Heavy Rail, Commuter Rail, & Intercity Transportation

[jollyburger]

I mean isn't there also pushback against mobility taxes and tolls saying they impact poorer people disproportionately?

[NetMapel]

Ain’t no government keeping me confined within their 15 minutes zones. I much prefer to use my government-registered driver license to drive my government-insured car on these government-maintained roads as well as filling my car with government-regulated gas at the gas stations. No sir I am for small government and I wont be controlled by big brother government.

These trains are freedom-hating communist inventions designed to bring more government in our lives. This is unacceptable as I am a freedom-loving Canadian who much prefer to drive everywhere to buy grocery, visit doctor and other daily activities. I am definitely not confined and useless without my car. Everybody should be driving to exercise their freedom and roads should be widen by one more lane to solve all of our traffic problem from everybody driving.

[Alex Mackinnon]

Originally Posted by NetMapel

Ain’t no government keeping me confined within their 15 minutes zones. I much prefer to use my government-registered driver license to drive my government-insured car on these government-maintained roads as well as filling my car with government-regulated gas at the gas stations. No sir I am for small government and I wont be controlled by big brother government.

These trains are freedom-hating communist inventions designed to bring more government in our lives. This is unacceptable as I am a freedom-loving Canadian who much prefer to drive everywhere to buy grocery, visit doctor and other daily activities. I am definitely not confined and useless without my car. Everybody should be driving to exercise their freedom and roads should be widen by one more lane to solve all of our traffic problem from everybody driving.

Pfft! Peasant speak!

Why demand accommodations for a car when you can demand accommodations for you own train! That is freedom!

[Bcasey25raptor]

I really hope to see this happen in my lifetime, but I’m not holding my breath

[NetMapel]

Rail Passenger Priority Act

New federal bill proposes to give Canada's passenger trains priority on shared tracks with freight

Last week, Taylor Bachrach, the NDP MP for the riding of Skeena-Bulkley Valley, introduced Bill C-371, which proposes to direct railway owners and operators like Canadian Pacific and Canadian National to prioritize passenger trains over freight trains.

On Friday, Bachrach told Daily Hive Urbanized the bill is written in a way that provides all passenger rail services would gain priority on shared tracks — not just Via Rail.

If approved, this would, for instance, also benefit interregional passenger services such as Amtrak and the Rocky Mountaineer, as well as regional commuter rail public transit services such as TransLink’s West Coast Express in Metro Vancouver, Metrolinx’s Go Train in Greater Toronto, and Exo in Montreal. These commuter rail services lease track time from private railway companies for their operations.

In my opinion, this is an exciting and positive direction if the bill is passed. I hope it gets passed as soon as possible.

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

Originally Posted by NetMapel

Rail Passenger Priority Act

New federal bill proposes to give Canada's passenger trains priority on shared tracks with freight

In my opinion, this is an exciting and positive direction if the bill is passed. I hope it gets passed as soon as possible.

terrible idea. freight rail is much more important in our country compared to passenger rail. the country is too big, too spread out to make rail travel better than air travel.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

terrible idea. freight rail is much more important in our country compared to passenger rail. the country is too big, too spread out to make rail travel better than air travel.

Meaning the corporations have to add the necessary capacity themselves - this would effectively offload the cost of upgrading all the chokepoints like bridges and single tracks from the public sector to the private one. Whether or not the pros outweigh the cons is up for debate, but it's not like CP, CN et al are short on cash to make it happen.

Of course, this still doesn't make the "Rail for the Valley/South Fraser whatever" plan viable - that one's still garbage. It might make BC Rail passenger service a thing again.

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

terrible idea. freight rail is much more important in our country compared to passenger rail. the country is too big, too spread out to make rail travel better than air travel.

This should have considerably less impact on freight operations now that the railroads have adopted former CN President Hunter Harrison's "precision railroading" methodology. Freight moves on far more of a scheduled basis now, which makes it much easier to interleave freight and passenger operations.

Harrison implemented this at CN, and then at CP when he became its president in 2012. And it's been so successful that pretty much all the other major roads in North America have followed suit.

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

Originally Posted by aberdeen5698

This should have considerably less impact on freight operations now that the railroads have adopted former CN President Hunter Harrison's "precision railroading" methodology. Freight moves on far more of a scheduled basis now, which makes it much easier to interleave freight and passenger operations.

Harrison implemented this at CN, and then at CP when he became its president in 2012. And it's been so successful that pretty much all the other major roads in North America have followed suit.

i dont think any impact to freight is worth it. passenger rail is stupid for canada. things like the GO train are fine; that makes sense. but otherwise, nahh. its just people foaming at the mouths over europe and their tiny countries with tons of people. i get tired of all these people and their terrible pointless ideas. then these 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 politicians bring these 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 ideas forward. honestly its just tiring at this point.

[NetMapel]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

i dont think any impact to freight is worth it. passenger rail is stupid for canada. things like the GO train are fine; that makes sense. but otherwise, nahh. its just people foaming at the mouths over europe and their tiny countries with tons of people. i get tired of all these people and their terrible pointless ideas. then these 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 politicians bring these 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 ideas forward. honestly its just tiring at this point.

Hmmm perhaps you are in the know like you work in the industry. I would be curious as to why you are so sure this is a pointless idea. I would certainly welcome a more reliable and consistent WCE and Amtrak. I remember taking the Amtrak back to Vancouver once and we were stuck for some time waiting for a freight train to go first. As well, I’m sure GO train users would appreciate reliable schedules as well. We absolutely should have reliable transit options connecting Vancouver with the Fraser valley and the Pacific Northwest which I feel train is an excellent option. Not sure how just simply prioritizing passenger train is hurting anything.

