Welcome Guest!
In order to take advantage of all the great features that Waterloo Region Connected has to offer, including participating in the lively discussions below, you're going to have to register. The good news is that it'll take less than a minute and you can get started enjoying Waterloo Region's best online community right away.
or Create an Account




Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
High-Speed Rail (HSR) - Toronto/Pearson/Kitchener/London
So here I am sitting on Via Rail train 65 from MTRL to TRTO. Current speed is 149km/h, which is the same speed the Turbo was allowed to run at in normal operation. At that speed, today's train could travel the 541km in 3 hours 36 minutes, which would be totally fine. I do think the Via Rail CEO is correct in saying that we need more frequent departures (the plane goes almost every hour, but not the train) rather than high-speed service. It's already competitive with the plane out of YYZ. Flying out of YTZ is quicker but you still need to leave YUL. And that's if you are as aggressive with boarding deadlines as I am.

I did notice that we dropped to 125km/h briefly. There was a level crossing. But there are more crossings now and we're back at 150km/h. I'm not sure why the average speed for today's service is only 108km/h. There are 11 minutes of stops in the schedule.

The Wikipedia page also says that the fastest segment on the Turbo route was the non-stop Kingston to Guildwood in 102 minutes. Today we're at 116 minutes. Distance is 232km.

(11-05-2015, 01:28 PM)tomh009 Wrote: Can anyone here offer a realistic estimate of what the Kitchener-Toronto travel time could be with GO assuming no level crossings and a dedicated track?  Maybe with fewer stops (an express service similar to the Lakeshore line).  The MP40 should have a top speed of 175 km/h but I don't know how realistic that is with the car sets that GO uses.

I've noticed the GO train hitting about 100 km/h between Guelph and Kitchener. Seems to me we could have sub-1 hour travel times pretty easily. But the GO train is pretty slow within Toronto.

I think it would be good to have cost estimates, but my intuition suggests that having the Kitchener-Toronto train running at 250km/h can't really be worth it in terms of time savings. The other thing that HSRs are trying to do these days, though, is to get faster acceleration. That could help with this service.
Reply
« Next Oldest | Next Newest »



Messages In This Thread
RE: High-Speed Rail (HSR) - Toronto/Pearson/Kitchener/London - by plam - 11-05-2015, 01:58 PM

Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 4 Guest(s)

About Waterloo Region Connected

Launched in August 2014, Waterloo Region Connected is an online community that brings together all the things that make Waterloo Region great. Waterloo Region Connected provides user-driven content fueled by a lively discussion forum covering topics like urban development, transportation projects, heritage issues, businesses and other issues of interest to those in Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and the four Townships - North Dumfries, Wellesley, Wilmot, and Woolwich.

              User Links