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Quebec-Windsor Corridor

I am not as familiar about the highway needs of Quebec but for Ontario, I think a long-term goal should be a Lake Erie freeway connecting SWO to Niagara/Buffalo.

Essentially this would mean an eastward extension of the 402 from London to Niagara roughly following the old HW#3 serving Tillsonburg & Simcoe between the 2. The 401, especially between London & Woodstock to the 403 cutoff, has dangerously high levels of transport traffic and with the massive new battery plants in Windsor & London and London's new Amazon Centre, this will just increase. It will allow for faster cross-Ontario service as well as serve the sizeable commuter traffic especially from Tillsonburg to London. The 401 is already built out and to expand it beyond it's current 6 lanes would require a rebuilding of all overpasses/bridges and sizeable land acquisition. I think if they need to expand the 401 capacity, an alternative route to Niagara would be money better spent.
 
ssiguy2 said:
I am not as familiar about the highway needs of Quebec but for Ontario, I think a long-term goal should be a Lake Erie freeway connecting SWO to Niagara/Buffalo.

Essentially this would mean an eastward extension of the 402 from London to Niagara roughly following the old HW#3 serving Tillsonburg & Simcoe between the 2. The 401, especially between London & Woodstock to the 403 cutoff, has dangerously high levels of transport traffic and with the massive new battery plants in Windsor & London and London's new Amazon Centre, this will just increase. It will allow for faster cross-Ontario service as well as serve the sizeable commuter traffic especially from Tillsonburg to London. The 401 is already built out and to expand it beyond it's current 6 lanes would require a rebuilding of all overpasses/bridges and sizeable land acquisition. I think if they need to expand the 401 capacity, an alternative route to Niagara would be money better spent.
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I was going to say something snarky about this being the mid peninsula highway in everything but name, but when I sketch it out I really don't hate it as much as I thought... although I am tempted to suggest feeding it into Highbury rather than the 402 proper to create a better London - St Thomas highway.
1704435313746.png

I have to assume a 424 would end up part of this.

My major thought is that it really should be pulled south the Hwy 3 Port Colborne area to avoid the worst negative impacts of the original mid peninsula plan.
 
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I won't get into highways, but.... that map sure is interesting from a Corridor perspective in that it exactly traces two long-lost rail corridors,

If the traffic is there to justify an expressway (I would dispute that for a couple of decades, anyways, but I won't discuss highways) - then where is the head-to-head comparison of the roi on investing in a highway versus investing in rail?

I am not suggesting a new HxR corridor.....but.... a mixed use rail line that gets trucks off Highway 3 (that volume of traffic, headed either to/from Buffalo or Detroit is certainly growing) and offers some level passenger rail service?.....that's so 1950's....

Anyways, when people tell me I am in fantasy land (guilty) my response would be, we sure find the money and desire for highways in a hurry while deeming a potentially cheaper and more progressive rail option a fantasy. The Air Line may not be a good place for passenger rail, and off topic for this thread, but maybe there are viable branches and feeder and regional lines we should be imagining as adjuncts to the HxR corridor..And what would the threshold business case for such an adjunct line be ?

Just saying.

- Paul
 
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kEiThZ said:
Strange that they planned for the TMC to be complete 2 years after the Venture order was supposed to finish delivery. Even with the delivery delays from Siemens, the whole order will arrive before TMC is commissioned. I wonder how VIA deploys Ventures west of Toronto if TMC isn't running.
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The same way that they dispatch them from MMC without that new facility being completed.

Dan
 
Anybody have a delivery schedule for the Ventures? How many will they receive in 2024?
 
I haven’t had a chance to ride on the Venture trains yet but I was wondering if anyone knows the configuration/features each of the 5 car types (things like no. of seats, accessibility features, galley, etc)?
 
kEiThZ said:
That was the pre-Covid schedule. Now we don't know if they all get delivered by the end of 2025.
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I went looking for documentation on line. Some of the presentations have disappeared from the interweb.

The latest I could find in my files was a presentation from Feb 2021 which called for end of fleet acceptance in Q3 2024 and all sets in service by end of Q4 2024. First 10 trainsets to be delivered - with maintenance capability for the 10 - by Q3 2022 and all trainsets by Q1 2024.

