05-19-2017, 11:16 PM
(05-19-2017, 10:06 PM)timio Wrote: I've ridden TGV and ICE. Both had select stops within a short distance of each other. And both had long stretches with nothing in the middle as well. As long as it can get up to (reasonable) speed between Kitchener and Guelph it won't feel awkward.
Hear hear!
I find too many HSR boosters fall into the trap of wanting fewer and fewer stations, to the point of absurdity. These people want a plane. The point is to serve a large variety of different trips efficiently. And sometimes that means some stations closer than others.
There are people who believe it is so vital for Toronto to Montreal HSR to be fast, that it should skip Ottawa entirely, saving a grand total of 50km off the route. Or they believe we should build a separate 200km of HSR track so that Ottawa can be on a separate spur that doesn't sacrifice those precious 15 minutes of presumably more important peoples' time.
Detouring around Guelph would be very expensive, and passing through without stopping at a station would save minimal time.
To bring in another international example, in Japan, the trip between Tokyo and Osaka is 440 km, and you travel past 15 HSR stations on the way. There is a train that makes all stops, but that's the local, and most only stop at a handful. (timetable). There are some express from Tokyo (suburbs) to Kyoto/Osaka, and there are some that are semi-express that stop at a couple stations on the way. And the semi-express trains don't even all serve the same intermediate stops, service of each station reflects demand.