04-15-2016, 09:36 AM
110 km/h average isn't much faster than today. Toronto to Montreal is 540 km, so that's 4.9 hours - which is about what VIA is doing today anyway, and 20% worse than what it was doing in the 1970's with the Turbo. Very disheartening.
EMU's running at 200 km/h with distributed traction (powered axles in all cars) permitting rapid acceleration removes (or at least lessens) the penalty of more stops, so maybe that's what we need to be looking at, too. This is the magic of the Shinkansen - the thing accelerates as fast as a subway, and you get to 300 km/h in a minute or two, so there's not much harm in adding an extra stop. Meanwhile, GO/VIA trains with big heavy Diesel engines take 10 minutes to get up to speed - so painful.
EMU's running at 200 km/h with distributed traction (powered axles in all cars) permitting rapid acceleration removes (or at least lessens) the penalty of more stops, so maybe that's what we need to be looking at, too. This is the magic of the Shinkansen - the thing accelerates as fast as a subway, and you get to 300 km/h in a minute or two, so there's not much harm in adding an extra stop. Meanwhile, GO/VIA trains with big heavy Diesel engines take 10 minutes to get up to speed - so painful.