Quote:
Originally Posted by Truenorth00
I fail to see the problem. They could have spent $90M and cut travel time between Ottawa and Montreal by 20-25% and this would be a problem? They spent > $300M on the Kingston Sub to stand still. They would have had tangible gains for this project. And it would have been a nice proof of concept for HFR.
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I don't think they would be able to "cut travel time between Ottawa and Montreal by 20-25%" only with upgrades to the track they currently own. For an approximately 2 hour trip, that would mean shaving it by 24 to 30 minutes. Considering with HFR along the entire route, VIA hopes to save 30 minutes, on the trip, what upgrades are you proposing they do for the 124 km (of the 187 km route) that VIA owns to get 80-100% of HFR's gains?
The biggest issues with the Ottawa-Montreal route are (in no particular order):
- waiting for freight trains when crossing CP's Winchester Sub
- conflicts with freight trains when using CN's track
- the slow approach into Montreal.
- waiting for oncoming VIA trains
The first three have to wait for HFR. The fourth could be fixed with longer sidings, but the position of those sidings will change with HFR.
The only other thing VIA could do is improve the track for faster speeds, but until TC approves a standard for Class 6 track (something VIA is working on for HFR), the best VIA can do is Class 5, and so that upgrade would need to be redone with HFR.
What am I missing?