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Yesterday was an extremely exciting day for Canadian passenger rail: We break down all the latest in today’s video!
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Ever wondered why your city’s transit just doesn’t seem quite up to snuff? RMTransit is here to answer that, and help you open your eyes to all of the different public transportation systems around the world!
Reece (the RM in RMTransit) is an urbanist and public transport critic residing in Toronto, Canada, with the goal of helping the world become more connected through metros, trams, buses, high-speed trains, and all other transport modes.
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They should build a high speed rail corridor from Windsor to Quebec City
Dedicated high speed lines, on their own tracks, with connections to tradition transit, and no more short flights is a dream of mine too.
I heard your comment about high speed from Toronto to Ottawa. It also makes me regret the lack of GO service between Toronto and Peterborough.
Canadian Pacific owns the right-of-way and there is a rail line that runs through Peterborough and Smith's Falls to Ottawa, but deliberec lack of maintenance has left it useless. The line runs through the Agincourt freight yard then goes through Leaside and Central Toronto. The Central Toronto station is now a liquor store. Of course CP avoids passenger service like the plague.
What used to be the route of The Canadian passed through Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay to Winnipeg-then through Regina to Calgary and on to Vancouver. Now the only train between Calgary and Vancouver is the Rocky Mountaineer…if you gave the $$$$.
Finally the rail service on Vancouver Island no longer exists. Like the Peterborough line it's been allowed to deteriorate-in the winter if you want to drive from Victoria to the Nanaimo or the northern part of the island is to equip your car with snow tires because of the Malahat…it's the law. Word has it that the Victoria railliner is part of the exhibit in Toronto. BTW the train used to run in the opposite direction than the Victoria rush hour…maybe that explains why so few people used it!
The bottom line is that what was a good line is now in a state of decay.
Why does VIA Rail stop at a hick town like White River?.. why not go all the way to Thunder Bay?
Never; Canadians barely use VIA now, a train that can go faster means that the train gets to the next station faster but still empty.
TrainSpotting on Steriods !
Get out of your Grans' Basement.
Kingston is such a busy stop as its the split between Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa. People have to switch there because, will skip a stop like Belleville on Toronto Montreal run, but stop on the Toronto Ottawa trip, so people have to get off there and switch trains. Its almost like a cross over station between Line 1 and Line 2 on the TTC
I live out in BC what I have always thought would be cool is a highspeed train across Canada, ever something youve looked into?
Bruh, this guy is soo hyped on transportation infrastructure. Big thumbs up from Montréal
Not good enough. It's ridiculous. We need a whole new state of the art system. Electrified track, 500km/h. Anything less is silly.
As usual, Canada isn’t just Ontario and Quebec.
Alberta has put forward the only real High Speed Rail project but you failed to mention western Canada even once.
Canada is broken. West needs to separate, we are not the East.
lol dec 24 2022 all trains out of service toronto montre al run SNOW STORM THE CULPRIT
RIGHT NOW/? METROLINX SO CALLED RAPID TRANSIT RAIL. RIDDLED BY CORRUPTION 4 YRS OVERDUE AS WELL
High speed was important back before the internet and cell phones. Travelling was like being in prison. Now you can be productive or entertained while travelling. Speed is not so important.
I used to love taking the train from Southern Ontario to North Bay. Much preferable to the bus. It was a memorable occasion when our school went to see the new Northlander train! We were given a commemorative coin.
I know very little about rail technology post about 1890, so this is a real question: how much does snow impact rail? My instinct is that after a heavy snowfall, a medium to long distance train ought to still be able to run – just a bit slower than normal because there'd have to be a plow in front of it. Is that a reasonable assumption?
Mostly, I'm thinking about how YVR, YYC, and YEG all experienced massive delays and even shutdowns due to weather recently. If one could point to that and say "see, a high-speed train wouldn't have that problem," you'd probably get a lot of support right now.
Also… is there a technical reason why HSR can't do long-distance? Because at 300 km/h, you're very much competing with aircraft. There's already a pilot project aimed at an eventual HSR to connect Edmonton and Calgary, but why not think big and connect Calgary to Toronto with a train that goes almost as fast as an airplane? Out on the prairie, you could get up to those high speeds and stay there, which is surely much more efficient.
There is a major pitfall for the HFR/HSR project: the loss of the Mount Royal tunnel in Montreal, which was the only dedicated passenger rail access into Central Station. The fact that we allowed CDPQ Infra to seize the tunnel for its own exclusive use and replace the existing high-capacity electrified heavy rail system by a radically incompatible smaller-gauge, smaller-capacity light rail system operating on primitive 600V DC is totally baffling. It's the antithesis of good transportation planning.
