VIA Rail

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by acottawa

The three projects reviewed by the PBO are a total of $43.6 billion, which is a plausible cost for a mixed HSR/conventional system.

That's the number I was thinking though the timeline and likelihood of not paying anything close to that because the US is likely to cancel their subsidies does make the math quite a bit different.

[casper]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

For all the Liberal failings on this file (and there have been many), the fact that this project is finally getting interest from experienced rail developers like DB and SNCF does bode well.

Sadly, I can't see the CPC interested in anything but revisionism where they do everything possible to rip out anything with a Liberal smell to get back to 2015. I hope I am wrong. But our history is full of both major parties behaving this way. Guess we'll see in 2 years.

Lets face it, the CPC does not want to spend money on "green" infrastructure especially if it is owned and operated by a crown corp.

The only hope to get this project to the point of no return prior to the next election or into some form of joint federal/provincial project that is extremely difficult and painful to undo.

If Go was to be a "user" of the tracks leading into Toronto and the Montreal equivalent to became a user of the infrastructure near Montreal that may make it hard for the Conservatives to back out of it. But I don't think that is part of the plan.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by casper

Lets face it, the CPC does not want to spend money on "green" infrastructure especially if it is owned and operated by a crown corp.

The only hope to get this project to the point of no return prior to the next election or into some form of joint federal/provincial project that is extremely difficult and painful to undo.

We shall see what happens. Both provinces support this project. And there is strong interest from major multinationals to participate in the project. So cancelling it outright would be a blow to our international reputation. They could still cancel it. But if that happens, the Liberals at least have some fault for not getting a shovel in the ground after a decade in power (by the time the Tories take over).

Originally Posted by casper

If Go was to be a "user" of the tracks leading into Toronto and the Montreal equivalent to became a user of the infrastructure near Montreal that may make it hard for the Conservatives to back out of it. But I don't think that is part of the plan.

GO is a user of all the major rail corridors leading into Toronto and would probably use the track to Peterborough to start service, a project the Conservatives have been strongly supportive of since Peterborough is a conservative stronghold.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by casper

If Go was to be a "user" of the tracks leading into Toronto and the Montreal equivalent to became a user of the infrastructure near Montreal that may make it hard for the Conservatives to back out of it. But I don't think that is part of the plan.

GO is more than a user -- they've acquired much of their network. I believe the only parts they do not own are at the western end of the Lakeshore corridor through to Niagara Falls (CN's freight operation relies on it), I think also the tail end of the Kitchener corridor, and CP still owns the one to Milton. There may be other sections. On the Lakeshore East line there were dedicated tracks for GO Trains built next to the existing subdivision through Pickering, Ajax, Whitby, and Oshawa.

However, there is freight traffic allowed on parts of the Lakeshore corridor (e.g., to access a rail yard and the Ford plant in Oakville, and a refinery and cement facility in Mississauga) so there is still the occasional freight delay. It's much better than it used to be though before GO's purchase (actually Metrolinx is the owner).

[casper]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

We shall see what happens. Both provinces support this project. And there is strong interest from major multinationals to participate in the project. So cancelling it outright would be a blow to our international reputation. They could still cancel it. But if that happens, the Liberals at least have some fault for not getting a shovel in the ground after a decade in power (by the time the Tories take over).

Agreed, the Liberals should have moved more quickly.

They need to get on with getting as much of their agenda locked in in case they lose in a years time.

[MonctonRad]

Interesting video about passenger rail expansion inAlberta.

• Video Link

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by ScreamingViking

GO is more than a user -- they've acquired much of their network. I believe the only parts they do not own are at the western end of the Lakeshore corridor through to Niagara Falls (CN's freight operation relies on it), I think also the tail end of the Kitchener corridor, and CP still owns the one to Milton. There may be other sections. On the Lakeshore East line there were dedicated tracks for GO Trains built next to the existing subdivision through Pickering, Ajax, Whitby, and Oshawa.

However, there is freight traffic allowed on parts of the Lakeshore corridor (e.g., to access a rail yard and the Ford plant in Oakville, and a refinery and cement facility in Mississauga) so there is still the occasional freight delay. It's much better than it used to be though before GO's purchase (actually Metrolinx is the owner).

With the Kitchen corridor GO owns all of it except for a frustrating section between Bramlea station and Georgetown which is frustrating since that stretch acts as a bottle neck preventing frequent service to Brampton city centre, Mount Pleasant, and points beyond. It's where the CN mainline shares the corridor and it would require widening or a CN bypass to increase frequency, with widening threatening the historic Brampton station building and other disruptive changes and a bypass being very expensive.

Personally I think there should be a short tunnel of maybe 1.5-2km or a viaduct over the existing tracks. Once GO RER is up the trains can be shorter and more frequent allowing for a shorter station platform, and it would really only need a single track. If a stop was with faster accelerating electric trains you can maintain an average speed of 60km/h when including one stop so it would only take a couple min for each train to clear that stretch. So you could have service as frequent as 10 min per direction, although 15-20 min per direction would be more forgiving with inevitable delays.

If there were 8 car, single level EMUs with two 2ph serving Kitchener and 2tph for Cambridge using an upgraded branch spur at Georgetown, that would provide 15 min service to Brampton, MP, Georgetown, and Guelph. They could run express past Bramlea (which would have a separate local service terminating there), perhaps with a stop at Eglinton for some trips. Although people could also just transfer to a local service at Bramlea to access intermediate stops. And of course there could still be additional peak services using the existing service tracks to provide capacity.