Sign the letter to urge the federal government to provide public transit operating funding: act.environmentaldefence.ca/page/125108/action/1?ea.tracking.id=RMTransit
Watched a recent NJB video (despite the major gripes I have with him), and the reason that they weigh it, is basically that, Canadian labor laws say that employees shouldn’t lift more than (whatever the amount is), which I guess makes sense, you don’t want them breaking their backs. It can be really silly stupid at times, but not sure if American regulations have a similar provision, if they even have one at all
@@PhilliesNostalgiain the NJB video, he does address that. But he also brings up being charged for bringing one item of luggage too many, a lunchbox sized bag that weight next to nothing.
@@PhilliesNostalgia Sure, but if they didn't have the complete opposite of level boarding, ie the platform right down at the same level as the track, then it wouldn't be a problem. That style of platform I thought you only saw in historical videos from third world countries filmed about 50 years ago, or in paintings of British railways made before the camera was invented.
I think via rail is already in the planning stages for it, they need to set up the pre clearance at Windsor via rail station where it will be a connection point between the Amtrak and Via Rail. Very exciting.
Totally want Detroit included somehow in this. I am a Detroit area resident and actually prefer flying out of Pearson's when flying the Europe. Anyway that I can avoid drying and then parking my car for a week or two would be more than welcome. Also being able to take a weekend trip to Niagara or Toronto on a whim would be awesome.
@@jacobtincknell6818 oh yes Detroit is definitely included in the plan, it’s supposed to be a direct rail line between Chicago and Toronto, with Detroit being a major transportation hub, and Windsor an international connection between Via Rail and Amtrak
We need to build high SPEED rail linking Toronto to Montreal first, then slowly to the rest of the region. VIA needs to run more like GO, and not like an airline.
Honestly, there are many other issues with Via that need to be sorted before looking at high speed. This includes the delays due to conflicts with freight rail, the painfully slow boarding, too many stops and more frequent and regular service.
@@alankingchiu high speed train like Japanese or Chinese ones would cut the travel time between Toronto and Ottawa down to slightly over 1h. The ticket price for such distance would only cost 100-200 CNY which is equal to around 35 CAD. It would cost around 70 CAD in Japan. However, even the slow train VIA have now cost 100+ for a 5h trip between Toronto and Ottawa, I consider it as overpriced and inefficient.
If you are building a new dedicated line you may as well build it for at least 320kmh.... The incremental costs from 200kph to 300/320 are fairly minor and generally less than the costs of going from 160 to 200 (assuming like most of Europe you have higher standards WRT grade crossings and signalling systems above 160kph) And yes plan it from Qubec city to Detroit (with boarder control built in at Windsor) but plan to build it in stages Stage 1 Ottawa - Montreal Stage 2 Toronto - Ottawa Stage 3 Montreal - Qubec city Stage 4 Toronto - Windsor - Detroit
Things required for high speed rail. -dedicated route not shared with freight (most tracks in Canada are owned of cp or nr and have priority over via) -very straight, so it doesn't have to slow for corners Which means they would need to get right of way/demolish homes and businesses to stay straight. Those folks will fight tooth and nail with protests and in court, raising costs. Not to mention they already have the cost to clear, grade and lay track for 100s of km. Public transportation is already a hard sale to the Canadian public particularly rural folks since they've generally never had access to good public transportation. The current plan is to run the rail down the old Tay Havelock trail, it was a rail line once. It was converted to a trail and the folks who live around it, love it. They use it everyday to walk their dogs, go on bike rides and etc. This route is unfortunately curvy, which means the trains cant reach true high speed status, it would be faster, as it wouldn't make very many stops and would be a dedicated line. I've spoken to a few people who live there and they will fight it tooth or nail. But they have less of a leg to stand on as it is owned by the government. I'm hoping it goes through, I'm hoping my town negotiates well to get a weekend service, since they would have to go through my town in order to access the Tay Havelock trail.
@@JimmiAlli They didn't use it when they built the REM because the airport station is built with the tracks exiting south, but the REM comes in from the north. It would have been very difficult or impossible to use this space for the REM station. But they might decide to use it in the future for a different project, we'll see.
In Switzerland all major cities and most mid-sized ones are interconnected with frequent comfortable trains. This combined with Switzerland’s small size makes it seem like a single massive city. It feels like absolute freedom, so getting something similar in Canada would be amazing! (Of course in a smaller scale, you can’t connect the entire country in Canada’s case) and Via, please stop with the STUPID security checks and bag limits.
Come on man, stop making me jelly! I mean i like my italy HST, but man i wish we had 1 tenth of thr extenstion, frequentness, and puntuality of swiss trains
Obviously if you are going from Quebec to Vancouver, you will fly. It isn't that much closer than for example Quebec to Dublin. But Quebec to Windsor is about 1000km, and a very large proportion of Canada's population live along that line, so there is no excuse.
Yes. In fact, it's so tightly integrated that when the travel app Citymapper expanded to include Switzerland, they treated the whole country as just one big city.
