p_xavier
Active Member
European countries part of the Schengen agreement.
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VIA Rail
- Thread starter ehlow
- Start date
Admiral Beez
Superstar
That happened to me on a train from Zagreb to Nuremberg at the Slovenian border. Tough guys in uniforms and SMGs got onboard and while the train was running checked everyone's paperwork. The guy beside me was pulled off and never seen again.
IDK if I've mentioned it before but my summer job after university was customs inspector at Pearson Airport in the Fed's student employment program. Seems a silly place to to assign students, but that's what it was. Of course we were trained to treat everyone fairly, so imagine my surprise when I started as an international sales manager at 26 and saw the racial and tribal profiling done by customs and border security around the world. I imagined at the time that guy pulled off the train was not a Croat or Slovenian, and I hoped he got home safely.
smallspy
Senior Member
Nitpick: People are taken off the train and go through customs by way of the new facility attached to Niagara Falls, NY station. On the return, people are taken off of the train in Niagara Falls, Ont and put through the facility located within the station there, as they have been for the past 6 or 7 years.
Dan
lrt's friend
Active Member
On the Montreal-New York train, you are processed by customs on the train both ways at the border. I watched one passenger being removed by Canadian customs and he was not taken back to the U.S. immediately. I expect he was taken to a Canadian detention facility over night (with his wife or girlfriend). The reverse train going back into New York state had already passed for the day.
crs1026
Superstar
There is supposedly legislation poking along that will give the authorities some added flexibility on how they set up rail border crossings between Canada and the US, but it’s not a turn-on-a-dime proposition.
I doubt the mayor will see the idea come to fruition anytime soon, but it’s the right thought. We just need an actual useful GO service - or VIA - on that route before it is workable.
- Paul
I doubt the mayor will see the idea come to fruition anytime soon, but it’s the right thought. We just need an actual useful GO service - or VIA - on that route before it is workable.
- Paul
dowlingm
Senior Member
Routing Canadian Utopia/Barrie/Toronto seems a bit pointless and doesn't solve the issue of being unable to reverse the trainset so then you have another laborious move via GO Richmond Hill/CN York. Right now Canadian passes by Langstaff and there is no move to pick up that market, is Barrie's really that lucrative? And how are Barrie people gonna react when Canadian chunters through Barrie at whatever odd hour of the morning the inevitable delays cause it to appear?
On the other hand, taking it away from Union to Summerhill has some appeal, if getting it to/from TMC could be figured out...
On the other hand, taking it away from Union to Summerhill has some appeal, if getting it to/from TMC could be figured out...
littlewill1166
Active Member
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/via-rail-train-hit-by-debris-near-trenton-1.5003651
Train 52 had its fuel tank pierced today, I was on the exact same train on 76 on Thursday.
Train 52 had its fuel tank pierced today, I was on the exact same train on 76 on Thursday.
crs1026
Superstar
You really want that thing gone from downtown, huh ? ;-)
Problem - a 24-car Canadian is about 2160 feet long. A platform at North Toronto for a train that long would stretch halfway to Avenue Road in the west, plus the cost of installing elevators, lighting, baggage handling etc. is not a very good use of money.
Plus - use of North Toronto would require a difficult turning process. The current routing is pretty slick in that regard.
A CP routing on the north line doesn't imply changing anything south of Parry Sound. For two visits a week, Union can handle the inconvenience. Perhaps some inbound curfew could be observed....hold the train somewhere if it looks like it will arrive in Toronto in morning or afternoon rush hour. A late morning to noon arrival gives a reasonable cushion, provided the train runs more punctually, so most days it would be clear of Union before the afternoon peak begins. A late evening departure has no adverse impact on Union.
- Paul
reaperexpress
Senior Member
There is indeed space at Utopia Junction for that connector track, because there is the abandoned rail ROW of the former North Simcoe Railway (the Northern Railway branch line between Barrie and Penetanguishene):
Red line is CPR
Amber line is the active portion of Barrie-Collingwood Railway
Green line would be new tracks on existing abandoned ROW
Providing this connector would save quite a lot of time for the northbound trip out of Toronto as it would avoid the need to do the three-point-turn to go from northbound Newmarket Sub to easbound York Sub at Snider Diamond.
That said, one advantage of the current routing is that both directions of the service pass by Langstaff / Richmond Hill Centre station, which has the potential to become a convenient suburban GTA access point for the train. And there is space to extend the platform north, in fact doing so brings the train closer to the overpass to the RHC bus terminal.
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lenaitch
Senior Member
I forgot about that stub; my mind was focused on the land right around the diamond. It is now severed with the recent reconstruction of CR 90 and many pennies would have to be spent building a grade separation (assuming one was desired) not to mention the problems caused by an undulating highway profile created by two overpasses in close proximity.
crs1026
Superstar
Assuming a move to CP is not a dead fantasy exercise - Why does the routing have to change south of Parry Sound (Reynolds/Boyne, to use the railway station names)?
That's where the Directional Running Zone ends. Regardless of what route is used across Northern Ontario, the eastward train will be on CN from St Cloud down to Parry Sound anyways. The westward train is already on CP from Parry Sound north to St Cloud.
Considering that two-thirds of the Canadian's travellers are tourists who need to reach downtown Toronto, there isn't much upside to serving the points south of there on the CP line. If that route needs regional service, there is little value in using the Canadian for that. It's an interesting mental exercise to figure a new route through Toronto, but it's more time and dollars than it's worth.
- Paul
That's where the Directional Running Zone ends. Regardless of what route is used across Northern Ontario, the eastward train will be on CN from St Cloud down to Parry Sound anyways. The westward train is already on CP from Parry Sound north to St Cloud.
Considering that two-thirds of the Canadian's travellers are tourists who need to reach downtown Toronto, there isn't much upside to serving the points south of there on the CP line. If that route needs regional service, there is little value in using the Canadian for that. It's an interesting mental exercise to figure a new route through Toronto, but it's more time and dollars than it's worth.
- Paul
dowlingm
Senior Member
I must be missing something here, but are you proposing northbound Barrie-Utopia-MacTier to Parry Sound? But not southbound (to avoid the wyeing issue)? If that's the case (which also bypasses Washago northbound), why not just use CP MacTier all the way to Parry Sound since a unidirectional link to Barrie isn't much use to anyone?
lenaitch
Senior Member
Agree. Having a long-haul train fill in as a local connection (beyond its mandated remote service role) is not productive.
Edit - While I'm not familiar with the Canadian's movements within Toronto, perhaps there would be some benefit in moving it off the CN Bala sub and onto CP Mactier. The CN route is their main corridor as well as having several GO movements. CP moves a lot of their east/west traffic through the US and I understand their 'Canadian route' traffic east of Winnipeg is much lower.
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crs1026
Superstar
^Back before The Big Move, when Bolton was one of the GO TRIP proposed destinations, GO's solution to accessing the Mactier Sub involved building a new connection from the Weston Sub around Lawrence Avenue. Georgetown South did not rough in such a connection, but it's still feasible. That would be an easy solution to any new VIA service, although I would not expect CP to be very welcoming.
- Paul
- Paul
MisterF
Senior Member
I was on one of the trains that was caught up in the delays caused by the accident. Any word on what this mysterious debris was? Somehow something caused a fuel leak and smashed windows.