High Speed Rail: London - Kitchener-Waterloo - Pearson Airport - Toronto

[jje1000]

GO Train to London? Wonder how the logistics would pan out.

Other rail fixes urged for Southwestern Ontario as high-speed service frozen

Go Transit expansion could be a longer-term option, said Transportation Minister Jeff Yurek. But buses, better rail infrastructure and more links between cities in the region, are also possibilities.

“Everything is on the table,” said the Elgin-Middlesex-London MPP, noting the government will hold forums with municipalities and others in the region ahead of the regional plan.

“I wouldn’t say (high-speed rail is) a never. Right now, we’re on pause so we make the right selection about where we’re going to invest the dollars and make sure it’s beneficial to the majority of the region.”

But one activist, from a group that wants to see a regional transportation system with London as a train hub and smaller centres tied in with busing, says “it’s no good having something that a lot of people can’t afford to use” when the hallmarks of a “useful” network include reach, frequency and affordability.

“The top cruising speed is kind of the last thing. In our opinion, you fix all the other stuff first,” said Terry Johnson, a director of Transport Action Ontario and a Chatham business owner.

There are plenty of options to improve rail service that don’t involve high-speed trains or dedicated lines, Bradley said. Building more junctions, extra rail lines along busy routes and addressing delays caused by slow freight trains in single-track areas, should all be considered, he said.

So should expanding GO Transit to London, even as a “short-term plan,” said Macartney, noting “Kitchener-Waterloo is not the end of the world” and adding bus or rail service would be welcome.

Other rail fixes urged for Southwestern Ontario as high-speed service frozen

There could be a new train of thought for passenger rail in Southwestern Ontario.

www.woodstocksentinelreview.com

 

[kEiThZ]

Keith.....………..you are right, no Torontonian gives a damn about service to London/Windsor which is the problem as Toronto still feels it's her decision to make.

You seem to resort to emotional appeals. I assure you that nobody give a shit about emotions when billions are involved. It’s not “Toronto feels it’s her decision to make...”. It‘s bureaucrats at VIA or Ontario’s MOT looking at maps and business cases and deciding what makes sense. They don’t give a damn about what Londoners or Torontonians or anybody else thinks. At best, they are pushed by what politicians think will get them elected. And I guarantee you that no politician is getting into minutiae about route details.

People in Lon/Wind want to get to Union fast and the fastest, most direct, and cheapest route is the southern one via Aldershot. It is Torontonians who want the connection to KW not the people of SWO.

What the people of London and Windsor want is not as relevant as what the province or other authorities can afford and can deliver and political considerations. Nobody is going to look at the traffic out of KW and ignore that en route just to save a few minutes for London/Windsor.

It’s really simple. Ask yourself which route would generate more traffic overall. Which route provides the most riders/$? Which route offers the greatest political return? That’s the one getting funded. If anything even gets funded.....

This Toronto centric government really doesn’t seem all that interested in anything substantial beyond the GTA. I am actually surprised they even committed to Stage 2 in Ottawa.

If London gets anything in the next decade, it'll be because VIA does something.

 

[dowlingm]

This "Toronto centric" talk above is tiresome. It was a Toronto Premier who brought forward this HSR plan. Many Toronto people, myself included, find not the speed of London trains problematic but that they simply don't run when needed - a frequency issue, solvable with track capacity, operating funding, and trainset availability.

The cry of Brantford bypass also doesn't appeal to me. Not only is it a dismissal of the transportation needs of people there, it seems to me unlikely that a project of this nature would fail to run into a Caledonia style protest specifically because of the amount of public money and therefore media attention at stake.

Development threatens native culture, OMB told

The first day of final arguments in the Ontario Municipal Board hearing into potential development in the city's northwest finished with the Haudenosaunee…

www.brantfordexpositor.ca

 

[lenaitch]

The link points to an interesting problem that has existed with Six Nations and a few others, stating that the city didn't know who to consult with. There are competing groups that claim to rightfully and exclusively represent the Indigenous community. Until that gets sorted out, little will be settled.