Which shows how incredibly big Canada is, even in this straight line of population. Quebec City to Windsor is still more than 3x the distance between Geneva and Saint-Gall (basically the lenght of the whole country) lol
@@TheWaross I played with travelling from Winnipeg TO Quebec city to see a friend and it is a DAY plus driving - 5 1/2 hours flying almost all of it Ontario
The most frustrating thing here in Quebec is the CAQ government unwilling to provide additional funding for public transit operations. The second most frustrating thing is the TBM stopping at Trudeau airport when it could have gone no more than a km further to join with Dorval bus terminal and Via Rail. The third most frustrating thing is the rebuild of the Iles aux Tourtes bridge not including a future REM passage. I wish I was as optimistic as you, Reece, about the future megalopolis of QC to Windsor.
Quebec will continue to regress with a CAQ in power. It focusses too much on division, whether it's rural v. urban, francophones v everyone else. I'm sure I could find more divisions if I didn't put my head in the sand and tuned them out. Cities are the wealth generators and the CAQ is doing it's best to hammer them back to a light version of the those from the Duplessis era.
a big reason why ontario has never seen this corridor develop good transit is that the political parties have always used the idea of improving transit connecting our country's most important cities as election leverage. they all dangle a carrot from a stick, promising voters investment in improved transit so people vote for them, only to do nothing once they come into power. until voters demand more or hold government accountable, it'll be a slow process to improve any of this within our lifetimes
Well said. The Liberals recent transit funding announcement of commiting money starting in 2026 was a blatant example of this. One of the more useless announcements i can remember.
exactly. Even they are committed finally it's still takes decades for them to complete the project and they have no accountability to finish the project on time. Look at the horrible eglinton crosstown. Meanwhile The Ontario Line can only be done till 2042 and it's highly skeptical that it is gonna be delayed for another decade. I'm not very optimistic about these projects because of the bureaucratic system we have and lack of regulations on their completion process and budget spending
It's very unfortunate, but you're on to something. I'd half expected the Ford administration in Ontario to be an absolute disaster for transit in the Province, but all in all, I have been pleasantly surprised. It's not as good as I'd like it to be, but Go is still expanding, other projects are still moving along (including the restoration of the Northlander, not the PC's heartland)... All the while, the Liberals have not been the best friends of Via Rail on the federal level, in spite of all their rhetoric. I can only be severely disappointed with the party that in theory should run closer to my ideals than the PC...
There’s also the airline lobby, in particular Air Canada. Short-haul flights in the corridor are their bread and butter. A reliable and fast railway would threaten that cash cow.
Such a good point: people are less likely to use a car to get to another city if they don't need to have a car to get around when they're in (or in the vicinity of) that other city.
The other aspect of this is user cost. If our government was serious about reducing cars on the road, transit subsidies would get prices to a point that I seriously consider taking the whole family on the train into Toronto instead of driving and parking close to the destination. Same applies for flying. I dream of the day that Ontario transit is frequent and connected enough to wake up and ride transit from any city along the corridor to Pearson Airport with minimal worry.
@@highway2heaven91 speed or overseas. If it's fast enough or they can't drive there (overseas), people are willing to just rent a car at their destination. Whereas by train, we don't have high speed trains. If you aren't even saving time on the train and you need to rent a car at your destination, you may as well drive for all of the hassle involved taking the train.
@@runningfromabear8354 Sorry but it still makes no sense. I’m done trying to prove this point wrong. See Brightline and Transit Tangent’s Austin with only Public Transit video. If those don’t convince anyone, then there’s nothing I can do.
The EA for O-Train Stage 3 came out yesterday, and it includes some details about making Fallowfield station into a super integrated LRT (Line 1), bus, and VIA HFR station. All nicely grade separated
One thing I've noticed, living in Sweden for a bit, is the amount of TOD in smaller towns outside the big cities due to the fast and frequent rail connections that surely help the housing market.
Using the same payment method in multiple cities has one obvious solution these days: regular contactless debit/credit cards for single trips. It can even be capped at the cost of a 24-hour pass or weekly pass. That way, the effort can be spent on handling the more complicated options in a ticketing app.
The GTHA already uses a system called Presto that allows you to use the same "Tap" card on most municipal transit systems with one card. Transfers are free within 2h even between separate systems. GO transit charges by distance travelled, but you get a discount when transferring from regular transit and it is better for travel between/across cities rather than taking local buses
I'm one of many frequent travellers between Montreal and Toronto and I recently switched to Megabus from Via because until they stop charging business class rates for escape tickets and get dedicated tracks so their trains can actually reach their top speed, I just can't justify the cost. Huge rail fan too. I was ignoring their bs for years.
The current (PC) gov't in Ont. will never build such a thing, unless they are dragged, kicking and screaming, out of Queen's Park at the next election. By that time there will have been so much damage done and money wasted, that we'll once again be left with rolling stock from another century and rusting tracks. Meanwhile, the 401 will have been expanded to 27 lanes in each direction. I think just one more lane will do the trick, though. Stab me with a fork.
As a frequent user of Kingston station, the lack of amenities (including enough seating for the swarms of students, which is important on a route that is prone to delays) is honestly such a deterrent to travelling with Via. Not to mention, travelling to the station from the city centre via transit is a pain.
When Reece said that the Kingston station building building was old, it made me feel pretty old. It was built maybe 25 years ago, and is an improvement over the previous station.
Good video! We often forget that each new segment of transit adds a lot more users to the system. The day the REM gets to the airport is the day I never take my car to the airport!
