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VIA Rail

p_xavier said:
Yeah, I take VIA when I need to go to the office and no issue. Even in economy class I was told that seats are left empty for social distancing.
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Finally, 2nd class will be tolerable....saves me some money too.

Yeah, I think I'm going to roll the dice on this one/flip a coin. I'm not sure I can stand wearing my home-made cloth mask for 5 hours. :/
I do prefer the train though.
 
The biggest challenge for VIA over the next 30 years will not be the introduction of HFR as that's really not much of an accomplishment but rather the financial and logistical challenges of de-carbonising the entire network.

VIA must plan to have, at a minimum, the entire Corridor running emissions-free trains by 2040 which is only 19 short years away. The longer routes can be phased out by 2050 as they are so infrequent. Talking about trying to reduce their footprint means squat, the reality is that it must be done and done quickly and VIA has no real plan in place on how to achieve it. As Ottawa expects all transportation to meet zero emissions by 2050, there is no way in hell that they will let a Crown Corporation, of all things, off the hook.
 
ssiguy2 said:
The biggest challenge for VIA over the next 30 years will not be the introduction of HFR as that's really not much of an accomplishment but rather the financial and logistical challenges of de-carbonising the entire network.

VIA must plan to have, at a minimum, the entire Corridor running emissions-free trains by 2040 which is only 19 short years away. The longer routes can be phased out by 2050 as they are so infrequent. Talking about trying to reduce their footprint means squat, the reality is that it must be done and done quickly and VIA has no real plan in place on how to achieve it. As Ottawa expects all transportation to meet zero emissions by 2050, there is no way in hell that they will let a Crown Corporation, of all things, off the hook.
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19 years sounds like a realistic time frame to electrify Corridor operations with a combination of catenary electrification and Hydrogen or batteries, while cascading the Siemens diesel locomotives to other parts of the network. However, the question of how to electrify VIA’s non-Corridor routes is for the host railroads to figure out (as VIA will have little choice than to adopt whatever solution CN and CP implement for their own operations and infrastructure)...
 
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ssiguy2 said:
The biggest challenge for VIA over the next 30 years will not be the introduction of HFR as that's really not much of an accomplishment but rather the financial and logistical challenges of de-carbonising the entire network.

VIA must plan to have, at a minimum, the entire Corridor running emissions-free trains by 2040 which is only 19 short years away. The longer routes can be phased out by 2050 as they are so infrequent. Talking about trying to reduce their footprint means squat, the reality is that it must be done and done quickly and VIA has no real plan in place on how to achieve it. As Ottawa expects all transportation to meet zero emissions by 2050, there is no way in hell that they will let a Crown Corporation, of all things, off the hook.
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If the freight companies don't do it, it will take the electrification of GO to push Via to do their owned ROW Go back a few pages for the mess of that discussion.
 
Urban Sky said:
However, the question of how to electrify VIA’s non-Corridor routes is for the host railroads to figure out (as VIA will have little choice than to adopt whatever solution CN and CP implement for their own operations and infrastructure)...
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There's no way that CN is going to let them put catenary down the Kingston subdivision. Or has VIA backed away from their promise about continuing frequent Kingston-Ottawa, Kingston-Montreal, and Kingston-Toronto services?
 
Urban Sky said:
19 years sounds like a realistic time frame to electrify Corridor operations with a combination of catenary electrification and Hydrogen or batteries, while cascading the Siemens diesel locomotives to other parts of the network. However, the question of how to electrify VIA’s non-Corridor routes is for the host railroads to figure out (as VIA will have little choice than to adopt whatever solution CN and CP implement for their own operations and infrastructure)...
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VIA is flexible enough, and their capital needs modest enough, that it can adapt to whatever CN and CP decide.

The challenge is for CN and CP (and the industry generally) to get their heads out of the sand and find a path forward. They are resting on their laurels so far, but that can’t last forever. I can’t fault them for going slow and not sticking their necks out, but they will have to find a non-carbon solution eventually.

- Paul
 
I'm sure that battery powered trains will become more efficient. You could charge the locomotives during layovers at the end of the route.

Putting additional batteries in the passenger cars might add additional power capacity.
 
ssiguy2 said:
The biggest challenge for VIA over the next 30 years will not be the introduction of HFR as that's really not much of an accomplishment but rather the financial and logistical challenges of de-carbonising the entire network.
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The biggest challenge of VIA will be HFR because it will break a 70 year trend of declining passenger rail in Canada. I hope we see a commitment soon but I'm not holding my breath.
 
Bordercollie said:
I'm sure that battery powered trains will become more efficient. You could charge the locomotives during layovers at the end of the route.

Putting additional batteries in the passenger cars might add additional power capacity.
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You don't even need to charge the locomotive per se. You could just have battery car(s) that could be swapped every so often at charging stations, and connected to power the locomotive or traction cars.
 
nfitz said:
There's no way that CN is going to let them put catenary down the Kingston subdivision. Or has VIA backed away from their promise about continuing frequent Kingston-Ottawa, Kingston-Montreal, and Kingston-Toronto services?
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I have to admit that even after almost 8 years on this side of the Atlantic, I still follow European politics and transport policy closer than what’s going on here (probably because I understand their institutions and processes better), but provided that electrification is really expected to span from Halifax to Prince Rupert by 2050, I don’t think that CN will be able to demonstrate its commitment towards that target without having somehow electrified its busiest intercity corridor ten years before that deadline.

And with India having opened its first electrified line with double-stack freight operations, North America’s Class I railroads are starting to run out of excuses why electrification would undermine their operational efficiency:

Yep, that’s 360 TEUs (transported on 18 quintuple cars) passing by in just over a minute...
 
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