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Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse
^ It would need to follow the existing alignment to some degree though wouldn't it? If it does turn out to be some type of HSR it would need to leave the alignment at times to straighten the curves, but if it didn't follow the alignment to some degree that would nullify most of the advantage of using the Havelock sub to begin with. The main reason the original HFR proposal was based on that route was the lower cost of re-using an existing alignment.
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The Havelock sub doesn't actually exist anymore east of Havelock. The Havelock corridor would mean reviving a long-abandoned track between Havelock & Perth (which was VIA's original back-of-the-napkin plan) and then using an existing CPKC line from Perth to Smiths Falls, and from there VIA already owns the tracks from Smiths Falls to Ottawa.
This old route is extremely unsuitable, though. This is a Victoria-era rail line that follows the grade of the terrain to cut down costs at the expense of being insanely curvy. Anything faster than 100km/h and you're not just straightening it.. you're basically building a brand new line near it. Not to mention the line itself has been built over in the towns it used to cross through. This is why the original circa 2017 era VIA plan had stations in Tweed & Sharbot Lake - reviving the Havelock sub through those communities would involve significant expropriation and demolition, so VIA appeased the inhabitants with the promise of stations. And Sharbot Lake is basically unbypassable - the town is hemmed in a peninsula between two bays of a giant lake, and going around the lake means a greenfield bypass of at least 15km because of how big the lake is.
The material people have shared on here from the bidders suggests that the Havelock sub is basically being abandoned in favour of a new greenfield route for this reason. And you might as well put it further north, a bit north of Hwy 7, to shorten the trip and bypass local population. (Eastern Ontario north of Highway 7 and west of Perth is basically uninhabited).