innsertnamehere
Superstar
Looking forward to the details, including projected travel times. Hopefully we get some tomorrow.
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VIA Rail
- Thread starter ehlow
- Start date
roger1818
Active Member
The key words in the statement are, "up to." The Acela runs at speeds up to 150 mph (240 km/h), but only for 33.9 mi (54.6 km) of its 457 mi (735 km) route. It will be interesting to see how much of the HFR route will be rated for 200 km/h service.
DirectionNorth
Active Member
The main thing is that it will allow for future track upgrades to 200 km/h without needing more rolling stock. I think it's do-able for O-M.
Allandale25
Senior Member
roger1818
Active Member
We already knew that the Charger/Venture trainsets on order are rated for a top speed of 125 mph (201 km/h), so that isn't anything new. IIRC, it was actually a requirement in the RFQ for the new fleet.
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cplchanb
Senior Member
Devil is in the details though.... they tout 200kph but WHERE? If it's only for small sections like the NE corridor, there will be negligible improvements since most of the time it will be slow. Hopefully large sections of hundreds of km will be high speed
kEiThZ
Superstar
I don't get why anybody expects more than the travel times the Globe and Mail had a few years back. The "up to 200 kph" doesn't change anything. That's just the nameplate top speed of a Charger/Venture trainset. So unless the government is committing to substantially more investment, we should expect more than what was long rumoured.
Personally, I have always argued, they shouldn't electrify this time and just spend $6-7B to get a corridor that yields decent travel time, getting Toronto-Ottawa under 3 hrs and Toronto-Montreal under 4 hrs.
Personally, I have always argued, they shouldn't electrify this time and just spend $6-7B to get a corridor that yields decent travel time, getting Toronto-Ottawa under 3 hrs and Toronto-Montreal under 4 hrs.
nfitz
Superstar
Because things change, and today the minister said it would be faster.
Though it didn't help that the media initially reported it as high-speed rail, not high-frequency rail.
crs1026
Senior Member
Relax, Relax.....there are level crossings like crazy along this line. Not gonna go 200 km/hr over those. But... it's dead straight.
St-Martin Jct (last major slow point east of Montreal) to Trois Rivieres is 82.3 miles, or 131.7 km. At 170 km/h that's 46 minutes. At 200 km/h that's 39.5 minutes. Not too shabby even with those crossings holding speed down.
Trois Rivieres to Pont Rouge (where the curves begin on the approach to Quebec City) is 83.2 kms. At 170 km/h - 29.4 minutes, at 200 km/hr that's 25.0 mins.
That's without worrying about accel/decel, or stops, or meets - but the point is - even at 170 km/h the trip is fast. Spending huge amounts of money to grade separate to get 200 km/h is only going to save 10 minutes.
I do hope there is a "demonstration" 200 km/hr segment somewhere, partly to gain operating experience and partly to make the thing a bit sexier for potential riders. But HFR is not about getting to 200 km/h/.... it's about getting marketable speed for the lowest possible price to demonstrate that the economics are favourable.
I suspect the Minister was just practicing his script for tomorrow.
- Paul
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nfitz
Superstar
How's it get to St-Martin Jct though - last time I took VIA to Lanoraie it was through the tunnel.
And it certainly wasn't anywhere near 170 km/hr. There's a lot of upgrades required just to achieve that speed. I'm not sure the stations are even there anymore.
roger1818
Active Member
p_xavier
Active Member
My train #22 will be back soon, meaning I can work a full day in Montreal. That's the most down to earth announcement I can trust. Elections are coming up right?
nfitz
Superstar
Around the mountain? Looking at the last VIA schedule to Trois-Rivieres, it was 35 minutes just from Central to St-Martin Jct, through the mountain. Meanwhile going around the mountain is adding up to 40 minutes to the Mascouche train from Central.
So 75 minutes in, and you are still trying to get out of the Montreal suburbs. Then it used to be about 3 hours from there to Gare du Palais. So 4 hours 20 minutes.. Now you can speed it up some, but at the end of the day, I think the 80 minutes from Central to St. Martin can't be made up. Compare to the less than 3 hours 15 minutes they can currently do on the south shore.
So 75 minutes in, and you are still trying to get out of the Montreal suburbs. Then it used to be about 3 hours from there to Gare du Palais. So 4 hours 20 minutes.. Now you can speed it up some, but at the end of the day, I think the 80 minutes from Central to St. Martin can't be made up. Compare to the less than 3 hours 15 minutes they can currently do on the south shore.
Bordercollie
Senior Member
Something is better than nothing. But if they loose the election it won't get built.
EnviroTO
Senior Member
Right now VIA takes 2h from Montreal to Brockville direct. If they get Montreal-Ottawa-Brockville to run in 2 hours then there is a huge operational efficiency realized. Montreal to Ottawa seems like it should be possible in around 1h (travelling 187km). VIA is already doing Ottawa to Brockville in 1h 16min (travelling 111km). So it seems possible with the right investment to get Montreal-Ottawa-Brockville to happen in the same time as Montreal-Brockville direct takes today, and as long as that can be achieved without touching the Smith Falls to Brockville segment the investment is 100% applicable to the HFR goal. To me this seems like the minimal investment option.
Getting VIA to run through Peterborough or Trois-Rivieres are obviously much larger investments and because they aren't along a route that VIA travels now to any large degree, there aren't as many options to make incremental investments that immediately add value unless they do those investments in partnership with GO/Metrolinx or EXO/RTM. For example a partnership with GO to launch service Union to Box Grove with a Leaside yard, or EXO to launch a service from Centrale to Repentigny or Mascouche which is slightly more direct than it is today.
Getting VIA to run through Peterborough or Trois-Rivieres are obviously much larger investments and because they aren't along a route that VIA travels now to any large degree, there aren't as many options to make incremental investments that immediately add value unless they do those investments in partnership with GO/Metrolinx or EXO/RTM. For example a partnership with GO to launch service Union to Box Grove with a Leaside yard, or EXO to launch a service from Centrale to Repentigny or Mascouche which is slightly more direct than it is today.