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Originally Posted by wanderer34
The speed of 120 mph (193 kph) is decent enough for the NE Corridor between Boston and DC due to congestion and the close proximity between cities. But if we're not talking at least 150 mph (241 kph) between Cornwall and Oshawa, there might not be any motivation to even get the project rolling. It doesn't have to be exactly like HSR in Japan & China when it comes to speed, but it has to be fast enough to travel between cities in a timely and efficient manner.
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That's an unfounded assumption considering that there's already a rail service that's well patronized before HFR is even implemented. If you improve an already popular service by making it more reliable and by improving departure options then it will be even more popular. Currently the trains are often delays due to conflicts with freight traffic which isn't a positive experience for customers and there's a limited number of trips and departure times that don't always match consumer preference since VIA has to work with available timeslots, again due to sharing with freight.
Keep in mind that many HSR projects including the Shinkansen and Britains HS2 are intended to increase capacity on congested routes. Building a new dedicated corridor with much faster train throughput can move far more people. In other words, the speed isn't necessary to attract ridership and make for a popular service. The speed was needed to handle the high ridership attracted by high quality conventional speed rail.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wanderer34
If the mid-size cities aren't getting any HSR service of any kind, they'll shoot it down, as I don't see how Ontario & Quebec taxpayers will pay for a system where only metro Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal residents will be the only ones that will benefit from it.
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The mid-sized cities including Kingston (likely the most important) have already endorsed the proposal because they do stand to benefit. The existing corridor will still have service but will have trips that terminate at Kingston from both directions. The benefit this is that when each route is only traveling half as far, it only has half the opportunity to be delayed by being caught behind a slow freight train. So the service on the corridor will be more reliable. A small percentage of people will have to change trains at Kingston (people on the Toronto side going to Montreal or Ottawa and vice versa) but there'll be fewer of them compared to those going to the closer metropolis.