Quote:
Originally Posted by rbt
Ice blocks in switches, cold temperature track breaks, hot weather bends, fallen leaves making tracks slippery, pedestrians doing incredibly stupid things (which can disable an entire section with no option to route around it), the occasional derailment due to inevitable maintenance lapses, ...
I'm a big fan of trains but they're not without faults. They do handle deep fluffy snow very well.
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Trains are not perfect, however, they are by far the better option when our weather turns ugly. It's no fun crawling at 40km/hr in a whiteout to get home. Trains, generally don't need to slow down except for extreme weather.
Quote:
Originally Posted by milomilo
The only way to get that speed and reliability is through massive upgrades. No way around it, otherwise it will be slow, unreliable and infrequent.
I was driving past a CP train on flat ground in a construction zone the other day so was able to match the speed. 70km/h. That's a lot slower than 110.
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Did I say fast? Did I even say frequent? I only said reliable. Whether it is 1 train a week or 2WAD, reliability is not dependent on speed or frequency. It is dependent on proper scheduling of the various traffic on the line.
If you have a train that is scheduled 2WAD and it is always late, is it any better than no service?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mister F
All of those are much smaller problems than what happens to road and air traffic when it snows. Rail is easily the most reliable in snow of the three modes.
Passenger trains typically go significantly faster than freights on the same track.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by milomilo
The demand generally isn't there outside the corridor, which is why the subsidies are so large. The reason the trains run is because the government tells VIA to run them.
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Just imagine if we had a government that demanded that all major cities that have existing rail infrastructure must be served. We might see nothing much better out of the Corridor, or, if the government pushed that service must meet a minimum level, we might see better.
Quote:
Originally Posted by milomilo
Not when there is a freight train in front, which there always will be. And worse still, the majority of the time I see a train on the line between Calgary and Edmonton it is stationary. Even doubling the track probably wouldn't be enough to let a passenger train travel freely.
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That train could be put into a siding when it is stationary. If the line was doubled, with extra sidings, and only that new part was for passengers, it would move fairly freely.
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