VIA Rail

[Admiral Beez]

I used to commute a few times a month to New Hamburg, ON. And it's directly between Stratford and Kitchener. I always thought that station should be re-opened. The dual track in the below image surprises me, must just be a station by-pass.

http://www.canada-rail.com/ontario/n/newhamburg.html#.W8jONfkpDIU

 

[robmausser]

Aren't all stops request stops, I've ridden VIA too many times this year and Glencoe and Ingersoll and even Woodstock get bypassed if no one books a ticket in advance.

Wyoming was a request stop until some date I cant remember, like 2012, and now its a mandatory stop.

I guess VIA felt like 4 hours and 40 minutes from Sarnia to Toronto was too quick.

 

[SaugeenJunction]

I can assure you that almost nobody *ever* uses Washago. The station building is smaller than Wyoming there, and the platform is more weeds than concrete.

"only" 55km? har har, good joke.

You're not wrong, but I'm gonna be a contrarian and say that I once boarded there with about 30 others to go on a canoe trip. But yes the station there is SUPER minimal.

 

[littlewill1166]

Wyoming was a request stop until some date I cant remember, like 2012, and now its a mandatory stop.

I guess VIA felt like 4 hours and 40 minutes from Sarnia to Toronto was too quick.

Yeah but the train doesn't stop there if there aren't any passengers with reservations arriving or departing at Wyoming. The service managers have a crew app on their crew phone that tell them how many passengers have reservations for each stop and if there aren't any they inform the engineers not to stop the train. If you don't believe me maybe you can have a chat with Service Managers Erico or Jonathan the next time you take the train.

Edit: Also if you're nice and you ask to be switched to car 3 on 84/87 you'll get to sit an almost empty declassified business class car.

 

[Urban Sky]

I can assure you that almost nobody *ever* uses Washago.

Thank you very much for offering whatever anecdotal experience you may have, but I can look up the total number of passengers which boarded or left the Canadian at that station in 2017 and let's say the count was higher than what even I expected...

"only" 55km? har har, good joke.

Again, you don't seem to understand the subtle differences between travelling on the Corridor and travelling on a transcontinental or remote rail service...

Aren't all stops request stops, I've ridden VIA too many times this year and Glencoe and Ingersoll and even Woodstock get bypassed if no one books a ticket in advance.

One reason might be that at certain stations (Sainte-Hyacinthe, Coteau, Gananoque and Napanee come to mind), there are two tracks, but only one track has a platform. If you know already a few minutes before that there won't be any passengers getting on or off the station, you are free to use either track and may thus be able to avoid having to wait for the platform track to be free...

Wyoming was a request stop until some date I cant remember, like 2012, and now its a mandatory stop.

It was a conditional stop until 2015, if you refer back to post #4207:

All these stop conditions (in this case: the requirement to book the ticket 20-40 minutes before its scheduled departure at its origin in order to make a stop there) were removed on this route in 2015/06/01 and the only conditional stop which remains in the Corridor is the mysterious Friday-only stop of Ottawa-Montreal-Quebec train 26, which has been around for as many years and survived three changes of its train number (previously: 34, 54 and 52) and two changes of its route (previously: Ottawa-Montreal and Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal):

I used to commute a few times a month to New Hamburg, ON. And it's directly between Stratford and Kitchener. I always thought that station should be re-opened. The dual track in the below image surprises me, must just be a station by-pass.

http://www.canada-rail.com/ontario/n/newhamburg.html#.W8jONfkpDIU

The last scheduled train service stopping at that station appears to have been trains 657 and 658 in Winter 1966/67:
View attachment 160941
Source: Official CN timetable (effective 1966/10/30)

 

[littlewill1166]

One reason might be that at certain stations (Sainte-Hyacinthe, Coteau, Gananoque and Napanee come to mind), there are two tracks, but only one track has a platform. If you know already a few minutes before that there won't be any passengers getting on or off the station, you are free to use either track and may thus be able to avoid having to wait for the platform track to be free...

That sounds right, but I've also seen stations bypassed when the train was travelling on the track with platform access. I've also seen times when people had to cross the tracks without the wooden gap fillers at Woodstock on train 82. What exactly the difference between a mandatory stop and a conditional stop in terms of actual real life operations? Also this probably isn't your department but the entertainment system has been down for at least 2 months, do you know why?

