High Speed Rail: London - Kitchener-Waterloo - Pearson Airport - Toronto

[Urban Sky]

Just use the current London-Toronto corridor but upgrade the line with needed overpasses, track twinning, and the crucial Brantford by-pass. run express diesel at 200km/hr like in the UK and Londoners will arrive at Union in an hour.

[...]

Londoners would get to Union a lot faster than this HSR idea.

As for the "I do want a diesel train" crowd, rest assured that Hydrogen rail is on it's way.

Hey ssiguy2, buddy, where have you been!?! Tell me, has it really been already 5 months since you last trolled us here with exactly the same unsubstantiated claims and more than seven months since I last bothered to debunk them? Where have you been all this time and what gives us the honour today on such a dark and cold winter evening?

Have you finally found my methodological mistakes and misconceptions when I estimated that the travel time for a 200 km/h fast service following the existing CN route with the Brantford bypass and an optional rerouting onto the CP route between Woodstock and London would take at least 77 minutes (4 minutes more than what's promised for HSR by the current Ontario government)? Have you finally found the unbelievable "express diesel" train, which is FRA-compliant and still manages to accelerate like a rocket to reach an average speed of 177 km/h (an unprecedented 88.5% of its supposed maximum speed of 200 km/h)?

Please let us know, because a rolling stock type and a Higher-Speed rail project with such incredible performance and characteristics would definitely be a no-brainer for a certain railroad currently pursuing a rolling stock procurement and a slightly different Higher-Speed rail project and the thought that both might be powered by Hydrogen already simply blows my mind...!

 

[MisterF]

It's been said before but it's worth repeating: the HSR proposal came from a desire to better connect Kitchener-Waterloo and its tech sector to Pearson Airport and Toronto. Serving London, while important, is secondary. A route that skips KW would defeat the purpose entirely.

 

[muller877]

It's been said before but it's worth repeating: the HSR proposal came from a desire to better connect Kitchener-Waterloo and it's tech sector to Pearson Airport and Toronto. Serving London, while important, is secondary. A route that skips KW would defeat the purpose entirely.

Then why are they linked? Would it be cheaper and attract more users if there were 2 distinct services? A Toronto-KW link that with the right incremental investments can get you from one city to the other in under 1 hour?

And a separate service using the existing CN ROW to get someone from London to Toronto in 1.5 hours and serving Woodstock, Brantford and Hamilton.

The number of people that would use a London-KW service is nominal and as such a hub and spoke model would be the best suited to connect the cities.

 

[crs1026]

Then why are they linked? Would it be cheaper and attract more users if there were 2 distinct services? A Toronto-KW link that with the right incremental investments can get you from one city to the other in under 1 hour?

a) Because London in particular has indicated its desire to join KW as a center in the technology industry, and this link is as important to London as it is to KW, and
b) because the economics of the service are improved if the through Windsor/Chatham/London to Toronto business is added onto the KW line rather than splitting the ridership over two routes which drives up cost and
c) because there is merit to linking all of these cities directly to Pearson, as an alternative to promoting increased air service between these points (which is not the best use of Pearson's capacity and slots)
d) because the 401 goes that way, and again relieving 401 is a key need

- Paul

 

[yrt+viva=1system]

a) Because London in particular has indicated its desire to join KW as a center in the technology industry, and this link is as important to London as it is to KW, and
b) because the economics of the service are improved if the through Windsor/Chatham/London to Toronto business is added onto the KW line rather than splitting the ridership over two routes which drives up cost and
c) because there is merit to linking all of these cities directly to Pearson, as an alternative to promoting increased air service between these points (which is not the best use of Pearson's capacity and slots)
d) because the 401 goes that way, and again relieving 401 is a key need

- Paul

I look forward to the Metrolinx/MTO commercials announcing the HSR will be relieve the 401 of congestion. On a side note, I find it partly ironic that Metrolinx/MTO will be overseeing this; Metrolinx under the subordination of MTO...we know where MTO's interests lay.

