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VIA Rail

C_Johnson_1995 said:
The important part of that Alberta plan is that it is PROVINCIAL. Note that VIA and the federal government didn't have anything to do with it. Sure, conservatives here do have some differences to Americans, however the federal conservatives are cut from a different cloth because they can't use rail as an appeal to populism and grievances against other provinces and the federal government. Instead, the only winning formula is to cut and devolve responsibility. That plan reinforced my belief that VIA is useless and ought to be done away with, even if most of that map should just be served with busses instead of trains.
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My point to bring up Alberta is a counter to your point of "his government will beholden to the interests of western and rural voters who cannot comprehend that a rising tide lifts all boats". Alberta is about as western and as rural as it gets, and much of the CPC's talking points and politics are centered around that province's interests. So, when the province that closely matches the politics of the CPC elects a CONSERVATIVE premier that is highly support of rail expansion, it represents a good sign in which direction the party will look as a core principle.

This is before I bring up that the CPC needs to get some votes in Ontario and Quebec to win, voters (if you judge by Doug Ford's continued success) are highly interested in transportation and infrastructure expansion within their province. Something like continuing the support of HSR will be crucial to note lose the next election.
C_Johnson_1995 said:
When it comes to the party resolution in support of HSR, party convention resolutions are worth less than nothing and are ignored almost every time with few exceptions. The only thing that will matter is the party platform come the next election and the comments from the incoming prime minister do not inspire confidence.
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They're a good litmus test to understand what the core doners and political backers want. Keep in mind, these are the people that are responsible for a good chunk of the party's annual income, as well as responsible for choosing the party leader. Understanding what the party doners want is extremely crucial in predicting what the government will do, doubly so in regards to the CPC who very much operate at the whim of the doner.
 
ARG1 said:
My point to bring up Alberta is a counter to your point of "his government will beholden to the interests of western and rural voters who cannot comprehend that a rising tide lifts all boats". Alberta is about as western and as rural as it gets, and much of the CPC's talking points and politics are centered around that province's interests. So, when the province that closely matches the politics of the CPC elects a CONSERVATIVE premier that is highly support of rail expansion, it represents a good sign in which direction the party will look as a core principle.
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Again, it's provincial. You will likely never see that replicated on the federal level because as long as the premiers are handling transit populism, the federal government has no reason to touch the issue.
This is before I bring up that the CPC needs to get some votes in Ontario and Quebec to win, voters (if you judge by Doug Ford's continued success) are highly interested in transportation and infrastructure expansion within their province. Something like continuing the support of HSR will be crucial to note lose the next election.
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The Ontario PCs and the CPC are vastly different parties. They (the CPC) are going to get those votes regardless of what they do. The next election will be purely reactionary to votes to get the Liberals out. There isn't an incentive to act out a long term project with the ability to go overbudget or have any other controversy attached to it when they can score easy political points by 'axing taxes' and cutting 'wasteful Liberal follies' like what HFR is likely perceived to be.

At this point, nobody here is going to convince anyone else the other way. We can just agree to disagree because we will only see who's right next year. I'm just not sure what this party has done to inspire any level of confidence. Ultimately though, the blame lays squarely with the Liberals by not sufficiently advancing the project if it ends up being canceled.
 
C_Johnson_1995 said:
At this point, nobody here is going to convince anyone else the other way. We can just agree to disagree because we will only see who's right next year. I'm just not sure what this party has done to inspire any level of confidence. Ultimately though, the blame lays squarely with the Liberals by not sufficiently advancing the project if it ends up being canceled.
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It rather sounds to me that you have conspiracy theories, but no actual evidence. The scope of HxR can be scaled back to match the government’s desired funding size - and if that’s zero, then we’ll probably get something which more closely resembles VIA’s initial pitch.

But, again, the Conservative’s problem with passenger rail proposals is the government funding part, not the passenger rail part. And also the voters are not stupid: they can differentiate between a project shelved because it would have been too costly for the taxpayer and one cancelled because the government hated rail.