 

[kEiThZ]

This "Toronto centric" talk above is tiresome. It was a Toronto Premier who brought forward this HSR plan. Many Toronto people, myself included, find not the speed of London trains problematic but that they simply don't run when needed - a frequency issue, solvable with track capacity, operating funding, and trainset availability.

Indeed. And it was effectively canned by another Toronto Premier. The idea that somehow it’s some dastardly Torontonians making plans about connections to London is bizarre conspiracist nonsense. It’s the provincial and federal bureaucracy and provincial and federal politicians pushing ideas and plans that might get them elected or they think might further other goals.

The cry of Brantford bypass also doesn't appeal to me. Not only is it a dismissal of the transportation needs of people there, it seems to me unlikely that a project of this nature would fail to run into a Caledonia style protest specifically because of the amount of public money and therefore media attention at stake.

Yet another reason (as if the business case wasn’t enough), to avoid the southern mainline.

 

[robmausser]

GO Train to London? Wonder how the logistics would pan out.

Other rail fixes urged for Southwestern Ontario as high-speed service frozen

There could be a new train of thought for passenger rail in Southwestern Ontario.

www.woodstocksentinelreview.com

ViaRail should extend their HFR plan to London through Kitchener by purchasing the GEXR line from Kitchener to London in the same way they are doing for the CP line to Peterborough.

If funds from HSR need to be given by the province to help pay for it, so be it.

The current GO trains are too slow and make too many stops to properly service London.

 

[kEiThZ]

Just a reminder, Mississauga has more residents (and votes) than all of the Southern Main Line past Hamilton.

So if anybody is trying to figure out why the GTA has more interest.

 

[jordanmkasla2009]

ViaRail should extend their HFR plan to London through Kitchener by purchasing the GEXR line from Kitchener to London in the same way they are doing for the CP line to Peterborough.

If funds from HSR need to be given by the province to help pay for it, so be it.

The current GO trains are too slow and make too many stops to properly service London.

GEXR doesn't own the line from Kitchener to London. CN does, GEXR was only leasing it. CN has taken over freight operations on the Guelph Sub since November 2018

 

[Haljackey]

Don't forget that the ridings in Windsor & London went NDP. Kitchener Centre & Waterloo also went NDP.

Playing politics, makes sense the PCs put a hold to this plan.

 

[innsertnamehere]

GEXR doesn't own the line from Kitchener to London. CN does, GEXR was only leasing it. CN has taken over freight operations on the Guelph Sub since November 2018

It's the sort of line that CN would likely happily sell however, just like they sold all the GO lines 5-10 years ago. The line is in terrible condition and has little value in terms of freight customers.

 

[robmausser]

GEXR doesn't own the line from Kitchener to London. CN does, GEXR was only leasing it. CN has taken over freight operations on the Guelph Sub since November 2018

Im aware, just still refer to it as the GEXR line as its not CN's mainline, which I am hoping, like CP's Havlock Line they are willing to give ownership up in exchange to still run night trains on it.

 

[kEiThZ]

ViaRail should extend their HFR

The plan that never actually got funding and probably won't survive the election if the government gets tossed?

SWO politicians should have been pushing the federal Liberals for this. Instead, they settled for insincere promises of future action.

 

[Urban Sky]

ViaRail should extend their HFR plan to London through Kitchener by purchasing the GEXR line from Kitchener to London in the same way they are doing for the CP line to Peterborough.

You seem to believe that the decision to allow VIA Rail to purchase rail infrastructure (be it the Havelock or Guelph Subdivision) is made in Montreal. Also, as long as there is no Missing Link, there will remain a short but essential piece of the Kitchener Corridor which CN will never sell...

 

[mdrejhon]

It'll be a long time before we see this in North America.

 

[Admiral Beez]

How many people are going to take a train from London to K-W as a final destination? This seems like a monorail-like project that no one is asking for.