there in terms of it taking away ridership from the "Lakeshore line". The point you are making is that it will take away ridership from the existing service and the towns along the way, but any HSR system will do that regardless of where its built. HSR systems are not all-stop service, they are express.
 
robmausser said:
The consortium is taking over the Lakeshore route along with the new HFR, so the subsidy will be a lump sum towards the consortium.

The government has stated that they will be setting service levels for the corridor, not the consortium, and that they will be increasing service along the Lakeshore Line along with the HF/SR system.
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Well, it is good that the RFQ is structured that way. I missed that part. Hopefully the response from industry is good. Until the proponents respond to the RFP, we don't really know what changes they may propose.

Also, this is a Government that makes a lot of empty promises, so let's see what they do. There is ample reason to be skeptical IMO.
 
Federal Budget on VIA Rail:

1680036601983.png
 
roger1818 said:
The link is broken.
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Sorry they removed it.

Here is another article.https://delawarebusinessnow.com/2023/03/ameristarrail-pushes-for-amtrak-passenger-car-safety-meeting-with-federal-regulators/

Basically their concern is using the budd cars in speeds in excess of 90mph. Since in the north east corridor they go up to 125 their claim is that the cars are not safe. A stop gap measure would be to rebuild the Acela coaches and couple them together between the current power cars and use them instead of the budd cars.

If I'm not mistaken the Acela's have issues with corrosion and that's why they are being retired. Since they are based on the LRC's I doubt that they are much safer. But they are newer so at least they have that going for them.
 
I hadn’t heard about corrosion issues - my understanding was that one of the issues with retaining Acela 1 trainsets was that Avelia would need Acela maintenance bays to be rebuilt to its specs.
 
smallspy said:
GO barely has enough equipment for the trains that it is already running.

How then would they supply trains - nevermind crews, which are also still in short supply - to VIA?

Dan
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Are you sure? Looking at a consist sheet from earlier this week GO seems to have 150-200 spare unused coaches right now.
 
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