High-Speed Rail (HSR) - Toronto/Pearson/Kitchener/London

[plam]

Now this train is slowing down 13km out of Cobourg and there's a freight train passing us on the right...

A bit of a digression: In Europe passenger trains generally have priority over freight during days and evenings with freight having priority at night. What a novel concept

Who would have thought of a novel concept like that. Increasing amounts of freight traffic are putting pressure on the system even in Europe, though. So they're building a new Gotthard tunnel in Switzerland, for instance. Sounds huge and very much underground.

There are also some destinations which are YUL-specific like Geneva, I think

While I'm digressing, at one point AC had YYZ to ZRH exclusively and SR had YUL to GVA exclusively. When I lived in Toronto a Swiss neighbour of mine who travelled to Zurich frequently and hated AC's "service" used to complain that he had to fly to YUL in order to get on a SR flight and then connect to a GVA to ZRH flight.

A significant problem with making connecting flights within Canada when you arrive from overseas is that CBSA requires you to pick up your luggage when you first land in Canada, then schlep it to a check-in counter for the connecting flight, then pick it up again at your final destination. In Europe you can check your luggage through to your ultimate destination. So much more convenient.

Turns out that's no longer true for International to US: that baggage will now be transferred automatically. I've seen this both at YYZ and at YUL. It is still true if you're connecting International to Canada though. Not sure about Canada to International. But sometimes you have to pick up luggage in Europe too; depends on whether your final destination is a Schengen airport or not, I think. I like it best when I have no checked luggage.

GVA to ZRH is only 2.5 hours on a train (278km), but if you're already on planes, sure, why not 3 legs. Probably slower, since you can just catch the next train in GVA but you have to take the flight you're scheduled on, so you can be more aggressive with train connections. And you can take the train right from the airport, of course.

Interestingly, Swiss railways basically don't do discounts for advance purchases. (Well, there are some, but they're not super significant if you have the half-price card). Via Rail moved towards dynamic pricing within the past few years, which is good in some ways but annoying in others. Dynamic pricing is also one of the things I dislike most about Greyhound (among other things) and a big advantage of GO for me. Commuter routes should not be dynamically priced.

Also, I find that Canadians like to bash Air Canada service, but I find it way better than US airlines. I don't think I took the old Swiss, so I can't say.