nfitz
Superstar
Or at least pay for the maintenance.
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VIA Rail
- Thread starter ehlow
- Start date
crs1026
Superstar
There is absolutely no business on that line for CN, except for the grain terminal which can be accessed from London. There is no reason why they would spend a single dime to maintain it.
It may be a good time to re-post this old chestnut. With Ontario making promises, why would CN spend money to keep the line up?
- Paul
cplchanb
Senior Member
I would welcome that investment. CN never cared about via anyways. Might as well rip off the bandaid and own the line.
smallspy
Senior Member
There seems to be nothing in the timetable or GOIs that indicate that this is the case.
VIA's trains have been having lots of difficulty on this section due to the grades and the leaves on the track. Starting today or tomorrow, 84 & 87 will be equipped with a trainset that has two locos on it to overcome the issues.
Dan
Urban Sky
Senior Member
I don’t think that CN is more of a holdup in selling the line to VIA than TC allowing VIA to purchase it…
roger1818
Senior Member
I'm curious how they will do this when VIA has retired their entire legacy fleet? I thought they can't couple F40s to Charger/Venture trainsets in revenue service, or am I misunderstanding this?
dowlingm
Senior Member
VIA has by no means retired their legacy fleet. VIA is currently running 13 out of 28 corridor equipment rotations as Venture, 11 as LRC, 4 as HEP. 84 and 87 will be operated with four LRC coaches between the locomotives.
innsertnamehere
Superstar
yup. It no doubt need blasting, but MTO has built plenty of freeways through similar terrain on the relative cheap. Blasting in the grand scheme of things actually isn't all that expensive.
I mean.. it's not hard to shove a few sticks of dynamite down a hole and then plow it out of the way:
In Fact.. this process is likely far cheaper than buying the more expensive land to the south. It wouldn't surprise me if a decent chunk of the alignment east of Peterborough is literally still crown land and doesn't even need expropriation.
Bordercollie
Senior Member
I wonder what the cost would be to purchase the corridor. But they are paying to use the track, how is their no obligation to fix the track?
trainfanjacob8
New Member
Thanks for passing along this information! I’m kinda surprised to hear that, as today’s 84 had two units and only did about 20 mph on the relatively flat terrain between St. Marys and Stratford. I would have thought they’d struggle more on the hilly Stratford-Kitchener and Guelph-Silver segments instead.
Sauga89
New Member
yup. It no doubt need blasting, but MTO has built plenty of freeways through similar terrain on the relative cheap. Blasting in the grand scheme of things actually isn't all that expensive.
I mean.. it's not hard to shove a few sticks of dynamite down a hole and then plow it out of the way:
In Fact.. this process is likely far cheaper than buying the more expensive land to the south. It wouldn't surprise me if a decent chunk of the alignment east of Peterborough is literally still crown land and doesn't even need expropriation.
For those curious, the Ontario government maintains an interactive map of Crown land in the province. I took a screenshot. The grey is private land with Crown land in yellow and orange. Peterborough is just out of sight in the bottom left corner. It looks like you'd have to take a much more northerly route to Ottawa if you wanted to make use of Crown land.
Here is the link to the map if anyone wants to explore themselves. https://www.lioapplications.lrc.gov.on.ca/CLUPA/index.html?viewer=CLUPA.CLUPA&locale=en-CA
crs1026
Superstar
I will admit that I never really paid attention to the grades on the Guelph Sub.
Here's some data. A 4 mile, 0.6% grade is not trivial.
- Paul
Here's some data. A 4 mile, 0.6% grade is not trivial.
- Paul
dowlingm
Senior Member
VIA issues RFQ for 42 long distance locomotives
trainfanjacob8
New Member
Thanks for the attachment. What is interesting to me is that VIA 87 on Halloween night ran with two locomotives and four coaches, and still only ran at 20 mph downhill. I'm curious to know from railway employees how wet rail/leaves affect trains on downgrades compared to inclines.
roger1818
Senior Member
I realize that. Sorry if I wasn’t clear. I was asking how they will do this in the future, once they have retired it.