As a former resident of North Bay, I'm looking forward to the return of the Northlander, as that should make, making trips back to see friends a lot easier and probably a a lot cheaper.
12:06 It seems increasingly like Montreal is going to use REM-style light rail to provide GO-style service in the region, rather than heavy rail. The region doesn't sprawl out as far as Toronto so that likely makes some sense.
REM in all metrics is Heavy Rail than Light rail, more so heavy rail metro. Nothing about the REM is light rail; automated trains, same model trains as metro systems worldwide, platform doors, wider than the Montreal Metro trains
@@TheRandCrews It's more comparable to metro, for sure, although the trains are shorter. I was comparing it to the much heavier Go Trains in Toronto, Metro North trains in New York, or the Exo trains in Montreal, all of which are conventional "heavy rail". Metro/subway trains are usually in between light rail and heavy rail (we're talking about the weight/track gauge of the trains here, not necessarily the capacity).
In The Netherlands we have an public transit card which is valid in the whole country for almost every kind of public transport, InterCity train, commuter train, regional train, metro, tram, regional bus, city bus, ferries, waterbus, watertaxi etc. But what I like the most is that we can also use our debit card as public transit card. That’s the option I always use, because I don’t use PT so often privately. I also have a public transit business card for company use only.
Thanks Reece for an extremely interesting video' However you did totally overlook two existing weaknesses in the existing the Quebec-Windsor corridor service which need to be addressed immediately. Firstly, there are the extremely low platforms at many intermediate stations. Secondly, there is the fact (seemingly unique to VIA) that you have to check in for your train journey AND HAVE YOUR LUGGAGE WEIGHED.
Currently the plans have changed. Via's new (possible) line will be on the south shore with a stop in St-Hyacinthe, Drummondville and maybe Laurier station.
Hamiltonian here. I'd advise putting as little stake into the LRT as possible, like, _negative_ stake if possible. The soonest the shovels will be in the ground is next year, and that's assuming the proposal for post-LRT bus routes is accepted.
Great video Reece. Can I just suggest that you consider a couple of new lines for rail. Perhaps a future video? Niagara Falls, St. Catherines, Brantford, London and Sarnia are already connected by passenger rail, but there is no East West connectivity. By my estimate, almost 3 million people live along this 300 km corridor. If you want to connect universities, this line would connect Western, Laurier/Waterloo, McMaster and Brock and would be a university powerhouse. It could also be a sport powerhouse - you could have a whole league of teams on this rail line. It would also feed passengers into the Windsor-QC corridor and increase ridership. Another East West corridor would be extending Ottawa-Montreal to Sherbrooke (If you take the train a little further East, we could once again have train to slope ski trains - how European would that be?!). Such a plan, combined with Ontario Northland, would see almost every Census Metro Area in the Southern Ontario and Southern Quebec connected by rail. Moreover, people could take the train to ski slopes and Great Lakes beaches. It would truly make it possible for people to ditch their cars since there would be more than enough destinations to explore by train, than could be done in a lifetime.
Thank you for mentioning integrated fare and wayfinding systems! I have nothing but anecdotal evidence to back this up, but it certainly feels like as long as all of these systems are so segmented, interaction with them will always feel disjointed. Travelling from one city to another and then having to use an entirely new payment and wayfinding system feels much more akin to international travel right now, where you have to adapt and opt-in to an entirely new system, which greatly reduces the convenience factor.
@@DLCguy Line 2 seems likely to stay old reliable self in many ways which is nice given how unreliable line 1 is. Having a line 4 to the airport will also be great if it works out.
Great vid Reece, I hope this happens soon. Makes so much sense to use rail between these cities than to fly the time wasting, uncomfortable short haul flight model we have now. Also better than doing the stressful battle on the 401 too.
I agree, it's so important to develop good urban transit first before connecting regions. Nobody will take a high-speed train to their destination if they need to rent a car upon arrival.
love to see this! I hope much more transit gets built in this corridor! Another intercity connection that would be really beneficial is some actual transit between KW and Hamilton. Right now on transit, it can take 3-4 hours to travel between two of canada's cities, even though they are only an hour drive away.
@@TheRandCrews that from my understanding isn't going to happen without major changes from some federal government departments, but I agree it would be awesome
A train to Tremblant would be amazing, it's insane that it was ripped out - especially given the state of traffic on highway 15. Also, I'll take a Montreal to Boston via Sherbrooke train please 🙏
Just finished watching this on Nebula. I love the progress being made there. I thought that Ontario Northland line shown really needs to be straightened-out.
4:47 I wouldn't call the renovated Union station a "nicer place". The concourse is full of bright and disorienting ad screens. It is a very unpleasant place to be, even compared to the previous concourse environment.
Add end-to-end trains to the corridor. Have a night train go all the way from Quebec to Windsor (and maybe add the bus to Detroit for free or less than it costs normally)
Most of those cities had large networks of streetcar tracks in the 1800's. Auto companies bought up all the lines and rolling stock and ripped them out. This is true all over Ontario, and farther afield. Interesting how city councilors everywhere, were somehow convinced this was a good idea... Money sure does talk, doesn't it?! I've seen Toronto's old PCC streetcars from the 40's and 50's still gliding through Cairo and other large cities around the world. Greed knows no bounds.
