VIA Rail: New Funding

[ShonTron]

It's a glitch. I used the travel booking system that shows the three trains.

 

[unimaginative2]

\
from VIA Rail's site
"The VIA Rail RDCs (used primarily on the Malahat and the Lake Superior) are the only remaining RDCs in the world still providing regular service."

I'm not sure where VIA got that, but it's completely wrong. Dallas' commuter rail system uses them all over its network.

 

[DavidJamesTO]

Only during off-peak periods nowadays, though. They also use locomotive-hauled bilevels during peak periods.

 

[Northern Light]

Train Geek section

Did I miss the train geek section?

I want to keep up to date on the VIA track expansion/improvements in the corridor and when we will finally see the more and faster service promised.

 

[EnviroTO]

This can only be good news...

News Conference Announcing Largest-Ever Investment and Improvement Program to Passenger Rail Service in Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal Triangle

with Federal Government, CN, and VIA Rail

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2009/15/c6265.html

 

[kEiThZ]

^ Might just be a re-hash of the budget commitments to VIA's capital and expansion programs. This probably has to do with the third rail they are adding for VIA in the corridor.

 

[EnviroTO]

That would be disappointing. Would the $407 million from the March budget announcement make it the "largest-ever"? I guess it doesn't take much to best the funding that has been given to passenger rail infrastructure over the years. Hopefully there is a little more than a third track in a few sections. It would be nice if they had more impressive rolling stock.

 

[Swarley]

Where is VIA adding a third track?

 

[EnviroTO]

I don't think they have said exactly where. The comment was:

"The deputy minister of Transport Canada, Louis Ranger, has said that part of the money would be used to build a third track in areas between Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa to alleviate traffic congestion between the freight and commuter trains that cause delays on the heavily travelled routes. He said express trips between Montreal and Toronto could be reduced to three-and-a-half hours."

"...some of the investments would also go toward upgrading train stations in Windsor, Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver..."

 

[TOareaFan]

Here is the story from today's presser:

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/667275


$300M to speed Toronto-Montreal rail travel
THE CANADIAN PRESS

Ottawa is committing $300 million to what's being hailed as the largest-ever investment in passenger rail service between Montreal and Toronto.

Via Rail's CN Kingston Subdivision Project is a series of infrastructure improvements at eight locations along the 539-kilometre, double-track rail line.

The project is expected to boost capacity on the rail line by eliminating bottlenecks and reducing delay-causing conflicts between passenger and freight trains.

Sections of new third line track will be added to the existing line at multiple locations between Oshawa, Ont., and Brockville, Ont.

A fourth track will be built at Via's busy Belleville, Ont., station.

Donald Wright, Via's chairman of the board, is calling today's announcement "nothing short of a reshaping of the Canadian railway map."


I would say it is nothing short of a re-announcement (albeit with some fleshing out) of a previous announcement!

 

[nfitz]

Which was essentially a re-announcement of the 2003 announcement of the Chretien government, which the Martin government cancelled.

$300-million in 2009 dollars is the largest ever investment in Montreal-Toronto service? I'd be really surprised.

 

[TOareaFan]

Which was essentially a re-announcement of the 2003 announcement of the Chretien government, which the Martin government cancelled.

$300-million in 2009 dollars is the largest ever investment in Montreal-Toronto service? I'd be really surprised.

But, since it was announced 3 times, it appears like $900 million...call it a billion for rounding .....and no one has ever invested a billion in Via before!

 

[Hipster Duck]

I would say it is nothing short of a re-announcement (albeit with some fleshing out) of a previous announcement!

LOL! Yeah,

"Merry Christmas, son! Here's that X-box I promised you for your birthday last year!"

 

[EnviroTO]

Talk about embellishments:

On the rail corridor upgrades:
"... nothing short of a reshaping of the Canadian railway map." (Via's chairman)

The map looks identical to me except for a few fatter lines.


On the F-40 locomotive refurbishment delivery:
"... impressive piece of precision railway equipment ..." (MP Jacques Gourde)

Precision in that it stays on the track most of the time?

 

[EnviroTO]

I wonder if VIA is ever going to get around to putting in tunnels and platforms to serve second tracks at many of the line stations. Other than Montreal, Toronto, London, Ottawa, Kingston, Quebec City, and the stations in the Toronto and Montreal area which also service commuter trains, VIA only has a single platform so trains in both directions need to switch to the same track or traffic would need to be halted while people walk across the track. It seems very inefficient from a scheduling perspective to need to find a way to switch trains onto track that is mostly running in the opposite direction.