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I take a different viewpoint. There is limited money and if Toronto wastes tens of billions of dollars on this vanity project, there won't be any money left to fund any rail projects.

A 50 km tunnel under the 401 only sounds feasible to Doug Ford. IMHO, putting the same toll on the 401 that is on the 407 would be a much more effective way of reducing congestion.

I was under the impression that the Northlander will be 7 days a week for at least half the year. Would your plan only be for when isn't 7 days a week?

Its a better "investment" than Doug Fords plan to dig a tunnel under the 401 from Brampton to Scarborough. :rolleyes: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/highway-401-tunnel-traffic-gridlock-ford-1.7333341

1) I can't imagine TC granting anything more than a very short term waver to accommodate a delay in an existing order. 2) They could also be replaced with cars ordered because of HxR (either to be used on HxR routes or as extra cars to be used on the existing corridor). That is true. I suspect...

As I said, by also investing in Danielle Smith's rail project in Alberta.

Thanks for the clarification. I misinterpreted your previous post. While it is a shame that some HEP equipment will continue to be in operation (VIA said in their Summary of the 2017-2021 Corporate Plan, "A program to replace the bogies (part of the undercarriage) and provide new interiors would...

What do you mean by Central Canada (we had a whole debate about it a while back and some claimed that Central Canada extends all the way to the Gulf of St. Lawrence)? If Skippy were to also invest in Danielle Smith's rail project, that would go a long way to appease his base. Optimally he would...

I wasn't making any such assumptions. The thing is if you have a 1 hour layover, few, if any will remain on the bus for the layover. If everyone is getting off anyway, it doesn't matter which bus they get back on. You could potentially hold the bus because of a late train, but having it leave...

Interesting. So will they couple them behind either the locomotive or cab car? Presumably at the terminus they would need to shunt them onto the other end of the train (or turn the train) to not block the view from the cab.

If you look at page 11 in this presentation by VIA Rail at the NGEC 10th Annual Meeting, you will see the different planned configurations. Looking again at the diagram, I'll correct my previous statement. The 7 car train adds two extra economy cars (configurations 1A and 1B). The 4 car train...

A single Sudbury-North Bay-Ottawa bus timed to meet the trains both was only works if both the bus and train can keep their schedule with reasonable reliability. Even then the bus would likely have to have at least a 1 hour layover in North Bay to ensure people on the bus can reliably transfer...

That is the big question we have been discussing for years. VIA has defined what 3, 4, 5 and 7 car Venture trains will look like. The problem is the cars that are removed from a standard 5 car train to make 3 and 4 car trains are not the same type as those needed to make a 7 car train.

Good point! The CPC aren't anti green, they just don't want to inconvenience anyone in the process. The carbon tax inconveniences people, as does an EV mandates. Investments in VIA Rail does not, as long as they are perceived to be affordable. VIA Rail is a bit of a double edged sword for the...

There is decent evidence that they aren't. For example: ONR's website says, "The trainsets each include one locomotive and three passenger cars." There is no mention of baggage or dining cars, and while a sleeper could be considered a "passenger car" typically that term typically refers to...

If developing overnight amenities (like baggage car, dining car and sleeper) could be done quickly and easily, ONR would have done it for the Northlander trains. I would love to see the LD fleet order use modified venture coaches for trains out of MMC, but that would require significant design work.

A bus from Ottawa that meets the NB train (and a bus to Ottawa the connects from the SB train) would be more interesting, as there isn't a direct bus from Ottawa to Cochrane (like there is from Sudbury). The current bus leaves Ottawa at 10:15 and arrives in North Bay at 15:25. That's a long wait...

It is probably way to early to say with any certainty. The question is how many people would take a bus 125 km east to transfer to the train north or south instead of taking a direct bus north or south. Maybe if they are going to an intermediary stop that they can't get to directly on one bus...

It just goes to show how much money it must cost to maintain track in good working order. The money they are spending in crew and equipment costs to make that trip must be huge. CPKC will have crunched the numbers and will have found that despite that, it isn't worth the investment to upgrade...

That estimate in the Ecotrain study seems low to me. If you assume that each grade separation costs about $500-million and there are like over 100 grade separations required for HSR, that would be over $50-billion in grade separations alone. Maybe on greenfield segments, this could be cheaper...