VIA Rail - Discussion générale ​

[SkahHigh]

il y a 10 minutes, p_xavier a dit :

Faut connaître ces endroits, il n'y a absolement rien là. Max 2000 habitants pour les deux endroits combinés. Oui ça peut être des arrêts "side-tracked" mais c'est quand même ridicule de voir au même statut que Montréal.

 

Le PDG de VIA a un chalet à Sharbot Lake peut-être?

On dirait presque qu'ils ont prévu faire ces arrêts là pour des pêcheurs.

[cprail]

En tout cas, la crédibilité du TGF ne s'améliore pas. Je ne retiens pas mon souffle de voir plus de concret de sitôt.

[Marc.PMR]

Pas sûr de vouloir plus d'arrêts au Québec (et je ne comprends vraiment pas les arrêts prévus en Ontario).

 

A défaut d'un TGV, le TGF doit tout de même offrir un temps de déplacement plus rapide entre Montréal et Québec et il me semble que l'ajout de trop d'arrêts intermédiaires empêcherait d'atteindre cet objectif. Si la ligne sur la rive sud est maintenue comme prévu, c'est celle-là qui devrait offrir une desserte locale (peut-être même avec un ou deux arrêts additionnels).

[Né entre les rapides]

Ce qui retiens le plus mon attention, c'est ««l'étude»»; le tracé et le nombre d'arrêts, c'est important mais je ne vois pas comment on pourrait en présumer avant les «conclusions» de ladite étude.

Mais alors, cette ««étude»»: 3M$, c'est très peu  --avec une telle somme, on ne peut pas espérer obtenir des analyses supplémentaires (à ce dont on dispose déjà) significatives.  Ce qui m'amène à penser (jusqu'à preuve du contraire)  qu'on ne sera pas plus avancé dans 3 ans!!! qu'on ne l'est maintenant.

C'est pourquoi j'accueille cette «annonce» de la part du ministre responsable, comme une décision de ne rien faire (ou décider) avant ces trois ans.  Ne nous laissons pas distraire par un débat sur d'hypothétiques arrêts le long du trajet.  

[p_xavier]

J'aimerais bien qu'on renomme ce fil, VIA Rail discussions générale ou de quoi du genre.

[p_xavier]

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/what-to-do-with-via-rail-ottawa-weighs-multibillion-dollar-boost-to-passengerrail/article36082017/

 

Je ne crois tout simplement plus au projet sous sa forme actuelle.  Si les rails ont réellement été retirés sur le sub Peterborough, bien ça coûtera une fortune à remettre.  Je crois que l'approche de Metrolinx, plus dispendieuse mais quitte à rendre disponible un vrai TGV, est meilleure.  C'est malheureusement la petite politique qui fait en sorte que c'est toutes les villes ou rien (Labeaume) qui fait en sorte que rien se fait.

Quote

What to do with Via Rail? Ottawa weighs multibillion-dollar boost to passenger rail

The company finds itself at a crossroads as Justin Trudeau’s cabinet faces a costly decision on whether to fund a major expansion . Cabinet now faces a multibillion-dollar decision on whether the federal government should fund a major expansion of intercity passenger rail. Via itself has said the rail company is at a crossroads. Much of its aging fleet of rail cars and locomotives are in need of replacement, with some of the cars dating back to 1947. Via is a Crown corporation that survives in a precarious legal status. There is no federal legislation outlining its mandate. Its funding fluctuates wildly from year to year based on haphazard top-ups in federal budgets.

In December, Via president Yves Desjardins-Siciliano submitted an ambitious proposal to the federal government, called High Frequency Rail, that is focused on the Quebec City-to-Toronto corridor. The plan would replace the rolling stock with new locomotives and cars, increase service and build new dedicated passenger rail lines to reduce delays caused by sharing track with freight traffic. Via estimates the project would cost $4-billion, plus an additional $2-billion if the service was fully electrified. It is also asking for $1.5-billion to renew the fleet on its existing lines in the corridor.

The billions in spending would not produce high-speed bullet trains that are common in Europe and Asia and that will soon be in place in parts of Africa. Rather, high-frequency rail describes newly-built, traditional trains that run much more frequently and reliably at a top speed of about 177 km/hr. That has disappointed advocates who want to see full high-speed rail, an option that was recently recommended for the Toronto-to-Windsor corridor in a report for the Ontario government. That proposal in May from former federal transport minister
David Collenette called for trains that would reach speeds of up to 250 km/hr. Even higher speeds are possible. A Japan Railway train reached 603 km/hr on a test track in 2016, setting a world record.

New details of the plan include a map of the proposed route in which a dedicated rail line would run from Quebec City, north of the St. Lawrence River through Trois-Rivières to Montreal, then on to Ottawa, and through Eastern Ontario to Smiths Falls, Sharbot Lake, Tweed, Peterborough and Toronto.

That plan would require purchasing or leasing a CP line that runs from Toronto to Peterborough, while rebuilding parts of a line between Peterborough and Smiths Falls that no longer has track. It is currently used as part of the Trans Canada Trail. Most of the lines Via uses are owned by CN and CP, and it pays those companies a fee to use the tracks, although freight shipments take first priority.)