[CanSpice]

Originally Posted by NetMapel

I would certainly welcome a more reliable and consistent WCE and Amtrak. I remember taking the Amtrak back to Vancouver once and we were stuck for some time waiting for a freight train to go first.

When I took the train from Portland to Vancouver the time it took to get from the border to Vancouver was longer than the time it took to get from Portland to the border. The US portion was what you'd expect from passenger rail, the Canada portion was absolutely terrible.

[GenWhy?]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

terrible idea. freight rail is much more important in our country compared to passenger rail. the country is too big, too spread out to make rail travel better than air travel.

I understand this is primarily focused on the major population centres. Last time I took the train from Montreal to Ottawa it was brutal. Wish I drove.

[logicbomb]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

i dont think any impact to freight is worth it. passenger rail is stupid for canada. things like the GO train are fine; that makes sense. but otherwise, nahh. its just people foaming at the mouths over europe and their tiny countries with tons of people. i get tired of all these people and their terrible pointless ideas. then these 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 politicians bring these 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 ideas forward. honestly its just tiring at this point.

Passenger rail from Vancouver to Toronto is silly, but we definitely need to get moving and shift our mindset when it comes to connecting regions and hubs in this country. Passenger rail service from Chilliwack to Vancouver, via Abbotsford and Surrey (preferably down Hwy 1) is something that should be fast tracked, especially when you are adding 900k -1.2 million new residents into the country per year with many of them picking the Lower Mainland to reside in. You can literally add 3 more lanes to Hwy 1 each way, but development will lead to many of these lanes getting clogged up in a decade (see the difference between Hwy 1 in Burnaby from 2013 to 2023).

[FarmerHaight]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

i dont think any impact to freight is worth it. passenger rail is stupid for canada. things like the GO train are fine; that makes sense. but otherwise, nahh. its just people foaming at the mouths over europe and their tiny countries with tons of people. i get tired of all these people and their terrible pointless ideas. then these 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 politicians bring these 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 ideas forward. honestly its just tiring at this point.

Outside of the GTA, heavy rail passenger services in Canada are very infrequent. And GO already owns most of its track, or at least the track it most heavily utilizes, so the impact of this bill on freight trains in and around the GTA will be minimal.

There are two Amtrak Cascades trains per day. One Via Canadian. Three WCE. And there are no commuter heavy rail services in between Vancouver and Southern Ontario. The idea that freight trains will experience anything more than marginal impacts is silly. 99 percent of freight trains will still not encounter any passenger trains during a journey, and those that do will maybe encounter one and sit on a siding for less than 30 minutes. Meanwhile, every Via Canadian sits on sidings to allow a dozen or more freight trains pass meaning the Canadian often runs 12 hours or more behind schedule. And passengers can sit for 30 minutes mere kilometres from PCS because CN decided to move a freight train 10 minutes before the 11pm Cascades was due.

For freight, an hour or two of delays is rarely a big deal. Time-sensitive cargo travels by plane and truck, not by train. But for passengers on a train, running an hour late could mean missing the ball game or being late for an appointment.

[djmk]

Originally Posted by logicbomb

Passenger rail from Vancouver to Toronto is silly, but we definitely need to get moving and shift our mindset when it comes to connecting regions and hubs in this country. Passenger rail service from Chilliwack to Vancouver, via Abbotsford and Surrey (preferably down Hwy 1) is something that should be fast tracked, especially when you are adding 900k -1.2 million new residents into the country per year with many of them picking the Lower Mainland to reside in. You can literally add 3 more lanes to Hwy 1 each way, but development will lead to many of these lanes getting clogged up in a decade (see the difference between Hwy 1 in Burnaby from 2013 to 2023).

or whistler for the tourists/skiers.

Or even Vancouver to Kelowna.

Or an inter-okanagan rail

[Migrant_Coconut]

Think of it as a kick in the 🞵🞵🞵. Everybody agrees that the big thing stopping commuter rail expansion is lack of track space.

With freight having the priority, CP and CN's trains aren't affected, so they just sit on their butts; any expansion would have to come from public money. If passengers get priority, it's the company trains that have to wait, so then they have to widen the bridge or twin the track.

[jollyburger]

I assume Eastern Canada was more built up with train infrastructure so that's why they had rail corridors for commuter rail (as we know it) was possible even at these levels. I assume underground is the only way you get anywhere close to Vancouver since expanding track without affecting freight seems impossible.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by logicbomb

Passenger rail from Vancouver to Toronto is silly, but we definitely need to get moving and shift our mindset when it comes to connecting regions and hubs in this country. Passenger rail service from Chilliwack to Vancouver, via Abbotsford and Surrey (preferably down Hwy 1) is something that should be fast tracked, especially when you are adding 900k -1.2 million new residents into the country per year with many of them picking the Lower Mainland to reside in. You can literally add 3 more lanes to Hwy 1 each way, but development will lead to many of these lanes getting clogged up in a decade (see the difference between Hwy 1 in Burnaby from 2013 to 2023).

Absolutely! And they can start by expanding the Westcoast Express Service from Vancouver to Hope, and not just for rush-hour only, but both ways Monday to Friday.

[Migrant_Coconut]

2WAD for the WCE ain't happening - let alone an extension past Abbotsford - even if the bill passes. It's going the wrong way for most commuters (page 9), so even the demand for Coquitlam-Abby isn't there, and the long, winding nature of the track to Chilliwack makes it slower than going by bus.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

2WAD for the WCE ain't happening - let alone an extension past Abbotsford - even if the bill passes. It's going the wrong way for most commuters (page 9), so even the demand for Coquitlam-Abby isn't there, and the long, winding nature of the track to Chilliwack makes it slower than going by bus.

It will happen.