Canada is now a half-century behind the rest of the world in fast efficient passenger rail service. Do not be fooled by terms like "High Frequency Rail" . These trains travel at low speeds. Canada needs TGV (train à grande vitesse). Real high speed trains (TGV) that travel on their own dedicated corridor at speeds over 250km/hr. http://highspeedrailcanada.com  Photo credit - Michael Goll

 High Speed Rail in Spain - Opens Up to Competition   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. RENFE State-owned Renfe won Package A, covering 60% of the services offered. Renfe’s services will be served with AVE and AVLO: AVE 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 o...

Remembering the 2007 Alstom/ SNCF French TGV train world record speed of 574.8 km/h (357.2 mph) , achieved on 3 April 2007 on the then new LGV Est.

Glen Murray National Green Party Leader Candidate Good news in the race to replace Elizabeth May as national leader of the Green Party of Canada. Glen Murray former Winnipeg Mayor and Ontario MPP Glen Murray has entered the race to replace her. In this introductory comments entering into the race he once again talked about his passion for high speed rail to be built in Canada. Supporters of high speed rail in Canada will remember in 2014 then Ontario Transportation Minister Glen Murray was part of  the then Liberal government that promoted the Toronto-Kitchener-London high-speed rail line. Let us hope that Glen can win the leadership race for the Greens and restore a national voice for high speed trains in Canada.

High Speed Rail Canada founder Paul Langan has updated the list of previous Ontario - Quebec high speed rail studies to 24. The list and free downloads of some of the studies are available on their website. highspeedrail.ca Media Release (04/30/2020) Cambridge, ON - High Speed Rail Canada (HSRC) is Canada's only educational resource dedicated to promoting the modernization of passenger rail in Canada. Their mandate is to educate people on the benefits of modern passenger rail. They do it through their website http://www.highspeedrailcanada.com , Youtube channel, Facebook, Twitter @HSRCanada and public educational sessions. Paul Langan continues to review previous high speed rail studies done in Canada and load them on the HSRC website. Mr. Langan states, "We now have a list of 24 previous Ontario - Quebec high speed rail studies on our website with links in french and english to a significant number of them. We also have studies of Alberta and British Columbia r...

ABB X2000 train, Windsor Ontario July 27th, 1993 - Photo credit Greig Pedler  The Asea,Brown. Boveri, (ABB) the Swedish rail company had an electric powered  tilting train that operated at 200 km/h in Sweden that they were looking to sell in North America. It started testing with Amtrak on their electrified corridor in October 1992. It then toured throughout the USA. In 1993, it had a short tour of Canada, as Amtrak wanted the train set back in the USA. It seems now that it was amazing that  CP Rail was responsible for bringing the X2000 train to Canada. Even more remarkable was that CP Rail and Air Canada were interested in the high speed train potential in the Quebec City-Windsor corridor.  ABB had made a presentation to the Canadian Royal Commission on National Passenger Transportation in 1990 about high speed rail potential in Canada using  their X2000 “Sprintor” trains.

Despite a wealth advantage, Canada lags behind Spain on high-speed rail, VIA Rail Canada Toronto Star - Jan. 18, 2020 by Amir Barnea is an associate professor of finance at HEC Montréal As a pair, Toronto and Montreal, Canada’s two largest cities, have a lot in common with Madrid and Barcelona. Both city couples are roughly 600 km away from each other: Madrid is 650 km from Barcelona, and Toronto is 540 km from Montreal. Jointly, 11 million people live in the metropolitan areas of the two largest Spanish cities, compared to 10 million in the metropolitan areas of the Canadian cities. Read the whole article HERE.

High Speed Rail Lines Map 2020 To Plan Your Next Trip! High Speed Rail Lines of Europe, West and East Asia I want to wish everyone a Happy Holiday season. I hope that everyone does get a chance to ride a high speed train in 2020. Here is  a link to the large version of the map of high speed rail lines (original source Wikipedia)

Article by Colin Butler of CBC London -  There are few political incentives for the PC government to make the $11B project happen. Paul Langan thinks Ontario's dream of a bullet train has already died a quiet death. The President of High Speed Rail Canada, an organization dedicated to passenger rail advocacy and the promotion of high speed rail in Canada, thinks the dream was euthanized by the Ontario government in April. That's when the Progressive Conservatives announced they would hit the 'pause' button on bankrolling the $11 billion project.  Click HERE to read the rest of the article.

Inside the driver’s cabin of the Alfa X Shinkansen - JP Rail It is time for high speed trains - Vancouver - Seattle - Portland There are many previous studies done on high speed rail in Canada with no action taken on any of them. Ontario-Quebec HSR - 22 studies , Edmonton-Calgary HSR- 4 studies.  In 2017 Vancouver,joined the Canadian cities that have high speed rail studies.The 2017 Vancouver-Seattle-Portland Feasibility Study and this was followed up with the 2019 Analysis Report. - 2 studies - Currently another more detailed study is underway with funding from government and the private sector. Vancouver-Seattle-Portland  Ultra High Speed Ground Study Rail Business Case Analysis completed in 2019 by the Washington State Department of Transport (UHSGT) had some interesting findings. Train speed - Ultra High Speed Rail (meaning 350 kilometers per hour) The ridership model survey results show that UHSGT almost completely captures the direct intra-regional air...