I anticipate that the new Government will just make sure to take as much credit as possible for getting the project done (blasting the Liberals for only holding inconsequential announcements rather than advancing the project at full speed) while limiting the taxpayer exposure to a bare minimum. And as a positive side effect, this refocus of the project scope should speed up the delivery…
 
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Urban Sky said:
Both, in the case of Wynne’s HSR election stunt and the Carbon Tax now, these policies were/are highly controversial amongst the Conservative’s core constituents and the Conservative’s campaign was/is very transparent about their intentions post-election-victory. Has PP publicly said anything critical about VIA (or HxR) since 2012, when VIA’s fiscal credibility was orders of magnitudes worse than today?
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But ten years later we expropriated land to basically build the same bypass that was proposed ten years ago.
 
Looks like we are finally starting to see regular Charger/Venture service to Southwest Ontario. Despite that announcement a few weeks back, no regularly scheduled new trains have been in service south of Toronto.

IMG_4809.jpeg


Also sets 19 and 20 are enroute to Canada.
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SaugeenJunction said:
Looks like we are finally starting to see regular Charger/Venture service to Southwest Ontario. Despite that announcement a few weeks back, no regularly scheduled new trains have been in service south of Toronto.



Also sets 19 and 20 are enroute to Canada.
View attachment 584398
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would be interested in seeing a double set in service or an extended length consist! :D i guess well see the former when they do the combined ottawa, montreal run
 
I've taken the train to Montreal a few times since these new trains have arrived, and of course not once have I gotten a new train. These trains can't come fast enough.
 
crs1026 said:
This sure raised my eyebrows

Air Canada joins the Cadence team for the HFR project

Air Canada confirmed today that it has joined the Cadence team, which has submitted a response to the request for proposals for the High Frequency Rail project, a new intercity rail network in the...
mraircanada.mediaroom.com

- Paul
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considering they are their direct competitors i find this a very fishy tale.... hopefully they DONT win the deal either way since theyre a bad company to work with anyways.
 
cplchanb said:
considering they are their direct competitors i find this a very fishy tale.... hopefully they DONT win the deal either way since theyre a bad company to work with anyways.
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It looks like Air Canada is aiming to do "code sharing" as a part of the team - i.e. booking a flight from Ottawa to Paris, instead of doing a short hop from Ottawa to Dorval then flight onwards to Paris, would instead be a code-shared ticket for a HFR trip to Dorval then a flight to Paris.
 
innsertnamehere said:
It looks like Air Canada is aiming to do "code sharing" as a part of the team - i.e. booking a flight from Ottawa to Paris, instead of doing a short hop from Ottawa to Dorval then flight onwards to Paris, would instead be a code-shared ticket for a HFR trip to Dorval then a flight to Paris.
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that wouldnt be a fair competition then. what about westjet, flair or porter? this is more of a gimmick perk than an actual technical merit. and knowing air canada, i dont think it will be well implemented anyways or it could get pretty one sided like via is to cn/cpks
 
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innsertnamehere said:
It looks like Air Canada is aiming to do "code sharing" as a part of the team - i.e. booking a flight from Ottawa to Paris, instead of doing a short hop from Ottawa to Dorval then flight onwards to Paris, would instead be a code-shared ticket for a HFR trip to Dorval then a flight to Paris.
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To be charitable, I can see AC (or another airline) wanting to get the inside track on the airport connectivity aspects of the project - not just codesharing but transfer to airports, timing of connections etc.
But being less charitable, I question how they can participate without creating a conflict of interest. As a consortium member they now likely have access to whatever data room Ottawa established for the project, as well as whatever IP and data that particular consortium has generated. That knowledge would be invaluable if they intend to lobby against parts or all of the project. And their self interest will very much affect their influence within the consortium.
I try to be charitable when I can, but this sure feels like the fox joining the consortium to bid on building a new henhouse

- Paul
 
cplchanb said:
considering they are their direct competitors i find this a very fishy tale.... hopefully they DONT win the deal either way since theyre a bad company to work with anyways.
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It certainly adds another reason why that consortium should not be allowed to design the future of passenger rail in this country. The CDPQi has already done their best to ensure it is as miserable as possible, at least East of Montreal…
 
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