The Young Liberal wing of Liberal Party Canada #highspeedrail policy was approved at the Liberal Policy Convention and was prioritized as number 4 out of 26. GREAT NEWS! Let us hope the Prime Minister does not confuse #TGV #highspeed rail with VIA Rail flawed, slow trains, high frequency rail proposal. Here is LINK to convention policies that were approved.
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| Empty Trains - VIA Rail Montreal to Quebec City - 2019 |
When VIA Rail first announced their $4 billion plan to run trains over a half-a-century-old abandoned rail line from Toronto through to Quebec City, many were shocked. What business case could VIA possibly make to the taxpayers and to the federal government?
The facts did not support reality. The simple truth is: If VIA’s high frequency rail plan was approved, it would result in trains running at speeds from the 1970s, and the trip times between Toronto and Montreal would be at least 30minutes longer than in 1970.
The slow juggernaut of getting in and out of Toronto and Montreal and travelling on a remote rail line, with numerous dangerous level crossings, was hardly the answer to the problems facing VIA Rail.
Former VIA Rail President, Yves Desjardins-Siciliano gave numerous diatribes in Ontario and Quebec against the idea of real high-speed rail in Canada. High-speed rail is what the rest of the modern world has had for decades.
Yet details on VIA Rail Canada’s own High Frequency Rail Plan (HFR) were kept from the public.
Vague maps of the plan shown by VIA changed over time. Sometimes the maps showed towns that would get passenger rail service and later the town was removed from the map. Even more perplexing is the fact that VIA Rail would not show their business plan to the public that was funding it.
Simple questions that VIA Rail would not answer for the public would include:
Where would the rail line go?
How much would a trip cost?
Where would it stop?
Would the train have the latest Positive Train Control safety systems in place?
What is the business case to support the plan?
You would think that by spending $4billion of taxpayers’ money, the public would have a chance to review the business plan.
A leaked internal federal document in 2019 from Transport Canada did reveal that part of the plan Montreal-Quebec City was not financially feasible. That fact did not surprise anyone.
Guest post by Phillps - The 14th of December, 2020 was a historic day for Spain. 3 high speed corridors (Madrid-Barcelona; Madrid-Seville/Málaga; and Madrid-Alicante/Valencia) were opened for competition, bringing an end to state-owned Renfe’s monopoly. 3 operators won each one one of the three service packages that were offered. On this post I’ll cover all the information known to date about each operator, the rolling stock they’ll use, ticket prices and the services they’ll offer.
State-owned Renfe won Package A, covering 60% of the services offered.
Renfe’s services will be served with AVE and AVLO:
AVE is the high speed service Renfe has been offering since the introduction of the first line back in 1992. It’s a regular 3-class service that uses 4 different rolling stocks.
Prices range depending on the line, with the highest prices on the Madrid-Barcelona line (between 60€ and 150€) and considerably lower on other lines.
Rolling stock consists of: AVE S112 train-set, S103 train-set, S102 train-set.