My bank card (or Apple Pay express transit) is my universal transit card, even though the bus to my local Elizabeth Line station is on a different non-London fare network. The only slight annoyance is that on my local buses, I have to tap on and tap off for each journey, because the daily fare cap depends on which zones I travel in, whereas in London, I only tap on because London buses are in a single all-London fare zone. Also, if I want to download receipts I have to potentially go to three different places, TfL, the bus network for the town I live in, and the bus network for the neighbouring county.
Now if only CN and CP can get out of the way in allowing for far more service and to introduce service on all remaining EXO train lines here in Montreal. It legit depresses me that I have a perfectly usable train station that is effectively dead on the weekends within a few minutes walk from my home 😓
Same here, except that mine is actually dead on the weekend. But the good news is that the ARTM is considering closing 3 of the 5 EXO lines to save money so we won't have that problem any more… 🫠
If I could build one high speed corridor to start, it would be Oshawa to Pickering to Union to Pearson to Mississauga to Hamilton International. Hamilton International is severely under utilized, pretty much the exact same distance from Toronto that Narita is from Tokyo, and would allow you to relieve Pearson without needing to spend billions on a new airport at Pickering you’d still have to build some sort of high speed link to to make viable. You’d be able to pull drivers off the QEW and east 401 as well.
@@davidk9844 do you mean high frequency rail? because high speed rail going to places like oshawa or hamilton make as much sense as building a rocket launching pad in downtown toronto HSR costs unfathomable amounts of money and takes sophisticated engineering, so it only makes sense to use it to connect major population/economic centres, then running more regional high frequency express trains to connect to smaller cities, suburbs or things like airports
@@kh-ro5su Nope, high speed rail, which can also be high frequency by the way. And what I've just described would mirror the Shinkansen in the Tokyo Metropolitan area - there are a lot of stops before it truly hits open country and runs distance. Pickering to Toronto core is roughly equivalent to Yokohama to Tokyo. The goal of these stops is to collect people and also move them reasonable distances quickly so they don't have to drive there. You can balance utilization with speed by running a mix of express service and local service on the HSR line as the Japanese do and serve the "smaller" cities - which is an interesting definition of places half a million people or more - by skipping over some of them every other train or so. I mean, even on the line they're proposing they're planning to stop in Peterborough or Kingston and those towns are 1/5 or so the size of Hamilton (~132K vs ~776K). So, if you think there's just going to be one contiguous line between Toronto and Montreal with nothing in between, you're not paying any attention to how these things have been built. There's still "local" stops. It's not an airplane ride. Also, I said this was my "start". You're going to build on this to run the line to Buffalo (or east to Quebec, or west to Windsor/Detroit). So, there's going to be a stop at Hamilton anyway you look at it (and St Catherine's/Niagara Falls) because there's literally no other city of significant size to route through on that part of the stretch. As planned, It's a perfectly good starter section that provides immediate benefits and allows you to build up your local construction and engineering knowledge as well as operational knowledge before you go all in on 800 to 1000 KM of infrastructure from Toronto to Quebec City.
A friend of a friend was taking VIA Rail more than half of the week from London to Toronto, and back, so that they could attend U of T. I think that was the first time that I realized how much of a mega region this corridor was becoming. I really love the idea of tram-trains, regional rail, proper trams and electric BRT coming off of the spine that is the main corridor!
More train to niagara region had been talked about forever. To make it actually happens, both st.catharines and niagara falls needs a new platform and west harbour need to connect to the mainline... So far only one of them is in the works as far as i know.
Other Points!! ... Also Longer service Hours Rail/Bus Service, Better Rail Service to Milton/North Halton Region (fast growing) .. I love the Idea of a One Pass for All (Euro-rail pass) .. Awesome idea keep up the Good Work!
Ho I like the mention of integrated card system like the IC card in Japan. Hope one day we'll have that and also a HST in the corridor as we desperately need it !
Trois-Rivières isn't really served right now, but I guess you could send a train along the Mascouche line and serve Montreal Nord, Mascouche, Louiseville (?), Trois-Rivières, Portneuf {Notre Dame}, Quebec Airport, Quebec Gare. You could restore a ROW or build a junction near Portneuf so the Ocean could reach Sainte Foy (and drop Charny; would probably only serve Montreal Nord, Trois-Rivières, and Portneuf en route)
Trois-Rivières is part of the VIA HFR/HSR project, they even held a press conference at the beautiful old train station there. So although it's not currently served by anything (hell, it's almost impossible to even get to neighbouring Shawinigan via public transport), it will be…
I can't wait for the Northlander to come back. Hopefully they increase the frequency and upgrade the track to allow for decent speeds sooner rather than later. I was told at the public info night last year that the tracks are only rated to 100km/h, and the tracks south of North Bay aren't owned by ONR anyway :(
In France, where I live, trains are electric, regular, and cheap. The price of a return ticket frame Cannes to Monaco (app 50 km each way), for example, is about 22€. Trains are popular so the frequency of arrival/departures was just increased to one every 15 minutes. Nice to Paris is about 690km, one way. Return cost is between 40€ and 60€, return, and there are often sales on tickets. That trip takes on average 51/2 hours. Population density in southern Ontario is about the same as France, according to Google. TGVs go several times a day. Your review of the need for improved rail transit is what we experience here already.