Proponents of Via’s plan counter that it is a more realistic, cost-effective response to growing demand for a downtown-to-downtown travel option that doesn’t involve driving on increasingly congested highways. Via has indicated that it expects a federal decision this year. Federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau, who are the two main decision makers on the file, have not indicated how they are leaning, nor have they committed to a deadline for making a decision. The 2016 federal budget devoted $3.3-million over three years for Transport Canada to study Via’s plan.

Other Liberal MPs and ministers representing ridings along the route – including Trade Minister François-Philippe Champagne, have spoken out in favour.

In recent months, cities and towns in Ontario and Quebec that stand to benefit from Via’s expansion plans have passed resolutions or held news conferences in support of Via’s pitch in an effort to pressure the federal Liberals into supporting the plan.

Peterborough Mayor Daryl Bennett, who remembers when Via ended its Peterborough train service in 1990, praises Via’s plan as a “common-sense” approach that will find more support now in light of the worsened traffic throughout the Greater Toronto Area. “You never know whether [driving to Toronto] is going to be an hour and a half, as it should be, or whether it’s going to be three hours,” he said. “We had not perhaps embraced [the train] as much as we should back in those days.”

“There was a mindset that the car gave you that freedom to do as you wish once you got out on the road and made your way into Toronto. That has diminished considerably since that period of time with the volumes of motorists doing exactly that. So I think people are looking forward to the alternative [of a] train again,” Mr. Bennett said. Via’s Mr. Desjardins-Siciliano has been quietly meeting with municipal leaders along the proposed routes, encouraging them to speak out in favour of the plan. The project could be a potential contender for funding through the new Canada Infrastructure Bank, which will launch later this year with a mandate to pool public money and private dollars from institutional investors such as pension funds.

He said Via’s proposal should fit within the bank’s mandate for funding. “This is exactly the kind of infrastructure that would really benefit the Canadian economy,” he said. “It would
take cars off the road. It really would make a big difference to the speed and movement of professionals.”

One rail policy consultant who has performed contract work for Via and who has studied the abandoned line closely says there is a reason why CP removed the tracks. “It twists and turns and it’s a roller coaster,” said Greg Gormick. “The route itself is problematic. The concept of being free of the freight interference is great, but in execution, this thing is a disaster in the making… All I see are a lot of costs adding up, and when I ask the questions, the answer I get is ‘we don’t know.’ If it’s such a great
plan, can we see it?” The consultant also says travellers going between Toronto and Montreal likely won’t appreciate the less-direct routes through Ottawa.
“Ottawa’s a lovely town to visit, but not for five minutes at the station. It’s not exactly a thrilling side trip,” he said. Another new detail that has emerged is the role Kingston would play as a “hub” for communities along the existing CN line currently used by Via that runs along the shore of Lake Ontario and the Saint Lawrence River.

According to Kingston Mayor Brian Paterson, he’s been informed by Via that his city would become a “hub,” and that many trains would start and end their routes in Kingston. That would make it easier for passengers to make day trips to Montreal, Toronto or Ottawa. These trains would also serve the existing stops along the CN route. These Via routes would still have to share track with freight, but Mr. Paterson said that should be much easier to manage when more of Via’s trains are operating on the proposed new line.
“There’s a vision here for a pretty significant improvement,” he said.

Yet the drip, drip of new project details is also raising many new questions that Via will not answer. For instance, it is not clear how trains would get from Peterborough to Toronto’s Union Station. Via says there are several options under consideration. A spokesperson said the company is working to secure federal approval for the general concept before more detailed plans can be released to the public.

There is also the possibility that some of VIA’s proposed new routes to Montreal won’t reach the city’s Central Station. That’s because another major rail project – the $6-billion Réseau électrique métropolitain (REM), led by Quebec’s pension fund – plans on using an existing tunnel to the station. There are questions as to whether Via’s trains are compatible with the light-rail lines the REM would install in the tunnel. Via says a technical team is working on this issue, but the company has previously said that some passengers may have to use the
light rail line through the tunnel to connect to a Via rail line for some trips. Another potential red flag is Via Rail’s recent history when it comes to delivering on its promises.
A 2016 report by Auditor-General Michael Ferguson highlighted a handful of examples where Via projects came in well over budget and failed to deliver on promised improvements to service.

Via proposed a deal with CN to improve parts of the main track between Montreal and Toronto in 2007 with an initial cost estimate of $21-million. By 2009, the plan had grown to a $251-million effort to triple track 160 kms at a cost of $1.6-million per km. By 2014, the Auditor-General said that Via had spent $318.5-million and only managed to triple track 70 kms, at a cost of $4.5-million per km.