 

[crs1026]

I look forward to the Metrolinx/MTO commercials announcing the HSR will be relieve the 401 of congestion. On a side note, I find it partly ironic that Metrolinx/MTO will be overseeing this; Metrolinx under the subordination of MTO...we know where MTO's interests lay.

I share your skepticism. I wonder why MTO fought for the HSR 'turf'. Maybe they were just stuck with it, or maybe they saw it was gaining favour, and figured they better get ownership so they could quietly kill it.

But bureaucratic games aside, I don't envy whoever at MTO has the task of solving congestion on the 401. Does anyone have a cheap easy solution to the brakelight zones west of the 427 at rush hour?

- Paul

 

[Leo_Chan]

I share your skepticism. I wonder why MTO fought for the HSR 'turf'. Maybe they were just stuck with it, or maybe they saw it was gaining favour, and figured they better get ownership so they could quietly kill it.

But bureaucratic games aside, I don't envy whoever at MTO has the task of solving congestion on the 401. Does anyone have a cheap easy solution to the brakelight zones west of the 427 at rush hour?

- Paul

Mandatory electric self driving cars by law.

 

[TOareaFan]

a) Because London in particular has indicated its desire to join KW as a center in the technology industry, and this link is as important to London as it is to KW, and

Wouldn’t this apply to just about any municipality anywhere? Are there cities/towns saying “we don’t want any part of those high paying white collar tech jobs”

Just expressing that desire doesn’t get your town a ticket to ride the high speed train!

 

[crs1026]

Just expressing that desire doesn’t get your town a ticket to ride the high speed train!

Perhaps not.... but when your town is just down the road, and already has resources and institutions that can credibly be leveraged, and the town leadership appears to be behind the idea - there may be a viable economic strategy (as opposed to a monorail-quality pipe dream) that the Province ought to take seriously.

- Paul

 

[timio]

But bureaucratic games aside, I don't envy whoever at MTO has the task of solving congestion on the 401. Does anyone have a cheap easy solution to the brakelight zones west of the 427 at rush hour?

- Paul

I've thought that a piece of the puzzle would be variable speed limits from Guelph Line through Oshawa. Wouldn't solve the issue in its entirety, but would remove the expectations that drivers are obligated/entitled to go 100km/h + through this stretch regardless of conditions.

 

[rbt]

But bureaucratic games aside, I don't envy whoever at MTO has the task of solving congestion on the 401. Does anyone have a cheap easy solution to the brakelight zones west of the 427 at rush hour?

New Zealand shows the way for that. Put lights on all highway entrances. They're timed on a cycle of about 3 seconds red, 2 seconds green. One vehicle goes through per light.

Red cycle gets longer as congestion increases, slowing down the rate at which new vehicles enter the highway. The result is a typically free flowing highway though you may wait 20 to 30 minutes to enter the highway yourself during peak periods.

Cheap, easy, and fairly effective. It would be a struggle to sell it to the local population.

 

[steveintoronto]

New Zealand shows the way for that. Put lights on all highway entrances.

Very common in LA. I have seen them in Mississauga too, to gate rate of entry onto the QEW.

Then why are they linked? Would it be cheaper and attract more users if there were 2 distinct services? A Toronto-KW link that with the right incremental investments can get you from one city to the other in under 1 hour?

The latest plans discussed were to share the K/W line with HSR to K/W from TO. It struck me at the time that it was a 'climb-down' to Higher Speed Rail, which makes it very compatible with HFR.

 

[timio]

New Zealand shows the way for that. Put lights on all highway entrances. They're timed on a cycle of about 3 seconds red, 2 seconds green. One vehicle goes through per light.

Red cycle gets longer as congestion increases, slowing down the rate at which new vehicles enter the highway. The result is a typically free flowing highway though you may wait 20 to 30 minutes to enter the highway yourself during peak periods.

Cheap, easy, and fairly effective. It would be a struggle to sell it to the local population.

LA has these as well. Seemed to be 1, 2, or 3 per green, depending on the location.

 

[lenaitch]

A fine solution for a free and democratic society; revolution versus evolution.

 

[lenaitch]

Mandatory electric self driving cars by law.

A fine solution for a free and democratic society; revolution versus evolution.