12:50 absolutely in ottawa we're literally missing the whole of gatineau with rails still in place just begging for service, and a bunch of corridors owned by the city for transit that are going underused
I appreciate your enthusiasm. I don't necessarily share it since the costs of these options often make them unreasonable. For example where we live, downtown Ottawa, transit makes no sense for a couple when it's about $22 for two day passes. VIA makes no sense as it costs more than flying to Toronto from Ottawa (just checked, cheapest fare from Ott -> Tor for two is $320!). We have a PHEV and driving is relatively cheap compared to transit options. We can't seem to create these services AND subsidize them to make them attractive.
I actually was a student that lived in Kingston and used VIA + ION to get to my university in Waterloo! One thing that disappoints me is the price of VIA to go from Kingston to Toronto. Currently most trips cost $100 oneway which makes it extremely expensive, to the point it doesn't feel like you're actually connected.
I think we're about 10 years behind you in the US, at least in our denser cities. Looking forward to the future because things are definitely poised to get better
I definitley think Oshawa, Belleville, Kingston, Brockville, and Cornwall are going to need an inexpensive and hopefully a high speed rail to actually use it. I mostly use transit as I hate driving anywhere near the GTA, as it is usually more expensive and slower than just driving. I would love more rails
I would desperately love to be able to use my Presto to ride VIA. I mainly get on the GO Train at Aldershot (as everyone in Hamilton does, they need every train to come into West Harbour and need more buses to end there) and take the train to Union. I should be able to tap my Presto, hop on a VIA bound for Union, and be able to make a 10-stop 70min ride into a 2-stop 45min ride.
Interesting to see the quick sidenote about the OV-chipcard which works nation wide here in the Netherlands. Altho there are still some problems with the system especially with Open-Access type competition starting up. Since, in the case of trains, you need to check in/out to specific check in/out poles so the system can know which specific trains you will probably have used. There is of course a lot of good points about it too, especially with the introduction of OVPay where you can just use your bank card to check in/out. Sidenote: There have been developments in the successor to the OV-chipcard which partially is the paying by bank card and partially a new idea of only needing an app and that app checking which route you have taken.
As a Vancouverite who often prefers transit over taking my car, I chose to drive my car in Toronto downtown when I visited it FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER. The transit service was that bad per my standards that I willingly chose to drive in a city I hadn't driven in-before in addition to look for and pay for parking. In Vancouver, taking SkyTrain and car takes me the same time so given that I'd have to look for and pay for parking, I always chose SkyTrain. In Toronto, it saved me time to use my car instead. Let them work on GTA connections first before intercity corridors.
I love that the Northlander is coming back! Too bad Huntsville, Ontario sold it's train station building 😂. PS - Huntsville train station is currently a delicious BBQ restaurant that is absolutely worth paying a visit to!
One think you missed to have mentioned that is needed within the corridor is high speed interconnectivity through out the entire rail systems so that people can be working on the go. Currently VIA claims to have internet be is slow when available and there are many spots along the lines that there is no internet at all.
I admire your optimism, but Ontario's biggest problem here is VIA Rail. I did a comparison between Aldershot Go station to Montreal Central station, vs London Kings Cross to Edinburgh Waverley. Both are a very similar distance in km. The price of a rail ticket was very similar, but in the UK I would have the choice of something like 30 different trains throughout the day, and VIA Rail had basically only 3. Also the journey time in the UK would be 4.5hrs (compared to 8hrs driving in a car), whereas in Ontario, driving would be only 6hrs and the train would be 7hrs. So basically, to make this really work as a true corridor, you need massively faster rail speeds and wayyyyyyyyy more frequency. I don't know if that would be possible with small upgrades to the existing infrastructure, but I feel like it would probably require a new dedicated high speed rail line.
The TurboTrain did the Montreal-Toronto route in 3 hours and 40 minutes...back in 1969! I think the technical problems soured politicians' opinions on rail transit back in the day and believed 100% of intercity travel would be done by air. But the collapse of Greyhound Bus lines might have been the final push for the Government of Canada to take action in a new strategy.
If it ever gets built! Similar projects to the proposed HFR were submitted over a dozen times over the past thirty years to our Federal Government only to be backshelved, most likely due to intense lobbying by the air, auto, and oil and gas industries. And with the upcoming federal election, it is highly unlikely that Mr. Pierre Poilievre will allow this HFR to be ever constructed, regardless of the ever-increasing and destructive effects of climate change now at our door!
@@adrianwintle5284 But at least that way, the new construction can be grade-separated and "high speed" too. Connecting tracks from Kingston badly need updating as well.
@@adrianwintle5284 its unfortunate but that part of the corridor is owned by CN. That is somewhat mitigated by Oshawa and points west having frequent allday GO train express service.
Considering Bridge-Bonaventure redeveloppement, Pointe Saint-Charles poor integration to the metro and Lasalle/Lachine lack of transit they should close the REM loop and not only add a station at Dorval VIA/EXO station. Connecting to Jolicoeur, going down De La Verendrye and back toward the aeroport would add lots of people and opportunities for more roads
VIA Rail is actually operating a shuttle service from Dorval VIA Rail station to the airport. It would be better if they increase their frequency and add other modes of transport from Dorval VIA Rail Station to the airport.