 

[dowlingm]

Not surprising Washago isn’t well used given the quantity and reliability of the train service. A daily reinstated Northlander would result in more than triple current service (from 6 to 20 train stops a week) and at more social/reliable hours presumably - not to mention quicker, with no excursion via the Newmarket and York subs on the way north.

 

[Urban Sky]

That sounds right, but I've also seen stations bypassed when the train was travelling on the track with platform access.

This whole reply is mere speculation, but maybe stops are skipped to recover from delays?

I've also seen times when people had to cross the tracks without the wooden gap fillers at Woodstock on train 82.

This doesn't sound like normal/planned operations, but maybe the station track was inaccessible (e.g. blocked by a broken freight train) and exceptionally stopping on the opposite track was the only way to avoid a multi-hour delay?

What exactly the difference between a mandatory stop and a conditional stop in terms of actual real life operations?

A conditional stop means that the station stop has a note in the timetable which signals to the passenger that the train will either stop only if a reservation is done in advance (you could call this a "request stops"), when the passenger is either seen by the locomotive engineer or (if already on board) notifies the on-board crew ("flag stops") or on certain days ("selective stops"). As for "request stops", it could be that their presence could lead the passenger to the expectation that at all other stations he can make a booking until the moment the train arrives in the station. Even without such a note in the timetable, a cut-off time can be imposed for certain stations by simply not showing any available seats for a train departing within x minutes of the time of booking...

Also this probably isn't your department but the entertainment system has been down for at least 2 months, do you know why?

I would invite you to send an email to customer_relations@viarail.ca to enquire about this problem...

 

[squircle]

This doesn't sound like normal/planned operations, but maybe the station track was inaccessible (e.g. blocked by a broken freight train) and exceptionally stopping on the opposite track was the only way to avoid a multi-hour delay?

It's pretty normal operation in my experience on trains 47/48 at Gananoque. 47 normally travels on the north track, and 48 is often switched to the north track at Queens/Kings to avoid blocking both lines at Lyn (Brockville). Every time except one that I've taken those trains, RTC has proactively called the train with a message like "Rule 107 protection on the south track at Gananoque, no need to call me back." (More often than not, the SM will have already told the head-end crew that they have no business at Gananoque, so the crew says no protection is necessary.)

Rule 107 says the following:

107. Restrictions at Passenger Train Stops

Unless otherwise directed by special instructions, a movement must operate with extreme care when passing along side a train carrying passengers that is discharging or receiving traffic.

It must not pass between such train and the station or platform, unless the movement is properly protected.

Passengers shall be allowed to entrain and detrain only after positive protection has been provided against movements approaching on any main track they must cross when moving between the station and the train.

I assume the same happens at Woodstock. Ultimately, CN will route the train by the most convenient path (for them) -- Rule 107 is in place to ensure there's no risk of conflict when passengers are crossing active tracks.

 

[Allandale25]

Update on the Montreal to New York line:

http://digital.vpr.net/post/efforts...ontreal-clears-border-control-hurdle#stream/0

 

[Urban Sky]

Update on the Montreal to New York line:

http://digital.vpr.net/post/efforts...ontreal-clears-border-control-hurdle#stream/0

By STEVE ZIND•DEC 14, 2017

 

[Allandale25]

^ Ah, apologies. Someone posted it on Facebook so I assumed it was recent. Missed the date.

 

[Urban Sky]

^ Ah, apologies. Someone posted it on Facebook so I assumed it was recent. Missed the date.

No worries, but you wouldn't believe how much I embarrassed myself in front of my colleagues when I showed them that CTV article about the imminent restauration of the service on Vancouver Island...

 

[DSC]

^ Ah, apologies. Someone posted it on Facebook so I assumed it was recent. Missed the date.

Yes, the Bill passed last year but that was really not the only major problem. The train was reduced to ending at St Albans as the track in US was declared unsafe for passenger trains and the US needed to allocate and then spend $$$$ on improving it - according to Wikipedia this happened in 2014. However, funding for AMTRAK seems to be in danger in Trump's America so .....

 

[kEiThZ]

Bids for fleet renewal were supposed to close October 5th. Any word if they closed or extended? And has anybody seen a tentative timeline on bid eval and contract award?