Quote:
Originally Posted by acottawa
High speed rail (at least how it is implemented in most places) is used to connect relatively spaced out cities. If what you want to do is provide links between closely spaced cities/suburbs then high speed rail isn’t the right tool, you are better off investing in GO.
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Where are you getting this from? The endpoints are far apart in most places. But stop spacing is generally 50-100 km, with higher spacing for higher speeds. At 200 kph ( as proposed by Ontario HSR), stop spacing of 30-50 km is perfectly fine. That is a stop 9-15 mins apart. And every one of the stops suggested is an urban centre. The only one that isn't a city, is Pearson.
Quote:
Originally Posted by acottawa
The Ontario High Speed Rail “plan” was a highly questionable “plan” that was put together by a British consulting company on the eve of an election without bothering to visit Ontario. It shared a significant amount of track with GO and freight, with only a small high speed greenfield section between Kitchener and London and in some variations a greenfield bypass of Guelph.
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It's a feasibility study. I don't think we'll find any other study that comes to different conclusions. It's nonsensical to skip a CMA of almost 600k en route (KWC) or the airport (which would also be beneficial for travelers from the East). The only town that could be skipped is Guelph. And that is exactly what was suggested.
As for it being a GO and freight route too, well good luck proposing a full Greenfield HSR route into Toronto. I don't even want to attempt to guess what that would cost. At least leveraging the $2-3B being spent on the Kitchener line for GO Expansion means that there's fully electrified grade separated track for a third of the proposed routing in this proposal. An example of what is involved is the 401 tunnel:
https://www.infrastructureontario.ca...1-Rail-Tunnel/
This thing alone ended up costing $200M. Greenfield alignment means building multiples of crossings like this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse
Not only that, but it isn't going through Kitchener that adds the extra distance. It's going up to connect Stratford and St. Mary's. I straighter route between Kitchener and London that bypassed those stops (like under the Wynn HSR plan) would be just as short as the southern Lakeshore route through Brantford.
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And that would cost more and take longer to construct. Which is why the idea was discarded. Reusing an existing, under-utilized corridor is pretty close to what VIA was trying HFR in the East. Only this track is straighter and has slightly more traffic.
Collenette gamed out what full HSR (350 kph) would cost. And I recall the cost was ridiculous, because it would basically require a tunnel from the airport to Union Station to maintain speed. Any dreams of a Greenfield line mean building a multi-billion dollar high speed subway tunnel or viaduct just to get out of Toronto. And then spending billions more on a new routing. Not happening. It's either we figure out how to leverage existing track and GO's electrification and grade separation investments, or we don't build this.
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