I think in the end, the ultimate solution from Windsor all the way to Quebec City is a 300-320 km/h (186 to 199 mph) high speed train using a Siemens _Velaro_ or Alstom Avelia Horizon train set modified to operate with Canada's colder winters. And run the train with headways as little as 10 minutes. At those speeds, Toronto to Montreal travel times could be dramatically shortened, to say the least.
Most amused by your comment about the circuitous pedestrian link from Dorval station to the airport. Once upon a time if you didn't mind traversing uneven grassland the walk would take 10 mins or less! Quite an adventure in the dark! Alas that route is built over now.
10:25 is it bad that I cringed more about the airport people mover from than station than I did at making the 20 minute walk easier. I guess it's a one seat ride if you don't get another seat or ride.
While Kingston significantly redesigned and improved its transit system around a decade ago (a process I contributed to and my two main suggestions became core routes), transit beyond its control is in the process of abandoning it. Scheduled air service, which was only between Kingston and Pearson, was stopped at the start of the pandemic - Air Canada charged more for that flight than Pearson to Charlottetown, which didn’t help. VIA’s plans for high speed rail drop Kingston altogether. Our city transit have a major transit transfer point at the intercity bus terminal, which has the city’s transit garages and repair facilities (also used by semi-trucks needing work) and behind that is the CN Mainline, possibly a better consolidated location for train service than its current location in a paved over marsh. Historically, Kingston had the largest locomotive manufacturing facilities in the entire British Empire, but that closed nearly 60 years ago, the train spurs used by it and the downtown CN and CP services to the waterfront wharves and the locomotive works were pulled out, and only the old “outer station” in the north end, long since abandoned by VIA’s current facility, served for a while but burned down decades ago, only to sit derelict as it is a “historically significant site” (it isn’t in its current state). Kingston pre-Seaway was also the site where Great Lakes ships transferred their wares to lower draught river ships to take goods on to Montréal, but now other than the 401, Kingston is bypasssed. If VIA does move to a highway 7 type route from Toronto to Ottawa, places along the 401 east of Toronto need the province to step in - Extend GO Transit service east all the way to Cornwall. Imagine if it could cut down on the passenger traffic on the 401 in favour of commercial vehicles, and the “GO” does stand for Government of Ontario, which that area is a part of. It would also extend justification for it to reach west to London, Windsor, and possibly Sarnia, reducing pressure on more of the 400 system of highways. Most of those routes have downtown or at least accessible to central area stations, and if GO built a modern station at the current bus terminal area for Kingston commuting to Toronto may not be what happens, but commuting from Windsor to London or Port Hope to Belleville or Brockville to Kingston would be far better enabled, broadening the province’s economic strength from just the GTHA. Yes, getting to Ottawa from Kingston will still mean a bus unless a regional rapid transit system for Ottawa also extended to Cornwall (but Ontario leaves running Ottawa’s service to the city rather than a provincial entity like GO or MetroLinx, which people in Ottawa have long noticed and resented) but to not do something will be counterproductive to those centres outside the GTHA along the 401 as transports choke off the utility of that route for individuals.
Hi RMTransit, while your qualitative analysis in your videos is usually very good I think your content would benefit from adding more quantitative analysis. In this video (and most others), you pretty much mentioned 0 numbers. I think that data like ridership level, budget and costs (capital and operational) could have increase the quality of this video, even if your goal is to reach an audience from all backgrounds.
I don't think its realistic to try to project ridership numbers or costs in a video like this. The goal is to talk about what is possible as opposed to the technical details.
Winnipeg isn't getting rail transit because the subway was cancelled in 1959 and then 50 years later mayor Sam Katz travelled to Ottawa to have a look at the O-Train and decided buses were better for Winnipeg
@YoungThos Hmm. I think anyone looking at the O-Train would have to conclude that ANYTHING ELSE would be better for their city. Even the old Ottawa Transitway for all its flaws was a more reliable transit system!
@@coachbobbarnes8715 This was long before the new line and all of its problems. This was back in the day of the original diesel O-Train. Winnipeg has infinite rail corridors in every nook and cranny of the city, so it was conceivable that one or more of them could have been put to use for passenger rail.
@YoungThos Oh. Then same argument. The original O-Train line went from nowhere to almost somewhere back in the day, and had ridership to match. I can understand the underpersuasion.
My Montréal Opus card isn't even compatible with the Longueuil Opus card ir the Quebec city Opus card. I'd be happy if those could speak to each other! Being able to use the same one in another province sounds like a dream.
Quebec City's tramway project has been reorganised by CDPQinfra (same as the REM) earlier this year and is projected be completed by 2029. No connection to Gare du Palais train station, Gare Ste-Foy train station or airport Lesage in the current project though, but the intercity bus hub in Ste-Foy is one of the stations, as well as University Laval. Future expansions linking the South shore could link both train stations, but that would be for phase 3.
Yeah the omission of Gare du Palais is a real shame - I hope that when they build the line between Quebec City and Lévis they include a station there before it links up with the main tram line at St-Roch. It's not in CDPQInfra's plan, unfortunately, but if VIA's project picks up speed (literally and figuratively) then hopefully they revise that plan to include this crucial connection.
