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Originally Posted by roger1818
Who flies to Person if they are going to downtown Toronto these days?
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Corporate travel contracts?
Quote:
Originally Posted by roger1818
Even still, a 2.5 train ride (if VIA can do it) is very competitive with flights to Billy Bishop. Having said that, VIA's not targeting the airlines, but drivers.
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I get they aren't targeting drives. But even if you departing from the Island, with check in time and with travel time from airport in Ottawa, you're easily over 2 hrs total. So if they can get that rail trip time under 3 hrs for a cost that's even close to today, they'll divert a lot of customers from Porter.
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Originally Posted by roger1818
To achieve those times they will need to average 160 km/h between Toronto and Ottawa and 150 km/h (unless they use a shorter route) from Ottawa to Montreal. That's faster than they currently do, but not in the realm of HSR. More important than speed is frequency and reliability.
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Never said it was in the realm of HSR. On other forums, I've read that the rules don't require full segregation until over 125 mph. That's closer to 200 kph operating speed. Add in the few limited stops they have planned, and it's easy to see them hitting 150-160 kph average, even with slowdowns in urban areas.
VIA's frequency on the corridor is already decent. Something like 9 trains a day. Of course, getting to hourly and simply have a schedule that is 90% accurate would be a gamechanger in and of themselves.
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Originally Posted by roger1818
The other thing is, I can't think of any country in the "west" that has built HSR where they didn't previously have frequent train service. HFR is a good stepping stone to HSR. I would take HFR (even if they don't meet their projected travel times) over a continuous stream of studies about HSR that never get funded.
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Yep. This is exactly why I take issue with posts like these whining about the plan not being fast enough. Ummm would you rather what we have now? I am starting to wonder if HSR advocates actually care about good train service or just enjoy being armchair critics who advocate.