Should canada have high-speed rail?
- Thread starter countryboy
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Ever been to India? :-?
The Rocky Mountaineer is one exception, but it's pretty specialized...I haven't ridden it myself, but many tourists love it and it is successful. Our cities (Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, and others) seem to have pretty good subway/transit systems, but when it comes to city to city, or area to area passenger travel, we are indeed waaayyyy behind.
That's what I thought. Thanks. It was funny when I first heard the concept. Kind of like the dog that ran away 3 days ago being still visible.
Nifty, but I hope if it gets built for use it was built by people who use good parts rather than crap and who are careful they don't use "shortcuts" like North American labor usually does.East bound about 10km from Regina you see plenty of trees all the way to Halifax. West bound is a different story. We complain about Yanks not knowing Cdn geography....
Back on track to original post.
I like traveling by rail as much as possible. Just not in Canada.
We can easily add High Speed Rail using good old existing lines and existing Cdn technology and equipment. The Jet Train
Bombardier makes a jet turbine train that is very efficient, needs no wires and can run on existing tracks.
Believe it or not VIA gets up to 160km/h on the prairie which is about all the diesel electrics can handle. The track isn't the limiting factor.
The JetTrain is an experimental high-speed passenger train built by Bombardier Transportation in an attempt to make European-style high-speed service more financially appealing to passenger railways in North America. It uses the same LRC-derived tilting carriages as the Acela Express trains that Bombardier sold to Amtrak in the 1990s and a similar locomotive, but instead of being powered by overhead lines as is the Acela and most other high-speed trains, it is powered by a combination of small diesel engine for low speed and turboshaft engines for high speeds.
We don't have enough people to justify the cost. As an R & D project that could eventually be sold to places like India and China it has more possibilities. Heavy lifters or small high volume systems?
Why stop there, use the same system basics that are used in ski-hill lifts to develope inner city mass transit systems. Single and double seaters, gps driven to your specified destination. Light standards already in place could serve as the masts.
There is a line between Revelstoke and Calgary that I know of. Another from Vancouver to MacKenzie. and lots of short ones in other places of BC.
High Speed Rail has been talked about for 30 years and longer, in the Corridors of Quebec City to Toronto (or Windsor); Calgary and Edmonton. If done properly, which means built with domestic technology and industry, and NOT going for the cheapest option, it could be an engine for economic development.
But unfoturnately in the era of Free Trade, pumping industrial investment into the economy, is like pumping air into a tire before the puncture has been fixed.
Get that Free Trade fanatic and moron Harper and his government out of office and we would have a chance. But the Liberals and NDP are just as hopeless. I guess we have got the government.. and the circumstanes.. we deserve.
But unfoturnately in the era of Free Trade, pumping industrial investment into the economy, is like pumping air into a tire before the puncture has been fixed.
Get that Free Trade fanatic and moron Harper and his government out of office and we would have a chance. But the Liberals and NDP are just as hopeless. I guess we have got the government.. and the circumstanes.. we deserve.
How worse can your system be than what we have in the U.S.? Last time I was on a train, it was the autotrain from Virginia to Florida, a horrible 24 hour ride bouncing all over the place. (cars ride in special carriers and passengers in cabins or sleeper cars.)
"How worse can your system be than what we have in the U.S.? Last time I was on a train, it was the autotrain from Virginia to Florida, a horrible 24 hour ride bouncing all over the place. (cars ride in special carriers and passengers in cabins or sleeper cars.)"
ironsides, if you take the train from Virginia to Florida, rather than drive, I feel no sympathy for you.
From Washington to Miami the driving time would have been 16 hours. All in the comfort in your own car, beholding no schedules, eat, pee and stop anytime, on the best roads in the world.
ironsides, if you take the train from Virginia to Florida, rather than drive, I feel no sympathy for you.
From Washington to Miami the driving time would have been 16 hours. All in the comfort in your own car, beholding no schedules, eat, pee and stop anytime, on the best roads in the world.
We did that when we moved down to Florida, brought down both vehicles. Trip started from NY, had to drive to VA to get the train.
"We do,it's called the trans Canada highway."
Have you driven on it coast-to coast?
"I drove about half of it. The western half of it seemed fine to me."
Have you driven in Ontario?
If we can not drive from Halifax to Vancouver without a traffic light to impinge on your progress like you could drive from Seattle to Miami, or from Boston to San Diago, our high-falluted Trans-Canada Highway is nothing but Major Mickey Mouse, third world highway.
Have you driven on it coast-to coast?
"I drove about half of it. The western half of it seemed fine to me."
Have you driven in Ontario?
If we can not drive from Halifax to Vancouver without a traffic light to impinge on your progress like you could drive from Seattle to Miami, or from Boston to San Diago, our high-falluted Trans-Canada Highway is nothing but Major Mickey Mouse, third world highway.
I dont think theres any stop lights on it,just divided 4 lane highway all the way but I havent been on the eastern side.
It's just as good or better then any interstate.
For most of Canada to have high speed rail would be almost prohibitively expensive. Grades would probably be limited to about 11/2% and curves would have to be very flat (probably one degree in engineer's lingo) It might work well from Calgary to Winnipeg, but otherwise I doubt it.