CANADA | Railways

[gramercy]

Is there any discussion on high speed rail in Canada? Edmonton-Calgary? thx

[Huhu]

Originally Posted by gramercy

Is there any discussion on high speed rail in Canada? Edmonton-Calgary? thx

There's a thread about it here:
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=941940

But in reality it probably won't happen anytime soon.

[TheKorean]

There is no realistic stops between Calgary and Edmonton. No one lives between.

[hammersklavier]

Not even Red Deer?

[Huhu]

Originally Posted by hammersklavier

Not even Red Deer?

Red Deer has around 100,000 people and would probably grow more quickly if it was linked both ways by high speed rail. But the total population that would be connected by such a line is at most 2.5 million.

[Metro One]

Canada's primary problem in creatng a HSR is our relatively small population in regards to our gigantic land mass. Even the relatively small inhabitable areas of Canada are gigantic compared to most nations.

For example, the only realistic HSR link for Vancouver currently is Seattle, which would be terrific if built, but that would require a lot of cooperation between multi levels of government in 2 nations, an unlikely bet.

Maybe, in 50 or 75 years when the Okanagan population is far larger than it is now a HSR between Vancouver and Calgary could be proposed, given it would also have a major stop in the Okanagan.

The best candidate currently in Canada is Toronto to Montreal (or eventually Windsor to Quebec City), followed by Calgary to Edmonton and Vancouver to Seattle (if it were not for the border, I would put the Van Seattle Link before the Calgary and Edmonton one given the nearly triple population base.)

PS - Thanks for the comments on pics guys! I love trains!

[hammersklavier]

Well Eugene-Portland-Seattle-Vancouver is also a targeted high-speed route here in the U.S., so that might make things easier. But yeah, the best HS corridor in Canada basically runs from Windsor-London-Toronto-Kingston-Ottawa-Montréal-Ville de Québec with branches from Toronto to Niagara Falls and from Montréal down to Sherbrooke, IMO.

EDIT: Looking at the map, Halifax-Moncton-St. John-Fredericton is also a pretty good HSR run (although a little short) with a good potential connection to Portland from St. John via Bangor. It is rather hillier over there, though.

[CalgaryRailRoads]

I think its about someone growing the nerve to spend all that money on a link. "If you build it, they will come." The Van horne institute saind in '04 that it was a good idea to have a HSR link between C & E, giving hundreds of facts to support this, Reccomending upgrading the Existing Canadian Pacific route between the three cities. Red deer would also be a good place for a station.

Would you rather drink a coffee & read the newspaper & look out the window at the scenery on the way, or battle for space on a noisy, crowed, polluting highway that is home to hundreds of wrecks?

Just my two cents.

[trainrover]

Originally Posted by trainrover

I'm with you on this one:

I bet Edmonton & Calgary will become
the first HSR-served Canadian places...

..

[trainrover]

(Ooops: replying wrong thread, sorry.)

[Suburbanist]

Originally Posted by CalgaryRailRoads

Would you rather drink a coffee & read the newspaper & look out the window at the scenery on the way, or battle for space on a noisy, crowed, polluting highway that is home to hundreds of wrecks?

This is just propaganda. I mean, it is an argument repeated "ad eternum" like rail travel was as smooth as high-class dining.

First of all, your coffee will be likely overpriced and crap.

The scenery will be likely to be tunneled out or protected by noise barriers.

Unless you are travelling on 2nd class, there will be fellow passengers scooping on your read.

Never mind you have to move to/from station from/to your house/workplace or elsewhere. Then, you will have to drive anyway or take a taxi/rental car, let alone ride some filthy bus full of people you'd usually avoid if given the choice. On this bus, you can get pickpocketed or worse. Maybe you will not find a set or have to share the lateral area of your buttock with an oversize person crushing you - unlike airplanes there will be no armrest. So by the time you got to the station, you are already stressed out from the experience to get there and so.

