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VIA Rail

Bordercollie said:
To go to class 6 you would need to change the layout of the curves.

For now class 4 is good enough to be competitive with the car. The St Mary's bridge also needs refurbishment.
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Um, what curves? Other than in St Mary's and Stratford, that line is pretty much dead straight.

Easy candidate to be brought up to the same standard as VIA's Ottawa-Brockville line, for instance.

- Paul
 
ssiguy2 said:
I disagree with upgrading the northern corridor. It would still have the problem of having to deal with CN trains and is a much more indirect route to Union.

The CP to Woodstock and then CN to Paris with a renewal of the Brantford by-pass is a route that is as straight as arrow and as direct to Toronto as you can get. These trains could make the trip from London to Hamilton in 40 minutes. The current VIA/CN route that meanders it's way thru Ingersol and Woodstock could be shared by both freight companies and the Woodstock-Paris CN section could have extra rail put in for passing.

The L-W route wouldn't cost a cent and the W-P section would be relatively cheap as well as the Brantford bypass as the corridor is still there. How would you get CN/CP to share tracks? You would simply employ the same "bargaining" position that both freight companies already employ...........blackmail. It's extremely efficient which is why they both use it against VIA.

Ottawa alone sets safety standards which cannot be appealed. Just as GM and Honda can't appeal highway speed limits, freight companies cannot appeal rail safety rules. Ottawa could simply say, due to safety concerns, no freight rail can go over a road with more than 1000 vehicles per day unless it is completely grade separated. Think of the tens of billions that would cost them nationwide and there is not a damn thing they could do about it. Under such a threat, how many HOURS would it take CN & CP to have an epiphany and realize they can share portions of tracks to give VIA it's own rail corridor? Blackmail works and it's about time Ottawa started using it.
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Look at the strike? CN asked to roll back the rest rules and the government was like meh
 
robmausser said:
Yes 100% agree. The GEXR line is the only option for dedicated VIA rail in South-Western Ontario.

VIA needs to purchase GEXR from CN and upgrade to Class 6 177kmh from London until it meets the Metrolinx line in Kitchener.

Any other idea is pie in the sky, and missing Kitchener-Waterloo on the way to Toronto is idiotic.

There is potential in buying all the CN line from London to Windsor, its not CN's mainline, but I think its a little bit less necessary than the GEXR, as the sub to Windsor is in better shape and is pretty quiet for freight anyways.

The GEXR bottleneck isn't even freight, its that it has a top speed of 40mph.

Any idea to use CN or CP mainlines for improved VIA service should be squashed, its a non starter and a good way to waste money. Look at the 2000's corridor tripling fiasco that VIA went through as proof. Never again.
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Every buyer needs a seller or are you wanting VIA to expropriate?

crs1026 said:
Um, what curves? Other than in St Mary's and Stratford, that line is pretty much dead straight.

Easy candidate to be brought up to the same standard as VIA's Ottawa-Brockville line, for instance.

- Paul
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Does Class 6 track exist anywhere in Canada. No idea about curve or gradient standards, but what about crossings and crossing protection. I suspect it would take a lot of money to upgrade to that standard.
 
The Kitchener route from London to Union is a very indirect route as well as being a rather meandering one between London & Kitchener. I don't see the advantage of going to Kitchener as opposed to Hamilton. Yes, the northern route would serve Pearson but the route would be maintained for that as the vast majority of Londoners/Windsorites are going to downtown Toronto. Nobody flies out of Pearson in Windsor.

As for the freight companies taking Ottawa to court, that is rubbish. Yes, they could make a valid point of having some years to make the transition but they cannot appeal a safety regulation. They could take them to court if it was only applied to one rail company but not if the new standards are invoked nationwide for all freight carriers. Freight companies cannot appeal a safety regulation just as GM could not appeal putting in air bags which are now legally required. They could bitch up a storm but that's all they could do, they have to comply. They could not get an injunction because they are only used for immediate and emergency situation not for policy changes that give companies years to implement.

Should Ottawa do this? No but it's called blackmail which is something CN & CP having been using for decades over VIA so it's certainly not a concept they are unfamiliar with. This, ideally, should be a threat of last resort but it is important for the freight companies know that Ottawa will use it unless they get to the bargaining table in a real way to start sharing tracks in key Corridor locations.
 
lenaitch said:
Does Class 6 track exist anywhere in Canada. No idea about curve or gradient standards, but what about crossings and crossing protection. I suspect it would take a lot of money to upgrade to that standard.
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The current standards only go up to Class 5, which is 95/100 mph. I believe Transport Canada is still developing a spec for a Class 6, but so far it has not been needed.

Class 5 would be quite sufficient for London-Kitchener. With money, of course, but it's a pretty straightforward upgrade, and well worth the cost..

- Paul
 
ssiguy2 said:
The Kitchener route from London to Union is a very indirect route as well as being a rather meandering one between London & Kitchener.
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It's not the greatest between Stratford and London - but is 121 miles via Kitchener very worse than 115 miles via Brantford? And what of the speed of the curves - neither the curves at Hamilton/Dundas nor at Brantford look as though they have the large radii of those along the Kitchener alignment.

But if distance is the primary issue, then you'd use the third route, the CP mainline through Cambridge (Galt) - which is 114 km.

Urban Sky said:
Friendly reminder that every character spent on replying to Vancouver’s and Fake-London’s saddest Troll and his ever-same talking points* represents a loss in lifetime nobody will ever be able to recover for you…
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Can you clarify who you are making personal attacks about?
 
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Friendly reminder that every character spent on replying to Vancouver’s and Fake-London’s saddest Troll and his ever-same talking points* represents a loss in lifetime nobody will ever be able to recover for you…

* feel free to use the search function to inquire how often he has already complained about the insignificant difference in distance to serve his beloved Fake-city at the Fake-Thames…
 
Bordercollie said:
Is the Ocean back on track?
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You might follow Canpassrail on groips.io where you will find more granual info on this incident.

What I do have first hand is:
- following the incident, buses were provided in good time and passengers were taken onwards -
- there were refunds and preference points offered to those affected
- anecdotally, I was told that VIA personnel treated passengers extremely well

So, while one can’t prevent such events, it sounds like VIA’s response was generally quite effective.

- Paul
 
crs1026 said:
You might follow Canpassrail on groips.io where you will find more granual info on this incident.

What I do have first hand is:
- following the incident, buses were provided in good time and passengers were taken onwards -
- there were refunds and preference points offered to those affected
- anecdotally, I was told that VIA personnel treated passengers extremely well

So, while one can’t prevent such events, it sounds like VIA’s response was generally quite effective.

- Paul
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After the abysmal actions in the past, this was quite good. This is how it should be done.
 
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