Quote:
Originally Posted by llamaorama
125 mph isn't really that bad, it works fine in the UK. It's much faster than you can drive and competitive with station stations to driving at that point.
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200kph intercity operation in the UK was tolerated because most of the UK’s population is heavily concentrated and (relative to other intercity railway networks) the network operates frequently to mitigate the slower train speeds. With the WCML, MML and ECML at capacity, that has necessitated the requirement to build a new line (HS2), and because it will be on a new alignment it is being built up to 360/400kph standards.
If Canada is going to propose a new intercity route/heavily upgrade existing lines, then building it to 200kph is an odd decision, and would make a future upgrade unlikely due to the higher cost and disruption. To understand how problematic it is to upgrade an existing intercity corridor, the WCML upgrade makes good reading.
Quote:
Originally Posted by llamaorama
It will be interesting to see what happens with the former corridor long term. The between Toronto and Brockville has enough bigger towns that it might be worth it, but would they want to run trains on the rest of what's colored orange above? And the bit of orange line from Alexandria to Montreal is totally redundant.
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The smart decision would be to retain and modify the service; increase frequencies, with more stops and running shorter distances. It would act as a longer distance commuter service and a feeder into the HFR line.