[roger1818]

Originally Posted by Urban_Sky

Thank you very much for the reply and trust me, I shared the sentiment across the Forums or Social Media in this country that VIA's management was glaringly blind for the "obvious" before I joined VIA, but if I learnt one thing from working there, it's that things start to make sense once you become aware of the various constraints which are invisible to anyone looking from the outside. I wish I could share much more than I do, but unfortunately, the price of being on the "inside" is that you can't post as freely as if you were still just a "regular" rail enthusiast...

I know exactly what you mean. That is why I really appreciate having your perspective on here. It sheds a new light on why things are being done. I don't necessarily agree with everything, but my opinion has changed a bit as a result.

Average figures don't really help when determining which mode should be favored when setting the incentives (taxes, subsidies) to encourage the use of some modes and discourage that of other modes.

That's the nice thing about the "eco passenger" tool I linked to. It does the calculations typical for the specific train you are looking at, not some average. Obviously for car and airplane, it is more of an average as it doesn't know what make/model of car you have or the specific flight you are comparing it to.

Unless you already operate 12-car bilevel trains like GO Transit, the incremental financial/environmental cost of doubling your train capacity is much less than your average costs/footprint and this is a unique competitive advantage over the car, bus or plane...

True, but this doesn't help if the train is short and has no hope of needing additional capacity.

I would assume that construction works could start rather quickly for Montreal-Ottawa-Smiths Falls (and maybe also Peterborough-Toronto), given that I can't think of any reason which would either warrant extensive expropriations, create serious challenges in the environmental assessment or stir up significant and ferocious NIMBY opposition (though, you unfortunately can never be sure). You can't built an 850 km long dedicated Corridor at once and by the time construction on these segments nears completion, green light should have become attainable for the remaining segments...

Upgrades to the Montreal-Ottawa-Smiths Falls leg could be done even if a final decision hasn't been made about the entire HFR project, as the upgrades would be beneficial regardless. Toronto-Peterborough (and even on to Havelock) could be done a bit sooner, but it would not be of any use to VIA without the rest of the HFR, so it would need final approval of the project.