High Speed Rail Forum!

[Dupcheck]

Anything new on this? Or was it the usual Liberal election promise?

[haljackey]

You can find info about it on the MTO website

http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/publications/high-speed-rail-in-ontario-final-report/

http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/publications/index.shtml#high-speed-rail

[Truenorth00]

The government has announced a "Planning Advisory Board".

https://www.ontario.ca/page/high-speed-rail

Couldn't be more of an election stunt. But better than nothing?

[Dupcheck]

http://www.lfpress.com/2017/10/24/province-takes-another-step-in-20b-high-speed-rail-plan

[jammer139]

Studies here studies there.

http://www.lfpress.com/2017/11/03/westcar-dont-let-politics-derail-solutions-to-rail-woes

[Dupcheck]

By 2025!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/high-speed-rail-markings-concenrs-1.4423525

[MolsonExport]

the chevrons make it irreversible. if only.

Farms were cut in half by CPR, CNR, and other railways back in the day.
The 401 sliced many a farm in half or by some other fraction.
Eminent domain!

[kaiserLDN]

I like Patrick's stance. All 3 political parties supporting it.

http://www.lfpress.com/2017/11/30/tory-l...-would-be-great-for-southwestern-ontario

[MrSlippery519]

Surprised and relieved to hear this, as I have expressed in the past my main concern with this is the Libs spends $15 million to do environmental assessments to then be voted out and start all over.

Glad to hear at least PC are on board with the plan, now if all parties could just sit down together and come to an agreement it would make the process even easier. No question you are going to piss many people off but at the end of the day people will get over it and it is a huge need for Ontario.

[kaiserLDN]

Yeah I think a big key is to pleasing majority of NIMBYs some how and to work with them. Some NIMBYS wont work with anyone like the lady living at the Wharncliffe CN bridge. I guess those ones you don't worry about. In the high speed rail case it sounds like the farmers were talking about things from noise to how there tractors get to the other side of the field if the field is split in half which are legit arguments.

[Djeffery]

One thing being talked about on the talk shows was the lack of level crossings. They make it sound like every road being crossed by HSR will be blocked off. I'm curious how many roads will be dead ended due to the new railway and what the reasons are they can't have crossings on them?

[jammer139]

http://www.lfpress.com/2017/12/22/high-speed-trains-will-derail-regions-needs

Reality and politics like oil and water. Rarely do they mix.

[Pimpmasterdac]

Originally Posted by jammer139

http://www.lfpress.com/2017/12/22/high-speed-trains-will-derail-regions-needs

Reality and politics like oil and water. Rarely do they mix.

The writer of that article clearly has a dog in the fight. He's trying to promote HPR, that his association made a report on, that would give St. Mary's 10 VIA trains a day.

Hopefully the leaders in Queens Park ignore this rabble. We needed HSR decades ago. Sure some properties will be expropriated, and roads closed but it'll payoff in the long run. That same type of narrow minded thinking is why big ideas never come to fruition!

[Dupcheck]

Study after study...waste of money!

http://www.lfpress.com/2018/03/07/ontario-starts-key-study-in-20b-high-speed-rail-plan

[tyeman200]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

One thing being talked about on the talk shows was the lack of level crossings. They make it sound like every road being crossed by HSR will be blocked off. I'm curious how many roads will be dead ended due to the new railway and what the reasons are they can't have crossings on them?

I agree completely about the crossings. Doesn't seem too hard to put them there, not to mention this train is probably going 200km/h so it would take a minute or so.

[jammer139]

Folks need to relax. The only thing that has happened is the company doing the $15M EA has started this week.

A EA is not a project. It's no coincidence that this EA is starting now just 12 weeks away from a provincial election. The Liberals will try to portray the EA as the start of actual construction. Not even close.

On the topic of dead ending roads. All those dirt roads in rural areas every 1000 yards or mile will be dead-ended or there will be a over/under pass built. In no case can there be a level crossing with the high speed track bed.

In a SHIFT related thread someone posted that we needed to build the BRT in order to get HSR. Trying to link the two is wrong and tries to imply they are dependant on each other. Totally false! Assuming a HSR is built and goes west from Toronto towards southern ontario it will goto London regardless of whether we have a BRT or not.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by jammer139

On the topic of dead ending roads. All those dirt roads in rural areas every 1000 yards or mile will be dead-ended or there will be a over/under pass built. In no case can there be a level crossing with the high speed track bed.

Why is that? It's not like we are talking about something running at Toronto Subway frequency. They haven't said yet how many trains a day, but I can't imagine it being any more than one an hour during the day. No reason that there can't be level crossings at many of those lesser roads that aren't busy enough to justify an overpass, but also geographically are important enough to not completely block off either. Also, where does the train stop at London then? Surely they aren't going to build an overpass at every road on the way downtown, and nobody is going to accept saying that any of the roads with level crossings now are going to be blocked off.

[jammer139]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-10/pa...rain-clips-car-at-level-crossing/8792328

Video isn't even a real HSR train. ie: 200Kmh plus

Real HSR track beds that support 200, 250, 300+ Kmh trains cannot risk level crossings from safety perspective. You can't afford a accident at this speed.

It's way different then a freight train rail bed that maxes out at 120Kmh.

How many level crossings are so torn up by vehicles (ie: trucks) that you wouldn't be able to run the train at its rated speed.

Spending $30B to run trains at 150Kmh is a show stopper. Just like spending $500M plus on BRT that only saves 1-3 mins on a bus trip in London.

[GreatTallNorth2]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

Why is that? It's not like we are talking about something running at Toronto Subway frequency. They haven't said yet how many trains a day, but I can't imagine it being any more than one an hour during the day

It will definitely be more than one train an hour.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

Why is that? It's not like we are talking about something running at Toronto Subway frequency. They haven't said yet how many trains a day, but I can't imagine it being any more than one an hour during the day. No reason that there can't be level crossings at many of those lesser roads that aren't busy enough to justify an overpass, but also geographically are important enough to not completely block off either. Also, where does the train stop at London then? Surely they aren't going to build an overpass at every road on the way downtown, and nobody is going to accept saying that any of the roads with level crossings now are going to be blocked off.

I suspect this will be handled very similarly to the 401 - some minor township roads will get cut off, provincial highways and county roads will get an overpass, and some minor township roads will get one too. As an example, if we assume the HSR will run along the hydro corridor between London and K-W, it will cross Oxford County Road 6 just north of Embro, and there would likely be an overpass there. To the east it would also cross County Road 59, which would likely also get an overpass, but of the six north-south township roads in between the two major roads, I'd say at least one of them would also get an overpass. Indeed, down at the 401, there's an overpass for Dodge Line, in between County Road 6 and Sweaburg Road.