VIA Rail

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by ghYHZ

A lot of my VIA trips begin on the bus.......connecting to and from the 'Ocean' at Truro. Maritime Bus provided a fast comfortable service on modern equipment and share Terminals in Halifax and Moncton with VIA.

(Below at Halifax.....and at a roadside community stop)

It must be a bit of a hassle to transfer between the bus and train in Truro now that they moved the buses back to their original terminal which is a good 20 minute walk from the train station. It's a nice walk in fine weather, without luggage and when not in a hurry I suppose.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

It must be a bit of a hassle to transfer between the bus and train in Truro now that they moved the buses back to their original terminal which is a good 20 minute walk from the train station.

Good old Canadian multi-modal thinking!

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

The same VIA train I saw Saturday is still in London, but it was strange to see it all lit up tonight. I thought maybe they were getting ready to go again in the morning, but I see on their website that the 21st is the current "no earlier than" date (which I guess probably moves back on a day by day basis.

Could be doing maintenance or running equipment tests. This idle time is a good opportunity to do work like that.

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

Mind you, if we demanded the mainlines be double tracked, this would solve the HFR issue. For the non mainline routes, having enough passing sidings to allow the freight to be passed by Via would even make those routes better.

Um, the Kingston Sub already has double tracked from Toronto to Montreal. VIA even paid for CN to triple track some sections, and still they have to wait for freight trains. Unless VIA owns their own track, they will always play second fiddle to the freight railways.

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by roger1818

Um, the Kingston Sub already has double tracked from Toronto to Montreal. VIA even paid for CN to triple track some sections, and still they have to wait for freight trains. Unless VIA owns their own track, they will always play second fiddle to the freight railways.

When was a Corridor train late by more than a few hours?
If outside of the corridor all mainlines were double tracked, it would not only be good for Via on time, but also allow the freight carrier to move more goods.

[J81]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

I said if routed that way, as in over HFR tracks from Quebec City to Montreal.



I said bi-hourly. Not semi-hourly. And if there's only enough traffic for two small trains daily, then there's no point. Buy coach buses and run them instead. People need to start understanding the attractiveness of frequency. Bi-hourly bus departures would be better than two trains a day.

You cant shave two hours between MTL and QC when it only takes 3 hrs to begin with.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

It must be a bit of a hassle to transfer between the bus and train in Truro now that they moved the buses back to their original terminal which is a good 20 minute walk from the train station. It's a nice walk in fine weather, without luggage and when not in a hurry I suppose.

I recall one December night bus transfer from Orleans to Maritime (or maybe it was Orleans to Orleans) in Riviere-du-Loup. Stopped at some station which had no 24 hour amenities, it was 2AM, freezing cold outside, and the single room transfer station didn't have enough room for the transferring passengers that had to wait. Good times.

[J81]

Originally Posted by lio45

Countless times, and it's worth it for many reasons, 1) having a car when you're at your destination, 2) cheaper, 3) easier (you leave when you want, no need for planning/tickets), and 4) faster.

For you yes and lots of other people. But lots of people dont feel the same. Especially seniors and university students who dont even have a car yet.

[milomilo]

Originally Posted by J81

For you yes and lots of other people. But lots of people dont feel the same. Especially seniors and university students who dont even have a car yet.

Why do they deserve an extremely expensive form of transportation provided to them that the majority of seniors and university students in this country don't have? You could scrap that form of transport, provide a better service with buses and have money left over to give other people buses that currently have nothing. Or keep the ocean, because trains?

[J81]

Originally Posted by milomilo

Why do they deserve an extremely expensive form of transportation provided to them that the majority of seniors and university students in this country don't have? You could scrap that form of transport, provide a better service with buses and have money left over to give other people buses that currently have nothing. Or keep the ocean, because trains?

Right! Scrap rail transport in every part of the country except the corridor? Thats the kind of idea that got this country in the situation it is currently. Rip up the rails and build roads.

[milomilo]

Originally Posted by J81

Right! Scrap rail transport in every part of the country except the corridor? Thats the kind of idea that got this country in the situation it is currently. Rip up the rails and build roads.

The vast majority of the country does not have worthwhile rail. Why do a few villages in Eastern Canada deserve a train when Calgary doesn't have one?

I'm very much a fan of building rail, but money actually is a thing. By running trains where ridership doesn't justify it you deprive either better rail service where it is deserved, or buses where there is some demand, but not enough to properly fill a train.

[Chadillaccc]

Speaking of which... what is the ridiculous rationale Via has provided as to why they still have regular service to both Senneterre and Saguenay? Yet they can't provide it between the country's fourth and sixth largest metropolitan areas, with another agglomeration with over 150 000 people (Red Deer region) along the route too.

