I'm a bit confused. Wouldn't they have 3.5 hrs to get from Toronto to Montreal? You're inferred 4:13 travel time would make for some really crazy departure times. So I wonder if it's 4:13 regularly and the morning and evening expresses use the bypass to get down to 3.5 hrs?
I have no experience on this. But I'm wondering if an express, very limited stop train, using a bypass, can get from Toronto to Montreal in 3.5 hrs? If we assume a design speed of 110 mph, that would require achieving an average of about 80% of design speed. Is that doable if they only have 4 stops en route (Scarborough, Peterborough, Smiths Falls, Dorval)?
A back of the envelope look says, no. I can only get to 3:53 by dead reckoning.
Here's my data, based on the HFR route to Smiths Falls and the Winchester Sub to Dorion, thence the CN route to Central Station.
It's generic in that I did not attempt to correlate it to any particular real track features. I simply assumed that a train would mostly run at top speed but have to stop some small number of times.... for meets, scheduled stops, whatever. Similarly, I assumed that the train would have to slow down a certain number of times - for meets, slow orders, curves, through urban areas, whatever. I assumed there would be stops at Dorval and Kennedy. I assumed that the trip time between Dorval and Central, and between Kennedy and Toronto Union, would resemble today's timings because of track limitations and the need to interleave with GO trains. I ignored the likelihood of a very slow connection in Agincourt between the GO line and the CP line.
The route length is 341 miles. At 110 mph, the "perfect possible" trip time is therefore a bit over 3 hours. When one adds in the added time taken for deceleration, acceleration, dwell, and slow running, the number of miles covered at top speed is somewhat less, and the time taken at less than top speed adds to the three hours significantly.
A real life schedule would be padded further. Plus, this model is very optimistic about curve reduction.
This look is obviously imprecise, but it validates that 4:13 might be possible, and that 3:30 certainly ain't.
Feel free to kick the tires and suggest more credible parameters.
- Paul
