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Originally Posted by Aylmer
More than talk - the rails are already undergoing repair and should be operational within a few years. MTQ says 2024 for passenger service.
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That is good to hear.
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And yes, it was combined before. However, I wonder whether it actually translates into significant savings to do so. The Gaspé portion still needs its own cars and locomotive and staff. I hope UrbanSky can answer that (if he still checks in on this thread).
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Urban_Sky is the better person to answer that, but I am sure there are savings to be had. For one they don't need a second engineer between Montreal and Matapédia. Also, I am sure they don't have to pay CN as much to operate one longer train on their tracks than it does to operate two shorter ones.
Just look at the Northern Quebec trains. They operate as split trains 3 days a week rather than alternating days. Here is a picture I took of it leaving Montreal back in 2018. I assume the front section is the Jonquière and the rear section is the Senneterre.
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It didn't make sense to run them separately when the Ocean ran daily and there weren't any regional services to connect to. But a staggered schedule with a regional connection would make a big difference to usability in the Maritimes today.
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Possibly. It all depends what time the transfer is in Matapédia. Currently it is at 22:52 ET westbound and 6:10 ET eastbound (it looks like the schedule is designed to avoid rush hour in Montreal). Not horrible, but not good either.
It will also be interesting to see what affect HFR has on The Ocean (and the Chaleur). Currently it crosses the river to Sainte-Foy and then reverses back across again to continue on the south side. It might make more sense to have it travel on the HFR tracks north of the river between Montreal and Sainte-Foy to not only save having to do that revering maneuver, but to allow faster speeds.