quicksilver
Active Member
I think if you bring Chicago into the scenario, and have the Chicago-New York trains run without a Canadian stop (or Canadian customs hassles), a high speed Northeast network makes a lot of sense.
Why not just extend Acela HSR
I don't think it makes sense to build HSR so that Toronto can be connected to mid-sized cities like Kitchener, Hamilton, London, Windsor or Kingston. I suspect most trips between these cities is done by car, so I think if you just improve the VIA corridors so that they're maybe a bit faster than driving, that's good enough.
Toronto-Montreal HSR via Ottawa could make sense, although I still think it would mostly serve business trips. A lot of people still drive between those cities if they're just visitors or tourists. I still don't think it would have to be especially high speed, making the trip in 3-4 hours would be a pretty big deal already.
As for New York-Toronto or New York-Montreal, I suppose that's a possibility, especially since there are other significant cities in between. I don't think there would be a lot of people from Toronto going to upstate New York, but there could be a fair bit going the other way, as well as between upstate NY and NYC. Since Toronto is quite close to Buffalo, if the Americans decide it's wortwhile building HSR from NYC to Buffalo, they might as well extend it to Toronto with stops in Hamilton and Niagara Falls. I also think that it's unlikely a Chicago-NYC line would be built through SW Ontario before one via Philly, Pittsburg and Cleveland.
PS: Kitchener is not a bedroom community of Toronto, more like a satellite city.
I think if you bring Chicago into the scenario, and have the Chicago-New York trains run without a Canadian stop (or Canadian customs hassles), a high speed Northeast network makes a lot of sense.
It would but then you have the busy Toronto approaches plus VIA owns none of the trackage to my knowledge. Ottawa-Montreal is shorter, would be finished quicker, plus it links VIA HQ in MTL with its prinicipal funder in OTT.A 2 or 3 hour trip from toronto to Montreal would increase travel as well, as people would be more willing to head to the opposite city for one night stays, and recreational travel.
Paris to Bordeaux is about the same distance as Toronto to Montreal. That TGV trip costs a bit more than $100 and takes 3-3.5 hours. Driving from Toronto Montreal would be around 6 hours and about $40-$50 for gas if your car is not too big. However, I go to Montreal a few times a year with my family (4 people in a car) to visit my grandparents and other relatives, that means it would still be about $40-50 by car but $400-450 by train, and since neither my family or grandparents live right downtown, you could add 1-1.5 hours for getting to the train station, arriving a bit early to make sure we don't miss the train, and getting from Montreal's train station to our grandparents. It's easy to see that for us, taking HSR from Toronto to Montreal would make no sense whatsoever.A 2 or 3 hour trip from toronto to Montreal would increase travel as well, as people would be more willing to head to the opposite city for one night stays, and recreational travel.