04-26-2017, 11:15 PM
(04-26-2017, 07:26 PM)danbrotherston Wrote:(04-26-2017, 05:33 PM)DHLawrence Wrote: It's not uncommon to have both local and high speed on the same line. Acela and Acela Regional are a good example. We're not going to be getting bullet train speeds, so Acela is probably the best comparison.
I wonder what the odds are of this surviving the election.
That would only be the case if the line has sufficient ridership to support more trips.
I suppose we will see what we get.
Frankly, and via rail has gone this direction, existing via equipment is capable of around 170 km/h. At those speeds, you make pretty quick work of the trip between London and Toronto. The problem is, much of the track (even brand new fully grade separated track for some reason) is restricted to ~100 km/h or even ~60 km/h in the case of really bad tracks, and there are often sections in poor repair where they are restricted to 30-50 km/h, you only really hit 170 km/h for extended periods on the corridor between Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa.
If Via was simply to upgrade all their tracks to a level that supports 170 km/h everywhere. We'd have actually pretty fast service.
There is a branding aspect however, that needs to be addressed.
I say to hell with just 170 km/h we should really try to build the equivalent of the North-East Corridor (Amtrak) here. 150 mph (241 km/h) maximum speed on dedicated 4 wide track would make quite the difference.