I don't see where I've demanded anything. Suggested, sure. Asked - maybe.
Though where have I ever proposed electrification? Or elimination of level crossings (other than an odd one here and there perhaps in remote locations, and crossings of other major railways). I've only suggested double-tracking where HFR shares with freight (which sadly, is the majority of the route - though perhaps not necessary on the low usage north-shore).
And I didn't suggest the Ottawa Bypass. To my surprise, VIA did. My post was to ask if it meant that VIA had decided that the proposed Toronto/Montreal times were untenable.
I'm not sure why you are saying these things. I've certainly expressed doubts that the budget, even for the work proposed, is realistic. That the travel times may be overly optimistic. And that demand would significantly increase enough to cover the financing with frequent, but not as fast service.
You might indeed not have
explicitly demanded
all those things I've listed as
examples for the kind of features which would escalate the capital cost for HSR (and if you read my post carefully, I haven't claimed that you did), but you have consistently argued that HFR ought to be much faster than the 4:45
previously quoted as the target travel time - or even the 3:59 hours which were offered as a rather symbolic token travel time for a fraction of a year in the 1970s and then again during the late 1990s and early 2000s:
Example from Jun 24, 2019:
Given that VIA used to run it in just under 4 hours historically, before the freight issues started to become so significant, then surely if it's 45 minutes slower when this is finished then that would be a big failure!
And here two examples from Nov 17, 2021:
But the bottom line, is if the travel time doesn't get
much better than 4 hours from Montreal to Toronto, then the increased frequency won't increase the demand enough to justify the increased frequency (not to mention the capital costs). And I think that VIA has finally realized this, given the bypass around Ottawa is now in play.
I don't think if you have a 4-hour travel time from Toronto to Montreal that you'll increase the modal split enough for it justify high-frequency service. Which is why I assume they have added that bypass to the map.
As I mentioned above, the rule of thumb is 3 hours. They need to push it down to closer to 3.5 hours I'd guess.
The thing is that if you want travel times to get significantly below 4:45, you will have to chose not just one, but multiple of the kind of gimmicks I described:
- Electrification (as it allows much faster acceleration, especially at high speeds)
- Grade Separations (as they are a legal requirement for operation beyond 177 km/h in this country)
- An Ottawa Bypass (to reduce the distance which needs to be covered within your target travel time and thus the required average speed)
- Double-tracking of most or even the entire alignment (to remove slack in the schedule which will be required when trains can only meet at certain locations and would need to slow down - or even wait - if they meet a delayed train)
Especially by repeatedly expressing your
euphoria for VIA
Fast as a model to follow, you are implicitly demanding grade separations, as they are a legal requirement for the design speed of 200 km/h which is the only reason why VIA
Fast might have been able to achieve a travel time of somewhere around the 3.5 hours they advertised. Therefore, any attempt to satisfy your personal expectations in HFR will make it less likely that you will ever see hourly trains travelling between Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto before your retirement, if at all. Thus, the sole purpose of my post was to highlight to you the irony behind your fear of a certain outcome, while feeding a narrative which directly contributes towards it…
***
Nevertheless, I have changed the opening words from "Yet you demand" to "Yet your demands rely on", to better indicate that I was rather describing the implications of your demands than their explicit content...
I hope this clarifies my previous post for you, but please write me a personal message if you still feel unfairly characterized...