Amtrak Avelia Liberty Railway Gazette - The first of 28 Avelia Liberty trainsets being assembled by Alstom to operate Amtrak’s Acela Express services has been outshopped at the manufacturer’s Hornell plant, ahead of the start of test running. They will eventually run on their North East Cooridor. This will support a maximum design speed of 300 km/h, although they will initially be limited to 255 km/h when operating on the existing NEC infrastructure. #highspeedrail #amtrak

In a previous post we showed the passenger rail comparisons between Toronto-Montreal and Seville-Madrid Spain. ( french )  Now we would like to show you a short video from the Seville rail station of what we could have one day in Canada.

Even China's slower "Green Giant" Fuxing trains, cousins of the 350km/h Fuxing trains, travelling at 160 km./h are spectacular compared to Canada's VIA Rail trains. China recently announced the trains will run on the Bortala and Urumqi line.

Paige Mallot, President of the advocacy organization Cascadia Rail recently made a presentation  at RAILVOLUTION 2019 in Vancouver promoting the Vancouver to Portland high speed rail line. As reported before in High Speed Rail Canada, the Ultra High Speed Rail Study has been completed and posted on our website to view. Here is a link to the presentation made by Paige at the conference. Paige Mallot Talks High Speed Rail

It is hard to imagine but we did use to manufacture high speed trains in Canada. You have to go back to the mid 1960s when Canadian National built the TurboTrain. The TurboTrains  were built by Montreal Locomotive Works, with their ST6 engines supplied by UAC's Canadian division (now Pratt & Whitney Canada) in Longueuil, Quebec Times are definitely different now. In 2012, Caterpillar Inc closed its Electro-Motive locomotive plant in London, Ontario. In July 2019, Bombardier announced it will cut up to half its work force at Thunder Bay rail-car plant. This was after Bombardier had severely mismanaged orders for the Toronto Transit Commission. We can build modern high speed trains in Canada if the corporate, public and political will was there to  support it. Here is a link to a larger photo of the Turbo trains being built.

High Speed Rail Canada adds a Bombardier Zefiro playlist to their Youtube Channel. In 2005, Bombardier announced a new series of very high speed trains called "Zefiro". Over the years this brand has included a variety of high speed trains. The trains were advertised as: Unrivalled flexibility of applications Speeds ranging from 200 to 380 km/h Flexible train length up to 429 m or 16 cars Scalable traction power Interior and exterior noise reduction Automatic train protection (ATP) for the highest levels of safety and flexibility Here is an example of the Zefiro trains that were developed and are operating. Zefiro 250 (China Railways CRH1) Zefiro 300 (Bombardier in association with AnsaldoBreda to Trenitalia, the Italian national railway)  Zefiro 380 China Railways CRH380D Zefiro Express Bombardier Zefiro Express EMU Train to Run in Sweden The latest addition to the Zefiro family is the Zefiro Express. In 2018, Bombardier Transportation o...

Turbotrains, Jettrains and Beyond: High Speed Rail in Canada  Urban Forum Ottawa, will have host a presentation by High Speed Rail Canada founder Paul Langan on January 17th, 2019. WireService.ca Media Release (01/07/2019 ) -  High Speed Rail Canada, as part of their mandate to educate the Canadian public,give public presentations about high speed rail as it relates to Canada. Urban Forum Ottawa is hosting the event. They host lecture series on topics that would be of interest to professionals in their organization and the public. Here are the details of the event. PRESENTATION: Turbotrains, Jettrains and Beyond: High Speed Rail in Canada DATE: Thursday, January 17, 2019 at 7:00pm LOCATION: Champlain Room, Ottawa City Hall, Heritage Building, Second Floor,  110 Laurier Ave. West COST : Free WEB LINK : http://urbanforum.ca/blog/announcements/upcoming-lectures/ Paul Langan founder of High Speed Rail Canada states, “ I am excited to come to...

China's Ultra High Speed Train 483/km/h All you fans of high speed rail between Oregon/Washington/BC please complete this online survey by the Washington State Department of Transportation relating to ultra-high speed rail corridor to connect with Canada. Here is the link https://www.wsdot.wa.gov/planning/studies/ultra-high-speed-travel/ground-transportation-study

New evidence suggest Canada's first and only high speed train went even faster than previous known in test runs. Amazing TurboTrain photo by John Stewart  What a shock to us at High Speed Rail Canada. We thought we knew everything about the CN Turbo Trains that used to run in Canada from 1968-1982. It is a well known fact that the TurboTrain reached a well documented record speed of 226 km/h in 1976 speed runs. This record will stand even after VIA Rail spends $1 billion on new trains from Siemens. Please see previous blog POST for photo of certificate given to those on the historic run. Recently we were reviewing our TurboTrain Footage on our Youtube page and found this amazing fact. On Part 1 of the three part documentary 1970 film on the Turbotrain by CN, it states at 6:08 into the video that, "These features helped Turbo to achieve speeds of up to 170 mph on test runs" . (273 km/h) The key words in the statement above regarding the speed is " of u...

The 16-carriage Fuxing high-speed train departed Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station in China at 9am yesterday. At 415 meters long, and offering 1,193 seats, the train is twice as long as the line’s normal 8-carriage trains. According to Shanghai Railway Station, three extended trains will service the G2/G3, G10/G11 and G118/G149 routes between Shanghai and Beijing. The maximum speed of the trains is 350 kilometers/hour, and the journey time between the two cities is listed at 4 hours and 28 minutes. The extended trains also have more first-class and business-class seats than their shorter counterparts. Since its debut last June, Fuxing have carried more than 2.8 million people. Over the past year, the average occupancy rate of the Fuxing bullet trains on the Beijing-Shanghai line reached 94 percent, 17.5 percentage points more than other models running on similar routes, according to China Railway Corporation. by  Xu Lingchao