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Originally Posted by casper
New cars are a great first step.
I would agree. I think what is needed in a pragmatic approach that focused on incremental improvements across the country.
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This is what is sorely missing and misunderstood in North America. The Europeans and Japanese didn't build huge HSR and national rail networks in some 10 yr plan. It's the accumulation of steady improvements, extensions and upgrades along the way.
We don't invest anything for 20-30 years, then scream at governments to build HSR. Those governments go out and get insane quotes for HSR, because nobody in our rail industry has experience building much rail for the last 20-30 years, let alone HSR. So the plans get shelved and then we go another 20-30 years building little to nothing. Rinse and repeat.
The electrification piece of HFR and the Ottawa bypass that is being proposed is exactly an example of the above overreach/scope creep that could imperil the whole project. When HFR was first proposed, it was supposed to be based on four virtues:
1) Cheap to build using existing corridors;
2) Quick to build. It was supposed to be 4-5 years from approval to service;
3) Cheap to operate. Combining the Ottawa and Montreal trains means larger trains, with a lower crew ratio and high asset utilization, as the same trains do more runs; and,
4) Reduced reliance on freight rail corridors.
Now, they're going to be spend billions on electrification, which adds construction time (Last I saw, EIS around 2030....) and cost (now up to $12B). And they are going to add a bypass which breaks the single corridor/single schedule concept, increasing capital and operating costs, reducing frequencies to both cities and increasing reliance on freight rail corridors again (for the bypass at least).
Quote:
Originally Posted by casper
Electrification needs to come first to high frequency regional or commuter rail. Then the longer distance intercity train are extending it.
Montreal and Toronto are electrifying their commuter rail. Vancouver in time will electrify the Vancouver-Seattle train.
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If the HFR RFP is released soon, they'll be planning on electrification before knowing what the winning bidder for Metrolinx proposes. That'll be entertaining....
Electrification needs to happen. But it should have been saved for a later phase. The focus should have been to get HFR up and running as quickly as possible, using the incoming Siemens fleet. After it was built and they had a better idea of where Metrolinx and Exo were going, they could plan a way forward on electrification, with a whole new fleet as well.
I hope HFR survives. I would like to ride it. And hopefully, before 2030.....