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

Speaking of which... what is the ridiculous rationale Via has provided as to why they still have regular service to both Senneterre and Saguenay? Yet they can't provide it between the country's fourth and sixth largest metropolitan areas, with another agglomeration with over 150 000 people (Red Deer region) along the route too.

Remote rail service is provided where there is no road alternative, as simple as that. The Calgary-Edmonton route did not have enough passengers to be viable when it was cancelled. Remote service is subsidized, while interurban service needs to have reasonable cost recovery. They are two different things.

[Djeffery]

It does seem strange to me that Calgary, Red Deer and Edmonton couldn't support rail though. How long did it take to go between Cal and Edm by train? How about time comparisons downtown to downtown rail and flying?

[Chadillaccc]

Senneterre and Saguenay are both connected to the continental road network, lol... so that rationale is still irrelevant.

And the question remains, why has there been no study in the 40 years since service was cancelled as to whether or not it should be restarted... since the region has tripled in population since then. The only people doing the studies are the Alberta government and private companies. I never thought about it this way, but it seems to be another eastern-imposed aspect of Western Alienation. Rinkydink nearly useless routes being given tens of millions in subsidies in Ontario and Quebec, but no service for a region of 3.5 million people in a reasonably sized and densely populated region (by Canadian standards), which also includes one of the nation's top tourist destinations (Banff National Park) and 5 UNESCO world heritage sites within a 2.5 hour drive of the southern terminus (Calgary), the largest cluster of UNESCO sites in the country.

Originally Posted by Djeffery

It does seem strange to me that Calgary, Red Deer and Edmonton couldn't support rail though. How long did it take to go between Cal and Edm by train? How about time comparisons downtown to downtown rail and flying?

Part of your question is answered above (no study by Via in 40 years), so of course we could support rail by now. The downtown to downtown driving time is just under 3 hours when driving the speed limit, so about 2.5 hours when driving 125. I'd guess the train was about 2.5 to 3 hours as well, based on conventional rail speeds? Flying takes much longer. Of course the flight is less than an hour, but driving to and from the airports (20 min from downtown Calgary, 30 min from downtown Edmonton), security, baggage, potential delays, and all the extra hassle... rail just makes way more sense.

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

Senneterre and Saguenay are both connected to the continental road network, lol... so that rationale is still irrelevant.

And the question remains, why has there been no study in the 40 years since service was cancelled as to whether or not it should be restarted... since the region has tripled in population since then. The only people doing the studies are the Alberta government and private companies. I never thought about it this way, but it seems to be another eastern-imposed aspect of Western Alienation. Rinkydink nearly useless routes being given tens of millions in subsidies in Ontario and Quebec, but no service for a region of 3.5 million people in a reasonably sized and densely populated region (by Canadian standards), which also includes one of the nation's top tourist destinations (Banff National Park) and 5 UNESCO world heritage sites within a 2.5 hour drive of the southern terminus (Calgary), the largest cluster of UNESCO sites in the country.


Part of your question is answered above (no study by Via in 40 years), so of course we could support rail by now. The downtown to downtown driving time is just under 3 hours when driving the speed limit, so about 2.5 hours when driving 125. I'd guess the train was about 2.5 to 3 hours, based on conventional rail speeds? Flying takes much longer. Of course the flight is less than an hour, but driving to and from the airports (20 min from downtown Calgary, 30 min from downtown Edmonton), security, baggage, and all the extra hassle... rail just makes way more sense.

Even the Ocean, all communities are road accessible.

[Chadillaccc]

At least Via's 'The Ocean' makes sense and serves a reasonable population, I'm not too concerned about that. However, it does serve a comparable population (2 ish million? I guess 6 million including MTL) but with far less intraregional business travel than the Alberta corridor.

[milomilo]

I was expecting there to just be a crappy logging road to Saguenay but holy! That's a proper nice freeway. Nicer than the QE2. They get that and a train?

[Dengler Avenue]

People from Saguenay actually fought hard to have Rte 175 twinned though. There were way too many fatal collisions involving wild animals in that area back when Rte 175 only had 2 lanes. According to Wikipedia, there has been no more fatalities of this type since the whole thing was twinned. For the record, Saguenay isn’t that small either and it’s close to Quebec City. But Senneterre... To me a Senneterre-Saguenay connection is for people who don’t wanna get lost in Quebec’s forest roads. I’m sure it’s much harder to get lost on railroads than on goat paths.

Chadillac has a point though. Western Canada really receives the short end of the sticks when it comes to rail.

[Chadillaccc]

Yeah I should correct myself there, when I said "rinkydink," I was broadly sweeping all the towns. Though of course I do know that Saguenay is over 160 000 people. However, that really is the only considerable sized city routes on any of the 4 random routes that the east gets.