Alto - High Speed Rail (Toronto-Quebec City)

[nfitz]

I wouldn't be surprised if these "citizen researchers" start advocating for rubbing ivermectin horse paste on VIA trains for speed benefits, based on the quality of work I've seen thus far.

Pretty much. To suggest running along the 401 shows such either astounding engineering and planning ignorance, or that this is simply a NIMBY move to stop the project.

Even if you could run along the 401 (which you can't given the curves), the amount of tunnels would be very expensive, akin to HS2, to solve the grade problems. And where 401 is straight the grade-separated crossings would be very expensive.

But those aren't the big issues. The expropriation along that corridor would be extreme - far worse than a northern alignment.

The extreme hypocrisy of such a laughable increase in expropriations and demolitions, in order to save split some fields in half, is an insult to the human race. Never have I seen such complete BS.

Even expropriating the CN Kingston subdivision and resurrecting VIA Fast would be a better option.

 

[ownthesky]

Pretty much. To suggest running along the 401 shows such either astounding engineering and planning ignorance, or that this is simply a NIMBY move to stop the project.

Even if you could run along the 401 (which you can't given the curves), the amount of tunnels would be very expensive, akin to HS2, to solve the grade problems. And where 401 is straight the grade-separated crossings would be very expensive.

But those aren't the big issues. The expropriation along that corridor would be extreme - far worse than a northern alignment.

The extreme hypocrisy of such a laughable increase in expropriations and demolitions, in order to save split some fields in half, is an insult to the human race. Never have I seen such complete BS.

Even expropriating the CN Kingston subdivision and resurrecting VIA Fast would be a better option.

I think what bugs me the most about folks pushing a 401 alignment, engineering and costs aside, is that there is an implicit component of "make it the problem of the tens of thousands of homes and businesses abutting the corridor" that I find so callous. Using the 401 would uproot way more people from their land and pushing it to the 401 rarely mentions that.

 

[micheal_can]

Business, tourism officials want high-speed rail to ‘arrive in the heart of Ottawa’

Ottawa’s main business and tourism organizations want to see high-speed rail bring passengers to a station in the downtown core, saying it “deserves to arrive in the heart of Ottawa.”

www.ctvnews.ca

Am I crazy or could you convert the LRT into a functional metro for a fraction of the cost of getting a high speed train into "downtown" Ottawa? In any other modern city, Tremblay would get you to parliament in a couple minutes using a modern metro. It feels like a joke that the huge and empty Tremblay station isn't the obvious choice, given that it already has a rapid transit station. The fact that Tremblay isn't the only option seems like more of a testament to how much of a joke the Ottawa LRT is and it's quite fascinating that the thought leaders in Ottawa want a second chance to screw up something that should be incredibly basic with other people's money. Get Tremblay working first, show the world the city isn't a total joke by not screwing up an elementary level planning task (does our metro-thing reach our urban core-thing from our main train station at a decent pace with good reliability?), and THEN build that fancy new downtown station once the HSR line shows its value.

... You are crazy...

Seriously though, the route is neither straight or flat, or that wide.

 

[lenaitch]

I wouldn't be surprised if these "citizen researchers" start advocating for rubbing ivermectin horse paste on VIA trains for speed benefits, based on the quality of work I've seen thus far.

Well, at least they wouldn't get Covid.

Pretty much. To suggest running along the 401 shows such either astounding engineering and planning ignorance, or that this is simply a NIMBY move to stop the project.

Part of me wants to think that there is some unwritten plan to simply flood the zone and bog the project down until a change of government (or heart) simply kills it of devalues it to something unrecognizable. That and the Randy Hillier effect in eastern Ontario.