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It seems as though we have very different definitions of ditching one’s car. To me it isn’t parking it while on vacation, but otherwise living a car dependent life. It is about not owning a car and using alternative modes of transportation for most of one’s daily activities. I shouldn’t be...

With the BC government recently returning sections of the ROW to the First Nations communities that it travels through, I agree that it almost definitely won't happen, but it doesn't change the fact that they were (past tense) being saved for that. It will be interesting to see what VIA says...

Agreed, but that doesn't mean it can't have good intercity bus service. The media likes to exaggerate the problems with the Confederation Line. Yes there have been some significant issues, but I would argue that is only a small factor in why ridership has dropped so much. The reality is, many...

One only needs to look at what has happened in Ottawa to see the flaw in your argument. Transit ridership today is significantly lower with the O-Train (admitadly not actually LRT) running than it was before, when we had BRT. Granted, there are other factors like most sillycivil servants still...

It’s all a matter of perspective. At the time VIA with bleeding money like crazy and the cuts brought that under control. As a rail fan, I certainly would love to see trains from everywhere to everywhere, but that isn’t necessarily feasible with our sprawling nation and car dependent culture...

Amtrak was formed for completely different reasons than VIA Rail. In the USA, passenger transport was loosing the railroads money, and they were begging the government to relieve them of the responsibility to transport passengers. The government agreed (and formed Amtrak) on the condition that...

Huh? That is exactly what HFR (which you seem opposed to) is about. Its original name was the Dedicated Tracks program. The fear is that the plan become too expensive and the politicians deciding to cancel it, like they have every other time HSR has been proposed in this country. Some say...

So you want to reduce the number of fright trains to allow more passenger trains, but want to legislate that freight off of the highways as well? Is your plan to somehow reduce the amount of freight or are you proposing some other method of transporting it? A better option might be to legislate...

And how many millions of trucks would be added to the the highways as a result just so that we can remove thousands of cars form those same roads?

Given that (at least pre-Covid) VIA covers all operating costs (plus more) in the Windsor-Quebec corridor with its current speeds and frequencies, I am not sure why you think increasing speed slightly and drastically increasing frequency will result in that profitability to turn into a loss. In...

So your preference is spend the money on roads instead and let passenger rail waste away in Canada? When in history was there ever 18 trains a day between Toronto and Montreal (or Ottawa)? 4 direct trains a day and 1 train with a connection in Brockville is hardly the great service your faded...

When was Toronto-Montreal ever 3.5 hours? IRRC the fastest was 3h59m and that was only one express train a day.

I don’t understand the appeal of hydrogen combustion in a locomotive. As I’ve said, before, when using hydrogen in an engine, (rather than a fuel cell), it still produces nitrogen oxides. It was some sort of direct drive locomotive then maybe, but if you’re using hydrogen to generate...

You are right. I thought there were only 5 trains a day between Ottawa and Montreal pre-Covid, but I misremembered. For HFR, something will need to be done about the constraint in Coteau Yard (presumably by diverting to CP's Winchester Sub to cut the corner). I suspect a large part of the...

For clarity, IIRC the number of weekday trains on the Kingston Sub pre-Covid were as follows: Oshawa to Kingston: 17w15e Kingston to Brockville: 16w14e Brockville to Coteau: 6 Coteau to Montreal: 11 Is the capacity east of Brockville lower, making 6/11 the maximum number of VIA trains...

Interesting to watch. For some reason I had (incorrectly) assumed that the split occurred at the station in Brockkville, not the yard to the west of the station.

And that’s certainly another factor. GO trains predominantly run in somewhat urban areas and thus are relatively close to first responders. VIA trains, on the other hand, can often be in quite remote areas, and getting fast access to a sufficient number of first responders may not be possible.

Can you give us your definition of "successful?" While the service doesn't need to be profitable, if it achieves significantly less than a 50% fare recovery ratio on operating costs, it isn't successful IMHO (assuming all the communities served have road access). It might be nice, but it...

Thanks. I didn't know that.

^Just curious how he would have determined that from the departure board?