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VIA Rail

I don't know if the demand would be high enough, but one way of enabling a seamless ride would be to require any single seat cross border travelers have Nexus passes. Maybe there would be a way to sync it up so that other travelers could join the cross border train at the respective Niagaras, after being cleared.
 
I've always been inclined to think that the best approach would be CBSA in Michigan Central with VIA extended to Detroit (and maybe replacing the tunnel bus with a DMU shuttle) but letting GO, Amtrak (bar the Maple Leaf and maybe an overnight service that can operate as today) and any future NFTA service terminate on their side of the border at Niagara Falls but building an enclosed, climate controlled pedestrian crossing between the stations with a moving walkway.

It's really not an unreasonable connection distance by airport standards, and most of the options for properly integrated service have bigger issues than I see with this.
 
Bordercollie said:
I don't see any realistic way for GO to operate into the US.
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Guess that makes two of us…

Frank_Lee said:
I don't know if the demand would be high enough, but one way of enabling a seamless ride would be to require any single seat cross border travelers have Nexus passes. Maybe there would be a way to sync it up so that other travelers could join the cross border train at the respective Niagaras, after being cleared.
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I doubt you’ll ever be able to offer any frequent rail service, decent travel time and a remotely acceptable OTP over the Seaway bridge at Saint-Catherines. That’s why I assume that such service would take the CP route through the Welland Tunnel and over the bridge at Fort Erie, which has the triple advantage of allowing to move all border procedures from Niagara Falls (which is irrelevant for cross-border travel) to Buffalo (which is the city with the highest ridership potential between Toronto and NYC), avoiding any interference from the Welland Canal and offering a downtown station in Hamilton…
 
Bureaucromancer said:
I've always been inclined to think that the best approach would be CBSA in Michigan Central but letting GO, Amtrak (bar the Maple Leaf and maybe an overnight service that can operate as today) and any future NFTA service terminate on their side of the border at Niagara Falls but building an enclosed, climate controlled pedestrian crossing between the stations with a moving walkway.
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That would be a good idea.
 
If the train uses multiple locos, they could put one in the middle (or 60/40 or whatever you want) so that the front of the train could be pre-check between Toronto and New York. Put in preclearance at Union Station and Pen Station. When they get to the order the front train could just decouple and keep going without waiting.
 
LemonCondo said:
If the train uses multiple locos, they could put one in the middle (or 60/40 or whatever you want) so that the front of the train could be pre-check between Toronto and New York. Put in preclearance at Union Station and Pen Station.
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But then people won't have access to the cafe car.
 
LemonCondo said:
Uhhhhh.... have two? 🙃
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There is only a limited amount of rolling stock.

And the fuel to power two locomotives.

Pre clearance only works if the train is travelling directly from point A to B with no stops in between.

For the maple leaf this is not the case. I still think an overnight train might be a good idea and could compete with overnight buses.
 
Bordercollie said:
There is only a limited amount of rolling stock.

And the fuel to power two locomotives.

Pre clearance only works if the train is travelling directly from point A to B with no stops in between.

For the maple leaf this is not the case. I still think an overnight train might be a good idea and could compete with overnight buses.
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You could have a pre clearance section that was blocked off in the middle by a special café car that could serve both sides but passengers can't go through, and then the train would still stop at the border, but with better cross-border faculties to speed it up. Then major stations like Union and Pen would have pre-clearance, so passengers there would go into the pre-clear part. Other people along the way would get into the non-clear part. Might speed it up if major stations had this.
 
LemonCondo said:
If the train uses multiple locos, they could put one in the middle (or 60/40 or whatever you want) so that the front of the train could be pre-check between Toronto and New York. Put in preclearance at Union Station and Pen Station. When they get to the order the front train could just decouple and keep going without waiting.
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LemonCondo said:
You could have a pre clearance section that was blocked off in the middle by a special café car that could serve both sides but passengers can't go through, and then the train would still stop at the border, but with better cross-border faculties to speed it up. Then major stations like Union and Pen would have pre-clearance, so passengers there would go into the pre-clear part. Other people along the way would get into the non-clear part. Might speed it up if major stations had this.
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No amount of dreaming about how great pre-clearance would be in Toronto will create the space at Union Station which would be necessary to establish an area anywhere near a platform where pre-cleared passengers can be separated from all other passengers…
 
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Northern Light said:
VIA had a very bad day yesterday, and the details are only coming out now.

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Why couldn't the bus just continue on? Unless they didn't have a license to operate beyond London. Then who ever called that company to provide buses didn't know what they were doing.

If they still had a train that terminated out of London it would have been easier. It shouldn't take 12 hours to complete that trip. Hopefully the new trains have emergency batteries that can operate toilets and provide lights even if the prime locomotive has a faliure.
 
Bordercollie said:
Why couldn't the bus just continue on? Unless they didn't have a license to operate beyond London. Then who ever called that company to provide buses didn't know what they were doing.

If they still had a train that terminated out of London it would have been easier. It shouldn't take 12 hours to complete that trip. Hopefully the new trains have emergency batteries that can operate toilets and provide lights even if the prime locomotive has a faliure.
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It's a long way from London to Windsor, and I don't think those two buses to London had anywhere near enough passenger space to make the balance of the trip beyond.
This was at like 10:30 p.m., wasn't it? Kind of hard to marshal a fleet of buses at that hour to make a potentially 5 or 6 hour round trip. I'm not sure if they would have to make interim stops or not.
 
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Urban Sky said:
You can find some more details in the discussion here:
groups.io

Train 79 6/9

groups.io groups.io

Apparently, CN also had issues with their own dispatching system, which prevented that one of their freight units pushed the disabled train to the next station…
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typical Canadian rail reliability. if it isnt a breakdown, its a bogdown. if it isnt that then its a derailment... counting the years or decades before we actually have a dedicated corridor for passenger rail that is reliable.
 
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