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VIA Rail

VIA got rid of the commuter pass. I don't know anyone who's willing to pay $80 to wake up at 5 AM to commute to Toronto from Cobourg, Kingston, etc and arrive back home at 7 PM. A lot of people were also commuting on the unlimited 60-day Canada Pass, which is probably why VIA decided to scrap all the passes and redo them.

Trains 82-83, 85-88 and 650-651 have been gone so long that people have switched to alternatives (work from home, bus, GO + car). Reinstating these trains would just be a band-aid solution to not having similar jobs/opportunities in those smaller communities. The more environmentally friendly solution that would result in people having a better quality of life would be to have jobs/opportunities available in those smaller communities so that the people who live there can spend more time with their families and friends instead of spending hours travelling every day.
 
littlewill1166 said:
VIA got rid of the commuter pass. I don't know anyone who's willing to pay $80 to wake up at 5 AM to commute to Toronto from Cobourg, Kingston, etc and arrive back home at 7 PM. A lot of people were also commuting on the unlimited 60-day Canada Pass, which is probably why VIA decided to scrap all the passes and redo them.

Trains 82-83, 85-88 and 650-651 have been gone so long that people have switched to alternatives (work from home, bus, GO + car). Reinstating these trains would just be a band-aid solution to not having similar jobs/opportunities in those smaller communities. The more environmentally friendly solution that would result in people having a better quality of life would be to have jobs/opportunities available in those smaller communities so that the people who live there can spend more time with their families and friends instead of spending hours travelling every day.
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It might not be so bad if you had a hybrid work environment only requiring you to work at the office 2 days a week.

But considering the cost to own a house anywhere near Toronto, getting up at 5am 2-3 days a week might be the difference between living in a 2 bedroom condo vs living in a 3 bedroom house with a backyard.

Cobourg to Toronto should only take 60 minutes if you only stopped at Port Hope, Oshawa, Guildwood and then Union. Commuting from Kingston is a stretch, considering it's almost 80km farther than London to Toronto.
 
Lots of people use to take these trains for regular medical appointments and to shop or patronize other big city services, as one can spend the day in Toronto and then commute back without staying overnight. Via should bring more service to the line. Given the population density it’s a crying shame we don’t have hourly service between Toronto and Ottawa / Montreal. Price it right and the demand is there.
 
lead82 said:
Lots of people use to take these trains for regular medical appointments and to shop or patronize other big city services, as one can spend the day in Toronto and then commute back without staying overnight. Via should bring more service to the line. Given the population density it’s a crying shame we don’t have hourly service between Toronto and Ottawa / Montreal. Price it right and the demand is there.
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There isn't enough equipment or track slots.

When GO brings their service to the Belleville sub it will provide an option for those people. In which case Metrolinx should partner with someone to build a shuttle to the GO train, or run their own buses.
 
GO wont bring service there any time soon. We are talking 10+ years. VIA should have purchased more train sets and slot time or got government to invest in extra dedicated tracks. Our rail system is grossly inadequate for a G7 country. It’s embarrassing.

All talk about cutting carbon emissions yet we do nothing to improve our land transportation options in the densest part of the country. People fly or drive. Those are the two options.
 
lead82 said:
GO wont bring service there any time soon. We are talking 10+ years. VIA should have purchased more train sets and slot time or got government to invest in extra dedicated tracks. Our rail system is grossly inadequate for a G7 country. It’s embarrassing.

All talk about cutting carbon emissions yet we do nothing to improve our land transportation options in the densest part of the country. People fly or drive. Those are the two options.
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I think it was someone on this board that mentioned that the current fleet replacement is a 1 to 1 ratio interns of number of seats.

Just an increase of one seat would cause an uproar and would require an overhaul of the entire funding structure.

But since they will be more reliable you may be able to get more runs per day assuming track slots are available. That is the number one problem. Track capacity.
 