Obviously that has slipped, but if one assumes that we are now at that Q3 2022 milestone, that amounts to a slippage of about 15 months. If the originally planned pace continues, the last trainset would arrive in Q2 2025.

Just dead reckoning, but best I could find.

- Paul

PS - the latest report I could find was here - Feb 2023 - no dates included. That committee next meets in February, there will likely be a report at that meeting that will make the internet.
 
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A small detail for me, but I personally think it's very important for VIA to have substantial Venture service on Corridor East before the HFR RFP winner is announced. I believe it contributes to confidence in passenger rail service and shows the average Canadian what is possible.
 
kEiThZ said:
A small detail for me, but I personally think it's very important for VIA to have substantial Venture service on Corridor East before the HFR RFP winner is announced. I believe it contributes to confidence in passenger rail service and shows the average Canadian what is possible.
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Most definitely.
Conversely, VIA cannot afford any sort of bad press or situation where the trains are pulled from service due to an emerging glitch or manufacturing deficiency. I’m sure that this is one reason why they are going with such a “soft” launch.
One does hear about small teething troubles with the new trains - nothing major or unsolvable, but the media and the public may not bother to put these into context. So until all the bugs are out and there is proven strong performance, it’s like they aren’t even here yet.

- Paul
 
crs1026 said:
I went looking for documentation on line. Some of the presentations have disappeared from the interweb.

The latest I could find in my files was a presentation from Feb 2021 which called for end of fleet acceptance in Q3 2024 and all sets in service by end of Q4 2024. First 10 trainsets to be delivered - with maintenance capability for the 10 - by Q3 2022 and all trainsets by Q1 2024.

Obviously that has slipped, but if one assumes that we are now at that Q3 2022 milestone, that amounts to a slippage of about 15 months. If the originally planned pace continues, the last trainset would arrive in Q2 2025.

Just dead reckoning, but best I could find.
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They have 21 trainsets left to deliver. And they aren't even really averaging one trainset per month. So I would say Q2 2025 for final delivery seems optimistic, even if Siemens is trying to catch up. That would be one delivery every 26 days. I think Q3/Q4 2025 is far more likely for their last delivery.

crs1026 said:
Most definitely.
Conversely, VIA cannot afford any sort of bad press or situation where the trains are pulled from service due to an emerging glitch or manufacturing deficiency. I’m sure that this is one reason why they are going with such a “soft” launch.
Click to expand...

I understand that. But they should be getting better with each delivery. Learning curves should kick in and they should be getting faster at working the kinks out and operationalizing the fleet.

I am assuming the fleet distribution is biased towards Corridor East with probably 20 trainsets for Corridor East and 12 for Corridor West. At the current rate of operationalization Corridor East won't be all Venture by the end of 2024, a milestone I was really hoping for before the announcement of the HFR Contract signing next year. The RFP winner is supposed to be announced this Fall.
 
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kEiThZ said:
I understand that. But they should be getting better with each delivery. Learning curves should kick in and they should be getting faster at working the kinks out and operationalizing the fleet.

I am assuming the fleet distribution is biased towards Corridor East with probably 20 trainsets for Corridor East and 12 for Corridor West. At the current rate of operationalization they won't be all Venture by the end of 2024, a milestone I was really hoping for before the announcement of the HFR Contract signing next year. The RFP winner is supposed to be announced this Fall.
Click to expand...

I am sure that is the case in terms of getting the trainsets out the door at the factory. And one would think that the field forces must be discovering and learning about solutions to situations that may have been problems at the start. But anything that point to the need for a modification to the spec and retrofit to already delivered trainsets may impact on the builder's supply chain and production schedule.

I'm not sure that VIA needs all 32 sets in service by the time HFR decisions are made... it may be enough to have put some number of sets in service and have been able to celebrate their arrival and confirm that they are working well.. Certainly good if there is positive buzz among VIA riders, but a certain number of voters will only be reacting to videos or photos. The more people who see them out on the Corridor, of course, the better.

- Paul
 
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