I checked the CDPQInfra's plan and left here a comment and a link, but it seems it was deleted, probably because there was a link. One day, I'll remember not to post links on youtube comment... More to the point, in phase 1 of the plan, the one the current government say it will deliver for 2029, Gare du Palais is not among the station of the tramway, but it seems to be the Eastern terminus of the secondary BRT line. On phase 3 (after 2039), it is possible to get both an extension to the airport Lesage and a tunnel link between the two shores, which could include a station to Gare du Palais, at least as the illustration suggest. The 2 other train stations of the region, Gare Ste-Foy and Gare de Charny are illustrated on the map, but it's not clear if or how they would be connected.
@@mariannerichard1321 You are correct, and I was indeed referring to the tunnel. I'd have to find it, but it says that the plan would be for 3 stations: 1 in QcC at St-Roch to join the main tram line, and 2 more in Lévis (similar to the yellow line in Montreal). Much like Montreal's yellow line could use a station in the old port, it would be nice for that tunnel line to include stations at Gare du Palais and another one in Vieux-Québec (the intersection of Quai St-André and Dalhousie would seem like a good option to me - the station building could replace the current gas station). That would also be a connection to the cruise terminus, so all the more interconnection!
Sign the letter to urge the federal government to provide public transit operating funding: act.environmentaldefence.ca/page/125108/action/1?ea.tracking.id=RMTransit
Done
Signed. I hope you and other Toronto viewers are also helping in the fight against Doug Ford's removing the bike lanes in Bloor and other corridors.
@@davidreichert9392 If there is a petition on that, will sign that too.
@@RMTransit Done!
Wish we had the equivalent petition for the US federal government . . . .
VIA execs salivating at the thought of weighing all those bags.
lmaoooo
fr tho
Watched a recent NJB video (despite the major gripes I have with him), and the reason that they weigh it, is basically that, Canadian labor laws say that employees shouldn’t lift more than (whatever the amount is), which I guess makes sense, you don’t want them breaking their backs. It can be really silly stupid at times, but not sure if American regulations have a similar provision, if they even have one at all
@@PhilliesNostalgiain the NJB video, he does address that. But he also brings up being charged for bringing one item of luggage too many, a lunchbox sized bag that weight next to nothing.
@@PhilliesNostalgia Sure, but if they didn't have the complete opposite of level boarding, ie the platform right down at the same level as the track, then it wouldn't be a problem.
That style of platform I thought you only saw in historical videos from third world countries filmed about 50 years ago, or in paintings of British railways made before the camera was invented.
As a Detroiter, I’m so excited to hear this news. Amtrak has expressed interest and optimism to connecting Chicago to Toronto on a direct route.
oooooo that'd be really good
especially for people more to the west who can connect at Chicago rather than all the way down to the east coast
I think via rail is already in the planning stages for it, they need to set up the pre clearance at Windsor via rail station where it will be a connection point between the Amtrak and Via Rail. Very exciting.
Totally want Detroit included somehow in this. I am a Detroit area resident and actually prefer flying out of Pearson's when flying the Europe. Anyway that I can avoid drying and then parking my car for a week or two would be more than welcome. Also being able to take a weekend trip to Niagara or Toronto on a whim would be awesome.
@@jacobtincknell6818 oh yes Detroit is definitely included in the plan, it’s supposed to be a direct rail line between Chicago and Toronto, with Detroit being a major transportation hub, and Windsor an international connection between Via Rail and Amtrak
"The days of massive highway expansion are behind us"
Dougie Ford: 401 underground tunnel 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I don’t mind highway expansion as long as it’s long distance and not within cities. Instead of beefing up 401, how about twinning 11 instead.
Ford is Wrong about this one.
"More people riding bikes"
Doug Ford: Let's ruin that too!
@@rokulus7910 Got to be a Ford, eh?
Ford = Pure Evil.
While we're at it, let's build highway 413 too because why not!
We need to build high SPEED rail linking Toronto to Montreal first, then slowly to the rest of the region. VIA needs to run more like GO, and not like an airline.
Honestly, there are many other issues with Via that need to be sorted before looking at high speed. This includes the delays due to conflicts with freight rail, the painfully slow boarding, too many stops and more frequent and regular service.
@@alankingchiu high speed train like Japanese or Chinese ones would cut the travel time between Toronto and Ottawa down to slightly over 1h. The ticket price for such distance would only cost 100-200 CNY which is equal to around 35 CAD. It would cost around 70 CAD in Japan. However, even the slow train VIA have now cost 100+ for a 5h trip between Toronto and Ottawa, I consider it as overpriced and inefficient.
Incidentally, this is the 60th anniversary of the opening of the first bullet train in Japan. SIXTY! Canada is so woefully behind. 😒
If you are building a new dedicated line you may as well build it for at least 320kmh.... The incremental costs from 200kph to 300/320 are fairly minor and generally less than the costs of going from 160 to 200 (assuming like most of Europe you have higher standards WRT grade crossings and signalling systems above 160kph)
And yes plan it from Qubec city to Detroit (with boarder control built in at Windsor) but plan to build it in stages
Stage 1 Ottawa - Montreal
Stage 2 Toronto - Ottawa
Stage 3 Montreal - Qubec city
Stage 4 Toronto - Windsor - Detroit
Things required for high speed rail.