Rather than improving travel time, the Auditor-General said VIA’s travel time and on-time performance had worsened. In some ways, Via’s challenges in working with CN illustrates why Via wants its own, entirely separate, rail line. A major review of the Canada Transportation Act led by Conservative-appointee David Emerson reported in 2016 that Via’s plan has merit, provided the details are closely reviewed. “There is inherent incompatibility between freight and passenger trains,” Mr. Emerson’s report stated. “A dedicated track would be good for Canada: it would allow for additional passenger rail frequencies and more freight rail capacity in the long term and would help to lower highway congestion in Ontario and Quebec.
However, any proposal from Via Rail would have to be carefully assessed to ensure that the elements relating to ridership and attracting private investment are viable.”

 

Modifié 25 août 2017 par p_xavier

[nephersir7]

Citation

VIA High Frequency Rail: Details emerge

VIA Rail is coyly dripping details of its desired route for dedicated “High Frequency Rail” (HFR) service linking Quebec City, Montreal and Toronto as it seeks to build political support for the C$6 billion scheme that requires approval of its single shareholder, the government of Canada.

While the railway has not officially unveiled its proposed route map, VIA Rail’s personable CEO Yves Desjardins-Siciliano has been meeting discreetly with leaders of towns and cities that would be served by new stations, some after decades without any passenger rail service. VIA Rail hopes local and national politicians will in turn urge Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to finish the job started 40 years ago by his father Pierre, who forged VIA Rail from the remnants of passenger service then reluctantly operated by Canadian National and Canadian Pacific.

The HFR scheme would seem to fit nicely with the government’s promised public-private infrastructure bank expected to be launched later this year. Desjardins-Sicilianjo has long been courting the high public pension funds that would comprise the core of the infrastructure investment bank.

A rejection by Ottawa would effectively strangle passenger rail in Canada by constraining it to the shrinking slots between CN freight trains between Quebec City and Toronto. Without exclusive trackage, VIA Rail cannot grow in its most important market. It would also be a career disappointment for Desjardins-Siciliano and likely deflate employee morale, boosted over the past three years by the CEO’s energetic ambition for the railway.

It would take a brave Justin Trudeau to risk his immediate electoral fortunes in Ontario and Quebec and assume oedipal notoriety as the boy who killed his father’s creation. Infrastructure spending was a signature promise of Trudeau’s 2015 landslide victory, but so far there has been little to show for it. A highball this year for VIA Rail’s HFR could see shovels in the ground by the country’s next election in 2019.

VIA Rail’s proposal offers either the C$6 billion full-meal deal of clean, green trains powered by Quebec’s abundant renewable hydroelectricity or a meager C$4 billion, diesel-hauled child’s portion through a region already visibly smudged by fossil fuel pollution.

There is no status quo alternative: Without HFR, VIA Rail’s existing motley fleet of locomotives and cars would have to be replaced at a cost of C$1.5 billion, or passenger rail in Canada would simply be allowed to rust into irrelevance.

VIA Rail annotates its proposed route map with caveats that it is so far only a management initiative, does not reflect government policy, and is subject to change.

From Quebec City in the east, the HFR line would restore passenger service to CP’s former north shore route to Montreal, now operated as the Quebec Gatineau Railway by Genesee & Wyoming. VIA Rail would take over the marginal Quebec Gatineau but could accommodate overnight freight service to existing customers as it does in Ontario with the Smith Falls to Brockville line acquired from CP.

From Montreal, the HFR route would subsume VIA’s existing fully-owned Ontario trackage through Alexandria, Ottawa and beyond to Smith’s Falls, whence it would more-or-less retrace abandoned CP right-of-way to Peterborough and carry on to Toronto over a still-operational subdivision to be acquired from CP. (Download a PDF map from the link below.)

New passenger rail service thus would be gained in Quebec by the St. Lawrence River port city of Trois-Rivières and in Ontario by Sharbot Lake, Tweed and Peterborough.

Station stops along VIA Rail’s existing CN lines would be continue to be served by local schedules tuned to the needs of communities between the big cities. Kingston would become the terminus for regional trains to and from Montreal and Toronto. The existing snippet of VIA Rail trackage between Smith’s Falls and Brockville would bridge the new HFR service to the future Montreal-Kingston-Toronto locals.

Some route details remain obscure, particularly access to downtown stations in Montreal and Toronto, where nascent regional transit projects are competing for the same track. But those are trivial compared to the larger issue of whether Canada’s rail passenger service will thrive, remain on life support, or be allowed to expire.

http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/passenger/high-performance/via-high-frequency-rail-details-emerge.html

[SkahHigh]

Alors essentiellement, VIA passerait par les voies utilisées par la ligne St-Jérôme pour se rendre au C-V?

[nephersir7]

il y a 9 minutes, SkahHigh a dit :

Alors essentiellement, VIA passerait par les voies utilisées par la ligne St-Jérôme pour se rendre au C-V?

C'est loin d'être clair. Ce qu'on sait c'est qu'ils feraient l'acquisition des voies du CFQG sur la rive nord.

[p_xavier]

11 minutes ago, nephersir7 said:

C'est loin d'être clair. Ce qu'on sait c'est qu'ils feraient l'acquisition des voies du CFQG sur la rive nord.

C'est indiqué le CP dans la carte donc oui par la ligne St-Jérôme.