Infrastructure bank studied as funding option for U.S.-Canada high-speed rail

Read this ARTICLE from Andy Blanchford from the Globe & Mail on how Washington State and BC is looking at Infrastructure Bank funding for ultra high speed rail.

VIA RAIL $5.25 Billion "Milk Run" Rail Line to Stop in Sharbot Lake!

Passenger Rail Service Returns to Sharbot Lake. Are You Ready Campers?

We have done stories previously on VIA Rail fundamentally flawed plan to run slow trains from Toronto - Tweed - Peterborough to Ottawa.  Now comes news that the VIA Rail will be stopping at Sharbot Lake. Good news for campers without tents!

Please read our previous story on VIA Rail and Sharbot Lake.

Here are a couple fun facts about VIA Rail.

1. VIA Rail High Frequency Rail Plan is More Dangerous than true High Speed Rail. VIA Rail plan is not grade separated. Their plan has trains on the same grade level as autos. Having VIA Rail  tracks at level crossings with roads increases the chances of an auto/train collision. In high speed rail, trains and autos are grade separated eliminating the chance of an accident occurring. That is why the high speed rail system in Japan has never had a fatality after over a half of century of operation. The safety of Canadians traveling by rail should be paramount importance to VIA.

2. VIA Rail Plan Doesn't Address Their Fundamental Problem - High Fares. People will not ride the train due to the high ticket prices. Especially when travel times are ridiculously slow.

Here is an example to embarrass any Canadian:

• Japan Railway Tokaido Shinkansen High Speed Rail - Tokyo - Kyoto - Distance - 513km -  Time - 1hr. 40min. - Speed - 320km.hr - Price: 154.059 Canadian Dollar
• 
  VIA Rail Canada - Toronto to Ottawa  - Distance - 449km, Time 4hrs 31min - Speed 120-160km - Price - 168.37. 

NOTE: It is not possible to evaluate VIA Rails new plan has they will not provide details on it. There is no evidence to suggest VIA Rail will reduce fares to make rail travel more affordable to Canadians.

How can VIA justify their ridiculous high prices?

Where Will the Next VIA RAIL Stop Be?

The news that Sharbot Lake will be getting a stop on VIA Rails proposed route clearly illustrates the line is fast becoming a "milk run" with stops in Tweed and Sharbot Lake. We love history at HSRC so we will give you the LINK again to the original 1967 schedule of the line and we will let you pick out where the VIA Milk Run will have a stop at next.

We doubt they will open the mine at Sulfide,ON and it seems the glory days in Ungava ON are over so we will eliminate those two locations.

Ungava Ontario - VIA Rail will not stop there!

We are putting our money on Maberly Ontario being the next stop on  the VIA Rail Milk Run. Why? One reason is the Maberly Station Road is still there. We also like the area. It is beautiful there. Okay not a lot of rationale to stop in Maberly. For all you history buffs that remember the old days when Maberly had trains, here is a photo of the station.

Maberly Railway Station

To read more about the exciting news about VIA Rail stopping at Sharbot Lake. Read this ARTICLE by Elliot Ferguson of the Kingston Whig-Standard. Here is the latest non specific map of the line.

VIA Rail latest  map of their proposed line

We sincerely hope the federal Liberal government will give a reality check to this flawed VIA Rail plan. Canadians deserve better. We deserve what the rest of the modern world has had for over 50 years: High Speed Rail.

PC Leader Brown will not commit to High Speed Rail

Jennifer Beiman - London Free Press - ST. THOMAS - Even with election talk looming and campaign messages emerging, Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown isn’t ready to commit to continuing a high-speed rail project that would link London to Toronto if his party wins next year.

“I do think (high-speed rail) is valuable, I do think it’s a worthy goal and under this Liberal government it will never happen,” Brown said Tuesday at a campaign-style stop in St. Thomas.

“What I will commit to is making sure that we actually get shovels in the ground, that we spend our infrastructure dollars wisely. . . . What I promise you is that we’ll get better value for infrastructure.”

Click HERE to read the rest of the article.

Video of China's Mega Machine Builds High Speed Rail

Searching Youtube will always lead to something interesting. This clip showing how hugh sections of concrete being put into place. Amazing on so many levels.

A reality check to show just how far away Canada is in building more passenger rail. Definitely a few worker health and safety issues regarding lack of fall protection.

This is still mind boggling technology. Enjoy the video.

High Speed Rail Canada Releases Full Response from Transport Minister Marc Garneau

VIA Rail Consultants Hired - So Far!

The Globe and Mail Bill Curry did an excellent article recently on the VIA Rail Slow Frequency Rail plan.

Robert Aubin, Trois-Rivières, MP for NDP on May 2nd, 2017 asked Minister Garneau about the status of the $3.3 million money that was allotted to them in the budget to assess VIAs' plan.

We thought you would like to see the full response Minister Garneau gave on June 16th, 2017. Read the article HERE.

Vice Canada - High Speed Rail is one of Canada's Greatest Failures

James Wilt, Vice Canada - In late March, VIA Rail announced a staggeringly good deal to get a little corporate synergy behind Canada 150.

Photo copyright High Speed Rail Canada

For only $150, anyone between the ages of 12 and 25 could buy an unlimited youth pass for July. In other words, for around the price of one-way flight from Toronto to Montreal, you could spend an entire month riding the train back and forth between Vancouver and Halifax, up to Churchill, down to Windsor, wherever you wanted providing there was room in economy class.

 But the VIA Rail website was overloaded and crashed almost immediately. Young people were on the phone for hours; one woman apparently called VIA Rail almost 200 times. As it turned out, there were only 1,867 tickets — groan — and they were snapped up almost immediately. Comparisons to the golden ticket from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory abounded.

VIA later responded to widespread outrage by bumping that number up to the far less symbolic figure of 4,000. But even that only represents less than 0.1 per cent of the 4.5 million people between the ages of 15 and 24 in this giant country.

As a Twitter user put it: "@VIA_Rail is definitely getting a taste of how deprived our generation is of affordable opportunities to explore our own country."

That's exactly it.... Read the rest of the article HERE.

Globe and Mail - Transport Canada reviewing studies on multibillion-dollar Via Rail expansion

Bill Curry/Globe and Mail - Transport Canada is reviewing the results of five private studies as the federal government weighs whether to support Via Rail Canada Inc.’s multibillion-dollar expansion plans.

The federal Crown corporation presented a business case for what it calls high-frequency rail to Transport Minister Marc Garneau in December that outlines a $4-billion plan to secure exclusive right-of-way for Via trains in the Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto corridor.

The project includes replacing Via’s aging fleet of 160 cars and 40 locomotives. read the rest of the article HERE.