Alto - High Speed Rail (Toronto-Quebec City)

[p_xavier]

I'll be retired when this opens. At least less chances that they close my train station before that. Though this looks like they will maintain the existing service.

What does Alto mean for existing VIA services between Québec City to Toronto?
VIA Rail’s passenger rail services in the Québec City to Toronto corridor will continue to operate during the development of Alto. Eventually, these local services will be integrated with Alto services into a single network, that will maintain connectivity to these existing communities in this corridor.
The implementation of Alto offers the opportunity to improve services on these routes to better address local needs, such as more tailored service schedules. This work will be further explored during the development phase of the project.

Any idea of the name ALTO? All for Toronto?

Phase 1: Ottawa-Montreal
Phase 2: Ottawa-Toronto
Phase 3: Montreal-Quebec

 

[micheal_can]

I'll be retired when this opens. At least less chances that they close my train station before that. Though this looks like they will maintain the existing service.



Any idea of the name ALTO? All for Toronto?

Phase 1: Ottawa-Montreal
Phase 2: Ottawa-Toronto
Phase 3: Montreal-Quebec

My hope is that any existing frequency along existing routes would be maintained. Kingston is one of the highest ridership in Canada.

 

[chrisw]

Any idea of the name ALTO? All for Toronto?

Introducing Alto, The Alternative

Introducing Alto, The Alternative Français The Future of Passenger Rail The high-speed train connecting Toronto to Québec City has evolved to better meet the needs of Canadians. The decision to rebrand was driven by the need for a name and identity that better reflect our mission. Alto is a name...

altotrain.ca

 

[ARG1]

I think the gist of the logic is that the only way to not deal with freight trains is to build a brand new separate alignment from CP/CN. And if a new alignment has to be built, might as well spend "a little" extra and make it high speed.

The "a little" has my head scratching. I get this may be why you put it in quotes, but the head of Alto said that apparently making the line HSR will cost 30% extra, and all I have to wonder is how on earth a traditional Speed Rail along the Havelock Sub costs $60B

Edit: I originally wrote "Traditional High Speed Rail", whatever that is.

12. HSR will reduce ghg

Sort of. The biggest savings is getting people out of cars and airplanes onto a smoky diesel train. Making that diesel train carbon-neutral is the gravy, not the steak. Also, the test is not how much carbon HSR saves, it's how it performs relative to other options within the available investment envelope for carbon reduction. My personal opinion is that improved local transit, replacing regional and local auto use, would remove much more carbon emissions. So those options take priority over HSR if the ccarbon reduction envelope won't achieve both.

I also find it weird to use this line of logic for a service that best case scenerio will launch in 2037, when at that point, well we might not have electric planes (in fact its very unlikely), we will probably have transitioned most of the population to EVs with maybe a few H2 cars (hard to know if Hydrogen Vehicles will make it that far). Whilst EVs do have problems regarding their manufacture as well as the problematic mining of rare earth materials, that's a completely separate conversation to GHGs.

Any idea of the name ALTO? All for Toronto?

montreAL-TOronto

 

[p_xavier]

Introducing Alto, The Alternative

Introducing Alto, The Alternative Français The Future of Passenger Rail The high-speed train connecting Toronto to Québec City has evolved to better meet the needs of Canadians. The decision to rebrand was driven by the need for a name and identity that better reflect our mission. Alto is a name...

altotrain.ca

Yeah I saw that but it means nothing really. VIA Rail is a better name and better branding IMO. I had the same feeling about exo. Mumbo jumbo.

 

[11th]

The "a little" has my head scratching. I get this may be why you put it in quotes, but the head of Alto said that apparently making the line HSR will cost 30% extra, and all I have to wonder is how on earth a traditional High Speed Rail along the Havelock Sub costs $60B

I'd say, the stations (and related works) alone could cost billion. There would also be need to build countless of bridges/underpasses across the rail ROW - for wildlife and vehicles.

 

[ARG1]

I'd say, the stations (and related works) alone could cost billion. There would also be need to build countless of bridges/underpasses across the rail ROW - for wildlife and vehicles.

Sorry, I meant Higher Speed Rail, akin to the Wolverine, or what the original HFR plan was.

 

[nfitz]

montreAL-TOronto

I guess we are lucky they didn't call it MOTO (with OTtawa in the middle!). Or QUTO - though at least that would have Googled better.

Though with decades to build it - many of us will be dead by the time it opens. Then the whole thing will be MOOTo.

 

[micheal_can]

I guess we are lucky they didn't call it MOTO (with OTtawa in the middle!). Or QUTO - though at least that would have Googled better.

Though with decades to build it - many of us will be dead by the time it opens. Then the whole thing will be MOOTo.

Chances are,once it opens it will be named something completely different.

 

[enter username]

The Mayor of Peterborough seems to want ALTO to bypass the city to the south based on this comment

Leal said a local station could be located near the Peterborough Airport, which belongs to the city, though it is in neighbouring Cavan Monaghan Township. Leal points out it would allow the tracks to cross the Otonabee River at its narrowest point.
“That makes good construction sense,” Leal said. “That will be to the south of the city and would provide a more regional stop for the entire region.”

Great idea for out of town drivers, terrible idea for everyone else

 

[Islington Express Bus]

Alto means high in Latin.

Its most common use in English is to describe the alto vocal range. In this range, sound waves travel at the same speed as other pitches, but at a high frequency.

So if you wanted to indicate that you were abandoning the high frequency rail concept and instead going for high speed rail, you couldn't have picked a worse name, lol.

 

[nfitz]

Alto Vista!

Though perhaps it should be Alto Via. Which is Latin for high way.

Take the high way!

 

[ssiguy2]

As usual, Trudeau and the Liberals are playing 100% to their base while infuriating everyone else. If Trudeau thought outside his Montreal-Toronto cocktail circuit, he would realize there are other parts of the country as well. This should NEVER have been presented as planned unless it cam with a similar amount of money for Calgary-Edmonton {roughly per-km of the route} as well as firm dates for expansion to London & Windsor, the 4th and 7th busiest stations on the network and London is busier than Quebec City.

This may help his base in the Golden Triangle but will alienate everyone else.

 

[nfitz]

As usual, Trudeau and the Liberals are playing 100% to their base while infuriating everyone else. If Trudeau thought outside his Montreal-Toronto cocktail circuit, he would realize there are other parts of the country as well. This should NEVER have been presented as planned unless it cam with a similar amount of money for Calgary-Edmonton {roughly per-km of the route} as well as firm dates for expansion to London & Windsor, the 4th and 7th busiest stations on the network and London is busier than Quebec City.

This may help his base in the Golden Triangle but will alienate everyone else.

Other than your comment, I haven't seen any evidence of a surge of feelings about this. It's been years since the approximate route was announced. How many times has Prime Minister Trudeau been re-elected since then?

 

[crs1026]

"Take The A Train" was, of course, written for ..... an Alto Saxophone.....

- Pul