Agreed. I don’t get why we are only just replacing trains and not increasing capacity to run more trains. Rail capacity can be organized with CN or to build track. HFR has been talked about for 10yrs and still zero action on it except more reports. Sad.
 
Bordercollie said:
I think it was someone on this board that mentioned that the current fleet replacement is a 1 to 1 ratio interns of number of seats.

Just an increase of one seat would cause an uproar and would require an overhaul of the entire funding structure.

But since they will be more reliable you may be able to get more runs per day assuming track slots are available. That is the number one problem. Track capacity.
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VIA’s RFP documents had an explicit provision to provide additional trainsets in the case that HFR get’s approved one day, which is the only realistic scenario where that extra seat capacity could be utilized…
 
Even with HFR there is still a growing population along the Lake Ontario corridor and into SWO. VIA should be increasing service. In fact many years ago there were plans to run more trains for SWO that went nowhere.
 
You build new track. It’s really not that hard or difficult. Yes it takes some investment. GO is able to invest in its own track why can’t VIA. The leaders at VIA put everything in HFR and no other plans exist for any other investment. There was once talk about more service in the maritimes to say connect St John and Halifax via Moncton. Lots of possible new services if one did some thoughts on how to drive business through new services. VIA is irrelevant because of lack of service and investment.
 
lead82 said:
You build new track. It’s really not that hard or difficult. Yes it takes some investment. GO is able to invest in its own track why can’t VIA. The leaders at VIA put everything in HFR and no other plans exist for any other investment. There was once talk about more service in the maritimes to say connect St John and Halifax via Moncton. Lots of possible new services if one did some thoughts on how to drive business through new services. VIA is irrelevant because of lack of service and investment.
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In addition to being a lot more expensive than you probably realize (not counting that fact that it is private property and therefore any new infrastructure has to be negotiated, or perhaps legislated - and good luck with that), you make it should like VIA just lacks initiative. VIA Rail depends on the largess and policy direction of the federal government.
 
lead82 said:
You build new track. It’s really not that hard or difficult. Yes it takes some investment. GO is able to invest in its own track why can’t VIA. The leaders at VIA put everything in HFR and no other plans exist for any other investment. There was once talk about more service in the maritimes to say connect St John and Halifax via Moncton. Lots of possible new services if one did some thoughts on how to drive business through new services. VIA is irrelevant because of lack of service and investment.
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I guess you didn't read the HFR report. Back in the Harper days they build passing tracks and overpasses for Belleville, Cobourg and renovated Kingston Station. But travel times actually didn't get any better. It actually got worse.

Now it may have been naive to spend the money without an agreement from the railway.

In anycase it was determined that the best way to do it would be to own it and manage it yourself.

Hence why the building of a new corridor exclusive for Passenger trains.
 
No I didn’t read that. That is too bad that our national passenger railway can’t own the tracks. Maybe it’s high time to build its own. At this point I’m not holding my breath HFR will ever happen. 7 years of Lineral governance and nothing to show for it except empty words.
 
lead82 said:
You build new track. It’s really not that hard or difficult. Yes it takes some investment. GO is able to invest in its own track why can’t VIA. The leaders at VIA put everything in HFR and no other plans exist for any other investment.
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All the tracks Metrolinx (and VIA: COTO-OTTW-SMTF-BRKV and CHAT-WDON!) were able to purchase from CN or CP were corridors where these freight railroads only run some local freight services. At all the other main corridors, Metrolinx has been facing the same fierce resistance as VIA, since you can’t buy something if the current owner has no intention of selling (because it is an integral and indispensable part of its main business).

There was once talk about more service in the maritimes to say connect St John and Halifax via Moncton. Lots of possible new services if one did some thoughts on how to drive business through new services. VIA is irrelevant because of lack of service and investment.
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The less you understand the complexity of a problem, the easier it is to come up with plausible-sounding solutions. (#beentheredonethat, as my early contributions to this forum will attest)
 
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