sacred
Active Member
What’s the latest on the new reservation system? Last I heard it was to be rolled out this year
Other than Ottawa station, what land does VIA own along the corridor that might be appropriate for TOD?Can they not allow a higher concentration of development around the new rail line to help pay for the cost of building it and by having more people living close to it encourages its use. This mentality is used with building transit in cities why not use it with high speed rail?
Apparently, it is okay to heavily subsidize all other modes of transportation, or construction of relevant infrastructure, even if that doesn't turn a dime of profit. Road construction is always on the rise, after all.
Doesn't have to be via owned property. Density equals to more riders which equals more revenue.
Guess we're going to ignore how little aviation is subsidized in Canada. Or the billions being invested annually these days in transit....
The relationship between transportation and social mobility is stronger than that between mobility and several other factors, like crime, elementary-school test scores, or the percentage of two-parent families in a community. (Nathaniel Hendren)
Development will certainly happen near stations. But VIA has no control over that. Also, development isn't usual a substantial driver of intercity travel demand.
True, with current tech. But if we're going all in on hydrogen for long distance services (which we are), the marginal cost of hydrogen for less than optimal services will be way less just due to economies of scale. It will also be easier to implement, and cheaper on an incremental basis since the entire hydrogen ecosystem is being built anyways. Whether it is blue, green, or the weird extract hydrogen directly from hydrocarbons in the ground while leaving carbon in the ground, I don't care. It is that the government has decided to throw billions into the tech, and to carve out a Canadian niche in the tech. If it is a dead end we will know far before the electrification question for the corridor comes up. Do we think the corridor will be able to resist the easiest option when it comes along when the Chargers are ready to go even if CAT is more efficient from an energy use perspective? I really doubt it.
The point is for those long distance trains the infrastructure which would be used to support hydrogen for marginal uses where you wouldn't build a dedicated ecosystem will already exist, so they'll be able to leverage existing infrastructure instead of building a dedicated one. Can't really look at the corridor in isolation, in the case of the energy system. Sure, hydrogen might be a bust. But it might also upend the entire mobile end user of energy market where batteries won't work universally. and we can't translate our extreme skepticism that accompanied efforts to force Metrolinx to go to Tier 4 engines along with belief that hydrogen is just a delaying tactic to electrification, to blind us to the possibility that when we are ready, an entirely new tech is available to us.
^I wonder what constraints will be placed on VIA to use its HFR line for revenue other than people.
At one point Amtrak attempted, but abandoned, a package delivery service. Lots of mail/express trains on HSRish lines elsewhere.
I’m not saying such a service would be viable here, and it’s a distraction from getting HFR off the ground......but.... it’s a good test of whether VIA is being given a mandate to generate all possible revenue from the line, as a true bottom-line focused business should.
I would predict there would be screams if this happened, and the freight railways would be leading the protest. Probably airlines too.
While we pretend that Canada is a country of free markets, Canada’s standard model for privatised infrastructure is to packaged as a disguised semi- monopoly with a pair of competing private firms, with a cumbersome overbuilt regulatory process that is a meal ticket for lawyers. Watch as startup airlines or telco’s try to enter the market, and listen to the objections - impossible !
If we have a freight railway system that has been polished to perfection, with a commendable modal share and volume higher than the European Union..... then we have reached the point where the market will support new competitors, just as we are allowing new telco’s to challenge Rogers and Bell. And new startup airlines.
HFR will be built to a standard that precludes grain trains or even double stacks, but maybe it can partner with parcel services.....or establish a border connection that would bring some commodity brought there by a competing US railway. But will this be allowed?
Like I said, this thought is not likely to go anywhere... but just trying to put the mandate on paper and in law would be a good test of CN and CP’s true colours, and of government’s commitment to placing infrastructure in the hands of a competitive free market.
- Paul
Paradoxically, some of the JR (private) companies are actively pursuing this business model in anticipation of future transit scenarios. They're literally building new stations along their rail corridors, sometimes in the middle of nowhere, with provision for future development.
VIA isn't Japan Rail. And Canada isn't Japan. [...omissis...] Or are you just here to wish we were Europe or Asia, because there's plenty of pages of that line is discussion rehashed every year.