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General railway discussions

I know this isn't in Canada, but I found this video interesting. Crazy that the rails onboard are as long as the train and watching them bend around that curve is something.

 
roger1818 said:
I know this isn't in Canada, but I found this video interesting. Crazy that the rails onboard are as long as the train and watching them bend around that curve is something.

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Actually, the train is as long as the rails. Admittedly they are sitting on rollers that allow for some lateral movement but, ya, it's cool to see seemingly heavy solid steel act like that.
 
lenaitch said:
Actually, the train is as long as the rails. Admittedly they are sitting on rollers that allow for some lateral movement but, ya, it's cool to see seemingly heavy solid steel act like that.
Click to expand...

LOL. It all depends on your perspective I guess. It is true that they made the train to be as long as the rails are, but what I was trying to say is that each rail occupies the entire length of the train (they didn't put the rails back to back).

I had heard that they ship extremely long rails (I had heard that they are 1 mile long, though I am not sure if that is true), but I had never seen it before.

crs1026 said:
Hold that thought... building HFR east of Havelock will be interesting!

- Paul
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For sure, and is a large part as to why I shared the video here. If/when they start construction, I will have to invest in a drone and film the construction (I live about 60 km east of Glen Tay).
 
Nomad_87 said:
Removing the middle section of the Newmarket Sub was such a short sighted decision honestly. At the least CN didn’t get to abandon the stretch to Barrie
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Yes and no. While having tracks that extend to central Barrie and Orillia would be nice, as seen in White Rock, having tracks that skirt along the shoreline in an urban area can be problematic and the trains would likely be limited to 30mph or less.
 
roger1818 said:
Yes and no. While having tracks that extend to central Barrie and Orillia would be nice, as seen in White Rock, having tracks that skirt along the shoreline in an urban area can be problematic and the trains would likely be limited to 30mph or less.
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It would be a challenge yes, but not anything to warrant straight up removing the rails. For passenger trains having such a corridor that hits most notable population centres along the way would be beneficial. And it would do wonders for Orillia, it would mean you wouldn’t have to use the extremely overcrowded Highway 11.
 
Considering how much the ROW has been encroached on since removal and all the work the City of Barrie has done in regards to the waterfront it isn’t worth bringing it back now. But if the rails were still there today I’d say keep them
 
roger1818 said:
Yes and no. While having tracks that extend to central Barrie and Orillia would be nice, as seen in White Rock, having tracks that skirt along the shoreline in an urban area can be problematic and the trains would likely be limited to 30mph or less.
Click to expand...

Nomad_87 said:
It would be a challenge yes, but not anything to warrant straight up removing the rails. For passenger trains having such a corridor that hits most notable population centres along the way would be beneficial. And it would do wonders for Orillia, it would mean you wouldn’t have to use the extremely overcrowded Highway 11.
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The distance from 'central Barrie' ('five points') to the Allendale GO station is a whopping 2.2km.

Having lived in North Simcoe for over 20 years, and having worked in Orillia, I'm not convinced there would be sufficient demand for commuter rail to Orillia. I wouldn't call weekday traffic on Hwy 11 between Barrie and Orillia anything close to being "extremely overcrowded". The only data I could find was from 2006 (Intergovernmental Action Plan- Simcoe County, 2006), but it found that over 64% of Orillia residents work in Orillia, with 30% working elsewhere in Simcoe County. Only 3.8% reported commuting to the GTA for employment. No doubt that has changed in the intervening years, but I doubt that significantly.
 
lenaitch said:
The distance from 'central Barrie' ('five points') to the Allendale GO station is a whopping 2.2km.

Having lived in North Simcoe for over 20 years, and having worked in Orillia, I'm not convinced there would be sufficient demand for commuter rail to Orillia. I wouldn't call weekday traffic on Hwy 11 between Barrie and Orillia anything close to being "extremely overcrowded". The only data I could find was from 2006 (Intergovernmental Action Plan- Simcoe County, 2006), but it found that over 64% of Orillia residents work in Orillia, with 30% working elsewhere in Simcoe County. Only 3.8% reported commuting to the GTA for employment. No doubt that has changed in the intervening years, but I doubt that significantly.
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And that is the problem, We still see rail as a thing solely for Toronto commuters. There's many more people who would benefit from that type of service: Vacationers, people who work in Barrie and Bradford, etc. As well, both The Canadian and Northlander used it before removal. Not just GO
 
Nomad_87 said:
And that is the problem, We still see rail as a thing solely for Toronto commuters. There's many more people who would benefit from that type of service: Vacationers, people who work in Barrie and Bradford, etc. As well, both The Canadian and Northlander used it before removal. Not just GO
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Fair point, but I still don't see sufficient commuter traffic to justify rail. Without knowing data on intra-County commuting patterns, it is guess only, but I suspect a lot of the employment-based commuting in and out of Orillia is with Midland, the north end of Barrie (RVH/Georgian College) and Honda Alliston. I don't see a lot of Barrie-Bradford traffic but don't know for certain. Vacationers to downtown Barrie and Orillia - perhaps. It would be interesting to know the passenger volumes generated by the Barrie and Orillia station stops for the Canadian and Northlander, both of which predate GO to Barrie.

I suppose if Metrolinx had money burning a hole in their pocket they could have purchased the ROW; CN no longer needed it.
 
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