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High-Speed Rail (HSR) - Toronto/Pearson/Kitchener/London
Yeah, I've seen a few comparisons to Hwy 7 - but I'm not sure people realize that its in progress and has been for a few years now. If the Government treats HSR in the next term the same way they treated Hwy 7 this last term, we'd be doing really well.
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Well, let's give them a chance!

The alternative is... horrific.
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It's early for me to be decided completely, but I'll probably vote Green. Big Grin
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I hate to sound like I'm throwing cold water, but the main construction contact for Highway 7 has not been announced, and therefore presumably not signed. I hope it gets signed before a new government comes in with a budget axe.

Putting big dollars for HSR in the long term budget is a promising sign, but really only a forecast in my opinion. The thing is real when a contract is signed. Unless it's a politically unpopular gas plant or an EH-101 helicopter or the like.

To be clear, I want both the highway and HSR. I've ridden high speed trains in Europe, and think they would greatly improve travel in Ontario.
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All of the land for highway 7 has been bought. Major construction has started in Kitchener. Preliminary work has belong all along the route. I don't think its worth reading very much into the fact that the main contract hasn't been signed yet. I highly doubt any of the parties would kill the remaining work.
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SammyOES, I agree that it is unlikely a new government (should the voters so choose) would cut the new Highway 7. My point was meant to be that cancellation or further delay is still a possibility even at this stage, 3+ years after the announced start of construction with a timeline then of "about 5 construction seasons".

And contrasting that with the state of the HSR project, which is very much less further developed - without even an EA started yet.

The voters of Ontario will have some stark choices to make this election cycle with respect to transportation and infrastructure policy positions.

I reiterate my personal wish to see HSR in Ontario.
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(03-29-2018, 10:58 PM)SammyOES Wrote: All of the land for highway 7 has been bought.  Major construction has started in Kitchener.  Preliminary work has belong all along the route.  I don't think its worth reading very much into the fact that the main contract hasn't been signed yet.  I highly doubt any of the parties would kill the remaining work.

I agree. The chances of the 7 not being completed as planned are basically 0. Now if it was a transit project, I would still be very worried (I’m looking at you, Sheppard LRT). But once a road project gets to this stage, it’s going ahead.
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The Hydrocut's facebook page recently linked to an upcoming information session by a group called intercityrail.org, which seems to be an anti-HSR group.

https://www.facebook.com/thehydrocut/pos...7695096922

The group is showing mapping that seems to suggest the route may pass directly through the Hydrocut along the hydro corridor. This routing they show makes no sense for HSR as it would be force trains to slow down significantly for tight turns and there is a perfectly good straight rail right-of-way there already. Does anyone know if this map they are showing has any legitimacy, or is it just something that someone drew to drum up community opposition? The Hydrocut is a gem and I don't want it sacrificed for HSR, but I am extremely skeptical that it is in any kind of jeopardy.
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It seems very odd to me - the dashed-line alternatives are NORTH of the main corridor, when if anything the route will swing south of it to avoid Stratford and go more direct to London.
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intercityrail.org seems to support rail, but they want better non-HSR rail service (GO or VIA), especially between Kitchener and London, rather than HSR.

But, yes, the Hydrocut route seems to be unlikely anyway.
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I still have trouble getting my mind around the various proposals - more GO trains, HFR and HSR.  Seems like far too many trains.  Something has got to give, istm.  I don't think I've ever seen anything on what the "ultimate vision" is.
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It is a LOT of trains, absolutely. We need to ensure that they can serve their possible ridership as well as possible with strong transit links, and other last-mile solutions like convenient bikeshare.
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What could we have with rest‐of‐the‐world regular commuter, not‐even‐almost‐high‐speed, rail? Back‐of‐the‐envelope time. For easy calculations, cruise at 150 km/h (2.5 km/minute), accelerate and decelerate for stops in 1 km and 1 minute each — all leisurely for an off‐the‐shelf commuter EMU (e.g. Cali‐KISS). Dwell 1 minute.

On the current route it's 102 km (sigh) to Union Station. From Kitchener let's stop in Breslau, Guelph, Rockwood (hey, why not?), Acton (seriously, why not?), Georgetown, Brampton, Malton/YYZ (at 77 km) and then express to Union. So: Kitchener–YYZ: 46 minutes. Kitchener–Toronto: 59 minutes. Who would take that over driving? (Click to reveal answer)
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59 minutes would be quite lovely, I think, and even the current GO trains would theoretically be able to reach that (though I don't know whether they can accelerate fast enough for your calculation).

What kills this (and makes real HSR difficult, too) is the plethora of level crossings and slow segments through cities. That's expensive to fix, politically challenging and totally unglamorous -- and yet the gating factor to achieving any serious speed-up of the train service.
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(04-14-2018, 02:49 PM)tomh009 Wrote: 59 minutes would be quite lovely, I think, and even the current GO trains would theoretically be able to reach that (though I don't know whether they can accelerate fast enough for your calculation).

I think a pair of MP40s on a 6-car train *might* be able to do it. (My reason for picking the KISS for conservative EMU estimates is that it's Caltrain's chosen replacement for their BiLevel/MPI trains.)

Quote:What kills this (and makes real HSR difficult, too) is the plethora of level crossings and slow segments through cities.

And, currently, the CN Brampton problem.

I couldn't find Canada's rules (perhaps it's never come up) but the US allows gated level crossings up to 180 km/h. And all the curves on the way are wide enough for 150 km/h (~1 km radius). That's why I look at what could be done with ‘regular‐speed’ rail on the current route — *if* there were political will to send out work crews Monday morning, rather than make pie‐in‐the‐sky promises, would the results get people out of their cars?
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