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I've mentioned Ottawa twice, BTW. Anyway, had it not been for the O-train in Ottawa, one could have imagined an HFR corridor running beside the Kingston Sub and on a rebuilt B&PR alignment from Prescott to Ottawa. That way the losses in terms of catchment area would have been minor and the...

Well, if the main preoccupation is to connect Toronto to Ottawa and Montréal only, HFR is great. You should go for it! But VIA, or anyone for that matter, shouldn't sell it as a measure to solve mobility on the Corridor. It's just a cheap HSR, you've proved my point. Peterborough (121 721) and...

A digression is a digression. As far as I am concerned, it doesn't have to necessarily add anything to the discussion. That's a legitimate concern, I agree. I wouldn't be here if, in my little way, I didn't care. I hope my presence here isn't disturbing. You're right, and I'm also very...

I mean, English is not my first language, but I've clearly stated that was a digression. Haven't I? :rolleyes:

Also, and I beg you to pardon my ignorance... but what exactly would be CP and CN's business case against leasing, or transferring, the ROW to a publicly-subsidized agency? From a commercial and practical point of view, nothing would change except the fact that engineers would have to call a...

Paradoxically, some of the JR (private) companies are actively pursuing this business model in anticipation of future transit scenarios. They're literally building new stations along their rail corridors, sometimes in the middle of nowhere, with provision for future development. Japan has a...

Billions invested in transit will never be enough to solve the problems that have arisen in the last decades due to suburbanization. Road- and pollution-related fatalities are difficult to "monetize", in this sense, and one shouldn't overlook the fact that the lack of transit is a hindrance to...

That's a valid point, unfortunately. Apparently, it is okay to heavily subsidize all other modes of transportation, or construction of relevant infrastructure, even if that doesn't turn a dime of profit. Road construction is always on the rise, after all. 🤷‍♂️ Bingo!

Well, then if the Canadian railway system is so effective, why bothering with passenger transportation at all? Ditch all long-distance trains, just pump more billions in the highway system, or fatten up airlines even more. Things would come out just as fine, right? I've never claimed such a...

Or you make freight trains go faster — but I recognize the technical difficulties that would arise from that decision. 😁 Here, freight trains are expected to run (almost) as fast as passenger trains, when the infrastructure allows for that. More than the length, or the weight of such enormous...

BTW, I am talking about the infrastructure only. Hence the "vertical separation" concept I introduced earlier. CP, CN, GO, VIA, and shortlines would still run their businesses on a consolidated infrastructure under a single owner. The FEC and Brightline, in Florida, on the other hand, use a...

It somewhat makes sense, I agree. Personally, I wouldn't "nationalize" the entire national network, but only key corridors. Also, you have to consider that most of the freight trains now run on a network that has been shuttered in the name of their finances. How many daily freight trains run...

Hydrogen shares the same technical limitations that other fossil fuels have: it needs to be stored and, at present, the best performing multiple units have autonomies rarely exceeding 100 km. Besides, foreign hydrogen vehicles are much lighter than North American ones, therefore they have much...

Nothing personal, of course. That was a general remark: when I bring up that kind of reasoning elsewhere I get easily called out a communist. So, not knowing the platform I jumped on the defensive. My bad. ARTC (Australia) works in the same way, and I believe that the railway industry there is...

Well, my bias is strong with the European (and, partially, Australian) model of vertical separation between infrastructure owner/manager and train operators. If that seems a foreign concept, it has already been proposed by Charles P. Zlatkovich in his 1976 thesis "A proposal for the development...

Apparently, we have a different understanding of what incremental development means: if you have to build a line basically from scratch, that's an "abrupt" development. It means that it would take years to get to the result without experiencing anything in the meantime. I wouldn't be...

My problem with this approach is that HFR has the same problems as other HSR (mega)projects: it doesn't follow an incremental approach. From an infrastructure point of view, building an entirely new line between two cities requires an enormous amount of time. Peterborough to Smiths Falls is...

Hi everyone. I'm new to the forum and to the discussion. As my username might suggest, I work as a train driver, or locomotive engineer, on higher-speed, long-distance international services in Europe — which run under the generic term of EuroCity. I've been invited on the platform by Urban Sky...