11-10-2015, 09:50 PM
(11-10-2015, 09:27 PM)nms Wrote: I could foresee a more likely situation here that GO Transit will continue to expand and improve its railway network. At some point, they may even begin to operate trains that do not terminate at Union Station (think London to Georgetown; or Pickering to Kingston). This will continue to build rail demand and eventually, VIA may be able to cobble together enough resources to expand its own trains in Southern Ontario. GO could operate various all-stop routes and VIA would operate more limited stop options. At the same time, passenger rail would be rebooted and refurbished elsewhere in Canada with frequent departure trains operated either by a provincial agency or VIA (think Vancouver-Whistler; or Edmonton-Calgary; or Quebec City-Montreal).
I was surprised to see suburban rail routings in Zurich which did not go through the Hauptbahnhof. Wouldn't happen in today's Ontario.
GO has a much lower cost structure than VIA. I think they only have 1 customer service person per 10 car train? VIA has 1-2 people per car I think.
(11-10-2015, 09:27 PM)nms Wrote: A dark horse entry could be a private railway offering passenger service. As far as I know, there is nothing that would prevent a private railway from offering a service, particularly on a secondary line. The Florida East Coast Railway is building a four stop passenger service, set to start hauling passengers in 2017.
We do have private railways operating in Canada, for instance the Rocky Mountaineer through the mountains. I think the problem is access to financing and rails.