I am not saying train transport is useless, but that its "convenience" is usually overstated by people who promote it. I could start right now writing about the blessing of controlling temperature and soundtrack in your car, not having to talk with strangers while commuting, going straight to your destination, being able to leave and come as you wish without resorting to a timetable etc.

[trainrover]

Convenience?! Canada's far from being a sufficiently developed place to be even remotely capable of pegging convenience to its passenger rail...decades & decades! off, plus I know of no clue as to where the country's inhabitants source their daydreaming at what convenient rail service must be like to travel.

[Gadiri]

Le Québec étudie le financement d’une LGV

23/02/2011

Le ministre québécois des Transports Sam Hamad, qui doit venir prochainement en France, compte étudier l’organisation du financement d’une future ligne à grande vitesse (LGV) Québec - Montréal - Ottawa - Toronto. Il a indiqué à l’AFP qu’il allait rencontrer la ministre des Finances Christine Lagarde pour parler de « l’expérience marocaine » de construction d’une LGV financée en partie par un conséquent prêt français. Mais « cela ne signifie pas que le Québec demandera de l’argent à la France », a ajouté le porte-parole de Sam Hamad. Le projet est un serpent de mer depuis plus de vingt ans.

http://www.ville-rail-transports.com...2%80%99une-lgv

Google translate :

Quebec considering funding a HSR

23/02/2011

The Quebec Minister of Transport Hamad, who is to come soon in France, has studied the organization of financing for future high-speed line (HSL) Quebec - Montreal - Ottawa - Toronto. He told AFP he would meet Finance Minister Christine Lagarde to talk about "the Moroccan experience" of building a TGV funded in part by a loan so French. But "this does not mean that Quebec will ask for money to France, " added the spokesman Hamad. The project is a sea serpent for over twenty years.

[Fargo Wolf]

Originally Posted by TheKorean

There is no realistic stops between Calgary and Edmonton. No one lives between.

Originally Posted by hammersklavier

Not even Red Deer?

I think Red Deer would be a, if not the sole stop, between Edmonton and Calgary. As far as I know, it's now in the planning stage. With the economy being what it is, who knows when construction will begin.

[hkskyline]

Bill Gates identified as largest CN shareholder
Toronto Star
April 25, 2011

MONTREAL—Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has become the largest shareholder of Canadian National Railway, with a $3.2-billion stake in Canada’s largest rail company.

Montreal-based CN (TSX: CNR) says the world’s second-wealthiest man owned or exercised control over 10.04 per cent of its shares as of Feb. 25.

Gates has been buying up the railway’s stock since being identified as a shareholder in 2006.

He holds the 46.07 million shares through Cascade Investment and as co-trustee of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust, CN said in a proxy circular ahead of Wednesday’s annual meeting in Chicago.

The value of Gates’ shares are based on Monday’s trading price of $69.75, down 13 cents in morning trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

CN’s market capitalization for its 458.6 million shares was $32 billion.

Gates friend Warren Buffett, through his holding company Berkshire Hathaway Inc., acquired full control of U.S. rail company Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. early last year.

CN releases its first-quarter financial results Tuesday. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect its adjusted earnings will increase to 88 cents per share on $2.1 billion in revenues.

[TheKorean]

Originally Posted by Fargo Wolf

I think Red Deer would be a, if not the sole stop, between Edmonton and Calgary. As far as I know, it's now in the planning stage. With the economy being what it is, who knows when construction will begin.

Never thats when.

Some things Canada and US just are the same.

[trainrover]

Originally Posted by hkskyline

Bill Gates identified as largest CN shareholder
Toronto Star
April 25, 2011

Might this finally mean that the CNR will come to meet 20th-century --whoops, I meant!-- 21st-century operating standards?!?

[WaterOnMars]

amazing footage that shows the speed with which a washout can occur

this one was purportedly shot by a CN Rail employee who was at a spot they feared might be dangerous due to water flooding

(some colourful language in there, too)

[Alexriga]

wow, looks scary and dangerous.

[trainrover]

Dangerous for just whom: The bears...the wolverines... ... ...the deer?!?