First High-Speed Rail Study was in 1992 for the Vancouver-Seattle-Portland Corridor Since 1992, There has been studies and discussion about high-speed rail, or recently ultra-high speed transportation between Vancouver, Seattle and Portland. Let us look back at the history of this idea and an update of where we are at now. In October 1992, the Washington High Speed Ground Transportation Study was submitted to the State of Washington. It was done by Ganett Fleming Incorporated. The recommendations from that study stated, the State of Washington, Oregon and the province of British Columbia, should continue its commitment to upgrade Amtrak service and take further action on improving rail infrastructure now to build support for a high-speed rail program by adopting the following three goals. Implementation of true high-speed rail service, 250 kilometers per hour or greater between Everett and Portland by the year 2020. A maximum travel time between downtown Portland and downtown Seattle ...

VIA Rail passenger car -photo copyright Paul Langan One thing is constant in Canada - we never really move forward to having a truly modern passenger rail system. Periodically the government invests in rolling stock for VIA Rail but then it is back to the ‘same old, same old’.  That is: slow trains, high fare prices, and the absence of safety requirements that are mandatory in other countries. The federal government has recently given money ($1billion plus) to VIA Rail to update their aging fleet of passenger rail vehicles. Just like the previous 2002-2003 federal government VIA Rail Renaissance Funding, this funding is heralded as modernizing VIA Rail service.  It remains to be seen if Canada can ever have a modern passenger rail system. The federal infrastructure bank is ready to invest in big infrastructure programs. Should they invest in VIA Rail’s flawed High Frequency Rail (HFR) plan? HFR (High Frequency Rail) I have written extensively about this plan by V...

  Toronto-Montreal vs Seville-Madrid Passenger Rail Lines Comparison After a recent visit to Portugal and Spain, and a lot of reflection, I am even more committed to advocate for a modern passenger rail system in Canada. Currently VIA Rail has a $6 billion dollar plan to have a rail corridor from Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal on a largely abandoned rail corridor. High Speed Rail Canada has exposed the major flaws in the plan in previous articles. I do believe it is good to give a factual example of comparing the Seville to Madrid High Speed Line with the current and future proposed VIA Rail line Toronto to Montreal. Populations The population of Toronto is 2,731,571 (source: Statistics Canada).  The wider Greater Toronto Area (GTA) population was 6,417,516 at the time of the most recent (2016) census. The population of Montreal is 1,704,694. The population of the wider Montreal metropolitan area is 4,098,927 (2016 data). Madrid has almost 3.2 million inhabitants ...

High Speed Rail Canada To Release Toronto-Montreal vs Seville-Madrid Passenger Rail Lines Comparison High Speed Rail Canada will release their comparison of the Toronto-Montreal and Seville-Madrid passenger rail lines. WireService.ca Media Release (09/17/2018) - MEDIA ALERT: At 8:00am on Tuesday September 18th, 2018, High Speed Rail Canada will have available on their website a copy of the their latest report to read and download. The population densities of Toronto-Montreal and Madrid-Seville are similar but the passenger rail options and trip times are dramatically different. High Speed Rail Canada, as part of their mandate to educate the Canadian public, has done an analysis of the two passenger rail lines in Canada and Spain. Media Contact - Paul Langan, High Speed Rail Canada founder at 226-505-7605 or by using contact page on website at http://highspeedrail.ca

Another VIA RAIL CANADA ACT is proposed in Parliament Irene Mathyssen , NDP MP for London—Fanshawe, ON on October 16th, 2017 has moved for leave to introduce Bill C-370 , An Act to continue VIA Rail Canada Inc. under the name VIA Rail Canada, to amend the Canada Transportation Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts. NDP MP for Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Philip Toone had previously tried to have a VIA Rail Canada Act Bill C-640 passed unsuccessfully in 2015.  This was after other unsuccessful attempts By MP Olivia Chow Bill C-577 and Philip Toone C-614 . We appreciate the effort the NDP has put into this sensible idea to help solve the continuing downward slide at VIA Rail. The attempts to get a VIA Rail Act passed are not new. Former Liberal Federal Minister of Transport David Collenette also tried to have Bill C-26 passed in 2003. All eyes are on the Trudeau government to see if VIA Rail we will be revived or if other options to provide pas...

Pontypool the Next Stop for VIA Rail For those in the public that have never been up that way, here is a video of the CP running a freight through Pontypool Passenger rail  history buffs are excited about VIA Rail's proposed milk run from Toronto - Peterborough into Ottawa.  VIA Rail officials are courting politicians along the line and promising their community might have passenger rail service restored that had been abandoned for over a half of century. With the media announcing that Sharbot Lake is getting service again, the guessing name of where VIA will stop next on their slow speed, multiple stop 1950s style passenger rail service, has begun. Now come news from Kawathra Lakes Region that Pontypool  Ontario will be pushing for a stop on the  VIA Rail milk run. Pontypool is probably best known lately for the filming of the budget conscious Zombie movie named after the community. Pontypool Railway Station and Grain Elevator It has been awhile since the...

Railway Gazette International - CHINA: China Railway Corp has ordered a further 15 eight-car CRH380D high speed trainsets from Bombardier Sifang (Qingdao) Transportation for 2·4bn yuan. Announcing the order on September 2, the BST joint venture of Bombardier and CSR Sifang Rolling Stock Co said it had begun delivering an initial batch of 70 CRH380D trainsets in the first quarter of this year, and the early follow-on order showed CRC’s confidence in the product. The CRH380D has eight aluminium-bodied cars, with three classes of seating and a dining car. It is designed for a maximum operating speed of 380 km/h, with Bombardier Mitrac propulsion and control systems supplied by the Bombardier CPC Propulsion System Co joint venture.

The Green Party of Canada has started a campaign to get more funding for VIA Rail. As the Harper government continues to cut VIA Rail services across Canada, VIA's very survival is at risk. To the credit of the Green Party their support for passenger rail renewal has been consistent over the years. Elizabeth May travelled by train on her Whistle Stop Tour in 2008. In the last federal election the Green Party announced their support for high speed rail in a VIDEO . Now they have an on-line petition " Get back on Track " you can sign to support renewal of passenger rail. Here are some good graphs on the Green Party Site regarding Harper government passenger rail declining investment in VIA. http://www.greenparty.ca/back-on-track Also Bruce Hyer, Member of Parliament for Thunder Bay–Superior North and Deputy Leader of the Green Party of Canada embarkedon a rail trip from Halifax to Montreal this past Sunday, in order to push for a national transportation strategy and to...