12-30-2024, 12:20 PM
(12-29-2024, 02:10 PM)Momo26 Wrote: Are significantly more people travelling to and from TOR to MTL vs TOR/GTA out west to KWC and London?
Yes, the traffic numbers on the 401 should show that to you. Also, more passengers get on Via at either Toronto or Montréal heading towards the other than get on GO in Kitchener.
(12-29-2024, 02:10 PM)Momo26 Wrote: There is a good argument that Oshawa -- TOR -- KW -- Lon solves daily commuter issues and makes london toronto daily commute viable if under 1.5hrs
On track that does not have too much of an incline or is too curved to limit acceleration, it generally takes 20 km to get up to 320km/h, but can easily take farther as the tracks inside the city are often rebuilt legacy tracks and are too curvy. So even though the Wynne Liberals had promised a Guelph HSR stop, that distance won't really allow more than 110 mph service. Also, that's the longest inter-station distance on the GO Kitchener line, with several pairs being less than 5 km apart. So any thoughts of HSR commuter service on the Kitchener Line are just not possible. Indeed even if you assume perfectly linear tracks between all stations, the max speed between all station pairs from Mount Pleasant to Union is less than 100 km/h. Real HSR service would only be LON→KIT→TOR and nothing in between.
It's far more reasonable for the express train that skips everything between Mount Pleasant and Union to be a regular 110 mph service. LON→KIT would benefit from having the tracks reconditioned for 110 mph too so stops could be made in St. Mary's, Stratford, New Hamburg, Saint Pauls, and Thorndale.
Given that HSR is more expensive to operate, 200 mph HSR service LON→KIT→TOR is going to be a premium service compared to 110 mph express service, so not really a commuter thing. The GO train from Kitchener costs $20 one way, so an HSR train would be in the $40-60 range, probably.