Urban Sky
Senior Member
More like #85 and #88…A locomotive with only two cars is the "Sarnia Special"
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VIA Rail
- Thread starter ehlow
- Start date
Bordercollie
Senior Member
I wonder if any of that money earmarked for VIA will go to improving the jointed rail at London and Windsor. I'm sure they could make trip times faster by 10-15 minutes if they could improve those track conditions.
crs1026
Superstar
Jointed rail by itself is not a problem, depending on how worn it is. Stratford-London has never been a heavy traffic line. I have no idea whether the rail is end of life - only the Sperry car knows for sure!
The condition of the subgrade, ties, ballast, and crossings needs to be improved first.
We are talking six zeroes per mile to really get it right.
Not a lot in the scope of GO Expansion, really.
- Paul
Bordercollie
Senior Member
I was referring to the tracks in and out of London, and Windsor Station.
Allandale25
Senior Member
Bordercollie
Senior Member
You know what would solve this problem? Change the funding model to allow municipalities to fund the train to their region which can dictate the number of trains based on the funding.
It's actually in the feds best interest, since they have to provide services to those regions without specific funding.
It doesn't have to be a lot, the two towns together are about 40k people. $1.00 per month from this tax base could produce 40k of additional revenue per month. If the feds matched this it would be $80k per month. Assuming that the train ran 5 days a week would be 4k per day. I'm sure that that could help pay for staff at the station, cleaning, maintenance, crew hours etc.
Take this model and replicate it in 10 different places would be 40k additional per day in operating capital. That's almost a Millon extra dollars a year. I'm sure that could make a difference.
kEiThZ
Superstar
Those municipalities won't sufficiently fund local and regional transit. What makes you think they'd subsidize VIA?
They are asking for service increases out of a sense of entitlement. Nothing more or less.
They are asking for service increases out of a sense of entitlement. Nothing more or less.
Bordercollie
Senior Member
It's not entitlement if they had it before and it got taken away.
kEiThZ
Superstar
It's an entitlement when they contribute nothing but dictate levels of service.
Bordercollie
Senior Member
And how exactly do you propose they "contribute"?
Krypto98
Active Member
Isn't London station rule 105 zone?
robmausser
Senior Member
Didn't you know? Us downtowners don't get any money from the federal government, and we build transit with our bare hands!
crs1026
Superstar
One track is signalled. Turnout speed and the signal indications possible are the limiting factor.
Such a short stretch of jointed rail has little or no impact on speed, nor is there much potential for time savings if it were replaced wth ribbon rail.
- Paul
crs1026
Superstar
No surprise here..... Municipalities asking for provincial/federal aid, and provinces insisting that Ottawa pay the bill, regardless of what's in the local coffers, is more Canadian than Rolling Up The Rim.
Ottawa declining to pay for something valuable, in hopes that the local pols will get frustrated and pay themselves, is also completely within the Canadian character #NiagaraRailPax #Kitchener-LondonRailPax
Both the services pointed to were well patronised and performed a useful role, so I would support the reminder to Ottawa to get them reinstated.
But be careful what you ask for....if VIA had the same legislative basis as Amtrak, locally-funded trains might well run where they don't run today. The Ottawa bureaucracy will never allow that.
- Paul
kEiThZ
Superstar
They could easily offer to subsidize VIA operations if it's that important to them. They don't pay a cent.
Urbanites actually support public transit through their property taxes. Most of these smaller towns and cities don't have anywhere near the fiscal obligations for public transport that cities do. But yet they don't seem to have any shame in demanding that federal taxpayers fund a full slate of services that nobody in Canada outside the Corridor gets.
Just because politics and history works to their advantage doesn't necessarily makes this sensible.