Quote:
Originally Posted by kyle_olsen
Just a standard speed rail connection (not shared with freight) with good frequency, would be enough to tie in, no reason to pay so much when there would be a forced transfer in Montreal anyways (don't think their would be enough O'D to justify direct Ottawa-Toronto trains at the frequency needed to make it viable).
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Well, tomorrow Toronto-Ottawa and vice versa will see 10 trains compared to 12 trains on Montreal-Toronto and Ottawa-Montreal. That suggests that the O&D is substantial on both the Ottawa-Toronto and Ottawa-Montreal routes
A Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto routing would be slightly longer; however, the time difference between Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto would be engulfed by the time-savings of highspeed rail. I think the additional passengers would more than compensate for the additional time traveled. I would guess that the increased time would likely only amount to 30min or so, including the additional station dwell time in Ottawa.
There are several other reasons I feel Ottawa-Montreal is the most logical starting point. First, VIA owns the infrastructure in that corridor, and has already improved it significantly. I expect the capital costs for introducing high speed rail along the Alexandria subdivision would be significantly reduced compared to other parts of the Quebec-Windsor corridor. Additionally, the Ottawa-Montreal route would likely have the greatest potential increase in passengers, as the run could be reduced from approximately 2hrs to 1+hrs, essentially combining the Ottawa and Montreal commutersheds.