Ontario's Premier says bullet trains are the wave of the future

[Dusty Ayres]

This, after everybody else in the world has built such rail travel:

The Premier wants Ontario's transit to go high speed and he said it's only a matter of time before bullet trains connect the provinces.
Steps are already in progress as Premier Dalton McGuinty told 680News "[...]we're now funding a study to see how we can make this a reality."
According to McGuinty, Ontario needs to catch up to the high speed transit systems already in Japan and Europe that are able to travel as fast as 200 km/h.
He said bullet trains are the future and he has even talked to Quebec's Premier about them.

Ontario's Premier says bullet trains are the wave of the future

 

[Norrin Radd]

Well, he even admits that Ontario and Canada has to catch up to Japan and Europe. The problem with bullet trains in Canada, imo, is that our huge distances make them cost prohibitive in comparison to more closely knit countries and continents, especially given our low population density. Heck, Ontario is practically the size of France + Germany and yet has less than 10% of the combined population. A sustainable bullet train system would be much more difficult to implement.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

...wave of the future...

...where rail systems can be economically upgraded to support them.

In addition to improvements in the rail bed itself, signalling systems for both traffic control and crossing warnings would need major overhauls in order to safely accomodate this new breed of iron horse.

One of the French bullet trains ran on Amtrack a few years back as a test, IIRC. The 120+ mph train was limited to a max speed of 70 mph due to the above listed factors.

AG

 

[Ariadne]

Well, he even admits that Ontario and Canada has to catch up to Japan and Europe. The problem with bullet trains in Canada, imo, is that our huge distances make them cost prohibitive in comparison to more closely knit countries and continents, especially given our low population density. Heck, Ontario is practically the size of France + Germany and yet has less than 10% of the combined population. A sustainable bullet train system would be much more difficult to implement.

They'd be economically sustainable in the Montreal-Windsor corridor and the Calgary-Edmonton corridor.

Canada's population is very concentrated (along the American border, and near Montreal and Calgary/Edmonton), which needs to be considered when talking about things like mass inter-city transit.

 

[TerriO]

My first thought would be winter safety. I know how out-of-line the subways in NYC can get in the winter when the tracks get icy. The idea of a bullet train in an area with serious potential for ice-over would definitely add another cost to the network, keeping the tracks de-iced.

 

[acs12798]

...wave of the future...

...where rail systems can be economically upgraded to support them.

In addition to improvements in the rail bed itself, signalling systems for both traffic control and crossing warnings would need major overhauls in order to safely accomodate this new breed of iron horse.

One of the French bullet trains ran on Amtrack a few years back as a test, IIRC. The 120+ mph train was limited to a max speed of 70 mph due to the above listed factors.

AG

That depends where on Amtrak it was. Amtrak has its own High speed(120mph) trains between the major cities in northeast corridor(the Acela). However, yes, doing that did require expensive upgrades. High Speed rail is only practical between significant, major cities, and could never replace air traffic to small cities.

 

[Hitman]

Well, he even admits that Ontario and Canada has to catch up to Japan and Europe. The problem with bullet trains in Canada, imo, is that our huge distances make them cost prohibitive in comparison to more closely knit countries and continents, especially given our low population density. Heck, Ontario is practically the size of France + Germany and yet has less than 10% of the combined population. A sustainable bullet train system would be much more difficult to implement.

The problem isn't distance, but the type of terrain. Laying TGV track on more or less levelled ground is cheap, but once you start going up the mountains, the price sky-rockets. And to keep the speed up, one needs to find the most levelled course possible, with all combined.

 

[Ariadne]

Well, he even admits that Ontario and Canada has to catch up to Japan and Europe. The problem with bullet trains in Canada, imo, is that our huge distances make them cost prohibitive in comparison to more closely knit countries and continents, especially given our low population density. Heck, Ontario is practically the size of France + Germany and yet has less than 10% of the combined population. A sustainable bullet train system would be much more difficult to implement.

The problem isn't distance, but the type of terrain. Laying TGV track on more or less levelled ground is cheap, but once you start going up the mountains, the price sky-rockets. And to keep the speed up, one needs to find the most levelled course possible, with all combined.

Again, if they build bullet trains, it'll be Edmonton/Calgary (prairie) or the Montreal-Windsor corridor, which is fairly flat.

 

[RobertVA]

...wave of the future...

...where rail systems can be economically upgraded to support them.

In addition to improvements in the rail bed itself, signalling systems for both traffic control and crossing warnings would need major overhauls in order to safely accomodate this new breed of iron horse.

One of the French bullet trains ran on Amtrack a few years back as a test, IIRC. The 120+ mph train was limited to a max speed of 70 mph due to the above listed factors.

AG

As far as high speed trains are concerned the only good uprade for crossing signals would be an underpass or overpass/flyover (eliminate the grade element of the crossing).

 

[Dusty Ayres]

Well, he even admits that Ontario and Canada has to catch up to Japan and Europe. The problem with bullet trains in Canada, imo, is that our huge distances make them cost prohibitive in comparison to more closely knit countries and continents, especially given our low population density. Heck, Ontario is practically the size of France + Germany and yet has less than 10% of the combined population. A sustainable bullet train system would be much more difficult to implement.

They'd be economically sustainable in the Montreal-Windsor corridor and the Calgary-Edmonton corridor.

Canada's population is very concentrated (along the American border, and near Montreal and Calgary/Edmonton), which needs to be considered when talking about things like mass inter-city transit.

There's also the Toronto-New York corridor, the Toronto-Chicago corridor, and the Montreal-New York corridor (the New York state government wanted to build a bullet train line to Montreal, but apparently the Quebec government didn't bite, until now). I would also humbly ask McGuinty to consider also building a bullet train version of the Ontario Northland service, which right now is just completely shitty, and maybe even consider an electric train version of GO Transit as well (a bullet train would be much faster than what we've got now.)

 

[Ariadne]

Well, he even admits that Ontario and Canada has to catch up to Japan and Europe. The problem with bullet trains in Canada, imo, is that our huge distances make them cost prohibitive in comparison to more closely knit countries and continents, especially given our low population density. Heck, Ontario is practically the size of France + Germany and yet has less than 10% of the combined population. A sustainable bullet train system would be much more difficult to implement.

They'd be economically sustainable in the Montreal-Windsor corridor and the Calgary-Edmonton corridor.

Canada's population is very concentrated (along the American border, and near Montreal and Calgary/Edmonton), which needs to be considered when talking about things like mass inter-city transit.

There's also the Toronto-New York corridor, the Toronto-Chicago corridor, and the Montreal-New York corridor (the New York state government wanted to build a bullet train line to Montreal, but apparently the Quebec government didn't bite, until now). I would also humbly ask McGuinty to consider also building a bullet train version of the Ontario Northland service, which right now is just completely shitty, and maybe even consider an electric train version of GO Transit as well (a bullet train would be much faster than what we've got now.)

Windsor is on the way from Toronto to Chicago, so the Canadian part of that would be covered under the Montreal-Windsor corridor.

I would imagine that the best way to do Montreal-New York would be to connect to (and upgrade the slow parts of) the existing system from Washington DC to Boston - the addition required would be slightly shorter then building a new line all the way from New York, and there aren't any major cities a direct line would pass through.

Good call on Toronto-New York.


The problem with getting faster GO Transit is that it still needs to stop at every station.