Quote:
Originally Posted by hkskyline
The time savings aren't really that great. I guess this kills the HSR plans for good.
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Yes. When liberal spending politicians are not willing to ante up the cash to build true HSR trains, and we all know conservative leaning penny pinchers will never, HSR in Canada is far far away.
It's 336 miles between Toronto and Montreal by highway directly, 402 miles by highway indirectly via Ottawa. That's on the long side for an ideal HSR corridor, maybe too long.
The world wide sweet spot for trains competing with planes is 3 hours. To travel 336 miles within 3 hours the HSR train would have to average 112 mph. I would suggest that is very possible. To travel 402 miles within 3 hours the HSR train would have to average 134 mph. Short of non-stop trains, not remotely possible.
Considering most Canadian HSR trains in this corridor will have to make at least one stop at Ottawa, achieving average speeds of 134 mph would be difficult. Let's assume VIA could shrink the layover time in Ottawa to just 6 minutes, the train would now have to average 138 mph over the same 402 miles within 3 hours.