It essentially means that the Montreal to Quebec city portion of the route cannot get built without either a costly new city tunnel running well into the 2B$ range (CDPQ Infra bought the whole DM line for 125M$… that's a steal), or a long roundabout route through Cote St-Luc or St-Laurent. It also complicates planning of the Montreal to Ottawa section by removing a potential route on the north shore of the Ottawa river (through Laval and Ste-Thérèse along CP trackage which is mostly used by commuter trains). This will force VIA to keep accessing Central station from the south, which involves a problematic cohabitation with CN, whose freight trains run in the 12000' and 18000 tons range and often stops on the mainline at Turcot to change crew or swap blocks of cars. This is totally incompatible with fast and modern passenger rail operations.
Passenger trains have no future on North American freight railroads infrastructure since all of them have adopted the Precision Scheduled Railroading model of operations (which, ironically, is neither precise, scheduled, and barely qualifies as railroading since it's driving a lot of customers away from rail, onto trucks).
You should really say that this is great for Ontario and maybe Quebec. The rest of Canada is unaffected by any of this.
the only thing about this high train is that I will be able to get high, while riding in the train
TransPod Line is coming to alberta.
I said it before and I must say it again. Rules and Regulations must change to allow VIA to carry cargo to offset their costs. After all, buses and and passenger aircraft carry cargo. Why not VIA? Cheers.
Canada's motto should be – Canada, we strive for mediocrity. There is no vision or courage from any of our leaders.
Oh wait curruption red tape and beurrocrats…. it wont get built and if it does.. it wont work or be cancled.
Everything you say makes perfect sense.
But, I am confident that our beloved government will screw it up. (Either party will do).
I've seen these great ideas messed up by a combination of selling the assessts to foreign companies. (the 407 highway)
local land owners raising a fuss about not giving up any land.
and as governments change so will the priorities.
All of that aside, I hope these things get built. I further hope that the revenue from them stays in Canada. I also hope they get built in the next 12 years or less so I can actually get a chance to ride on them.
Even more than passenger rail I think we need to see a return to freight being transported on rail instead of the massive amounts of transport trucks using and abusing the highways.
I've been hearing about high-speed rail in Canada for about 50 years and if I live 50 more, I expect to still be hearing about the next big plan. After one announced project as I finished high school, I enrolled in an engineering technology course with the goal of working for the project. Less than two months into the three-year course, the project was cancelled.
It's not just government inaction and lack of interest, it's all the NIMBY Luddites. Remember how they went nuts about windmills? Do you think they'll accept the idea of high-speed trains within 100 miles of their homes? Not a chance.
I'm not opposed to HSR. I favour it. I want it. We should have had it decades ago, but I'm not holding my breath and I don't recommend that anyone else does either. The list of good ideas that went nowhere, usually for monumentally stupid reasons, is endless.
I understand the complexity, but come on, it's Canada, we should be able to create an amazing HSR network. Let's not fall behind on this!
High speed rail is old technology and a waste of money. We need a more efficient commuter railway that can make many more intermediate stops.
I'd love to see a video about the proposed Maglev between DC and New York.
I mean…I'm happy to have hope.
But honestly…we've seen this before…many….many……….maaaaaaany…..times.
Rick Mercer did a segment on how Canada was a world leader on HSR studies. It was funny…because it had a ring of truth to it.
So I hope you're right….but I'm not going to hold my breath. At this point, given the disaster this Christmas I'd be happy if Via Rail even continues to operate.
If you build it, they still won't come.
If some misguided politicians decided to ban direct flights between Toronto and Montreal, it would be a boon for any airline (e.g. NOT Canadian government air) that can figure out how to have non-direct service that is almost as quick, like Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal where nobody gets off the plane, or Toronto-Buffalo-Montreal. And of course a bloodbath in the next election. A much better solution would be to tear up the tracks and use the right of way for driverless electric cars and trucks.
Canada needs a high speed rail from windsor to quebec city including ottawa. Fully electrified and in each major city (YOW, YUL, YYZ) have an airport connector for further flights
look what Egypt did: they bought a complete new Rail Network from Siemens. The sixth largest HSR Network in the World. The whole package. Siemens will design the the new Rail Line (mixed traffic!), provide the Signaling System (ETCS), electrification etc.
Construction will be carried out by Egyptian companies.
Also they deliver Velaro High Speed Trains, Desiro HC Regional Trains and Vectron Locomotives for freight Transport. Siemens will as well maintain the Rail Fleet for the next +20 years.
The new High Speed / High Capacity Rail Network will be operated by Deutsche Bahn.
There is no reason Canada can not do the same. Today, you can buy whole HSR Networks from Germany, France, Spain, China and Japan without the need to develop your own solutions. What great times we are living in 🙂
I really hope saskatchewan gets a train, we are so spread out and it would make commuting to and from the city a lot nicer. Like a nice train line from regina to saskatoon with stops in towns along the way would be so nice.