-dedicated route not shared with freight (most tracks in Canada are owned of cp or nr and have priority over via)
-very straight, so it doesn't have to slow for corners
Which means they would need to get right of way/demolish homes and businesses to stay straight. Those folks will fight tooth and nail with protests and in court, raising costs. Not to mention they already have the cost to clear, grade and lay track for 100s of km.
Public transportation is already a hard sale to the Canadian public particularly rural folks since they've generally never had access to good public transportation.
The current plan is to run the rail down the old Tay Havelock trail, it was a rail line once. It was converted to a trail and the folks who live around it, love it. They use it everyday to walk their dogs, go on bike rides and etc. This route is unfortunately curvy, which means the trains cant reach true high speed status, it would be faster, as it wouldn't make very many stops and would be a dedicated line. I've spoken to a few people who live there and they will fight it tooth or nail. But they have less of a leg to stand on as it is owned by the government.
I'm hoping it goes through, I'm hoping my town negotiates well to get a weekend service, since they would have to go through my town in order to access the Tay Havelock trail.
By the way, there’s an actual train station underneath the Marriott at Montréal Airport, it has never been used and currently serves as storage space.
@@philippemartin6427 absolutely insane
That is really strange. Why did they build it but not use it?
@@JimmiAlli They didn't use it when they built the REM because the airport station is built with the tracks exiting south, but the REM comes in from the north. It would have been very difficult or impossible to use this space for the REM station. But they might decide to use it in the future for a different project, we'll see.
@@ikelom oh gosh that’s complicated. What a pity.
😭😭😭
In Switzerland all major cities and most mid-sized ones are interconnected with frequent comfortable trains. This combined with Switzerland’s small size makes it seem like a single massive city. It feels like absolute freedom, so getting something similar in Canada would be amazing! (Of course in a smaller scale, you can’t connect the entire country in Canada’s case) and Via, please stop with the STUPID security checks and bag limits.
Come on man, stop making me jelly!
I mean i like my italy HST, but man i wish we had 1 tenth of thr extenstion, frequentness, and puntuality of swiss trains
Obviously if you are going from Quebec to Vancouver, you will fly. It isn't that much closer than for example Quebec to Dublin. But Quebec to Windsor is about 1000km, and a very large proportion of Canada's population live along that line, so there is no excuse.
Yes. In fact, it's so tightly integrated that when the travel app Citymapper expanded to include Switzerland, they treated the whole country as just one big city.
Which shows how incredibly big Canada is, even in this straight line of population. Quebec City to Windsor is still more than 3x the distance between Geneva and Saint-Gall (basically the lenght of the whole country) lol
@@TheWaross I played with travelling from Winnipeg TO Quebec city to see a friend and it is a DAY plus driving - 5 1/2 hours flying almost all of it Ontario
whenever reece yaps i open my brain and remember everything, if only i could do that with college.
The mention of Alan Fisher really cracked me up!!
Alan is a great chap!
The most frustrating thing here in Quebec is the CAQ government unwilling to provide additional funding for public transit operations. The second most frustrating thing is the TBM stopping at Trudeau airport when it could have gone no more than a km further to join with Dorval bus terminal and Via Rail. The third most frustrating thing is the rebuild of the Iles aux Tourtes bridge not including a future REM passage. I wish I was as optimistic as you, Reece, about the future megalopolis of QC to Windsor.
Quebec will continue to regress with a CAQ in power. It focusses too much on division, whether it's rural v. urban, francophones v everyone else. I'm sure I could find more divisions if I didn't put my head in the sand and tuned them out. Cities are the wealth generators and the CAQ is doing it's best to hammer them back to a light version of the those from the Duplessis era.
Well said.
@@philplasma the CAQ is going away next election. The huge majority of Quebecers are done with them
a big reason why ontario has never seen this corridor develop good transit is that the political parties have always used the idea of improving transit connecting our country's most important cities as election leverage. they all dangle a carrot from a stick, promising voters investment in improved transit so people vote for them, only to do nothing once they come into power. until voters demand more or hold government accountable, it'll be a slow process to improve any of this within our lifetimes
Well said. The Liberals recent transit funding announcement of commiting money starting in 2026 was a blatant example of this.
One of the more useless announcements i can remember.
Hamilton, ON - being promised a Sky Train since 1977 lol
exactly. Even they are committed finally it's still takes decades for them to complete the project and they have no accountability to finish the project on time. Look at the horrible eglinton crosstown. Meanwhile The Ontario Line can only be done till 2042 and it's highly skeptical that it is gonna be delayed for another decade. I'm not very optimistic about these projects because of the bureaucratic system we have and lack of regulations on their completion process and budget spending
It's very unfortunate, but you're on to something. I'd half expected the Ford administration in Ontario to be an absolute disaster for transit in the Province, but all in all, I have been pleasantly surprised. It's not as good as I'd like it to be, but Go is still expanding, other projects are still moving along (including the restoration of the Northlander, not the PC's heartland)... All the while, the Liberals have not been the best friends of Via Rail on the federal level, in spite of all their rhetoric. I can only be severely disappointed with the party that in theory should run closer to my ideals than the PC...
There’s also the airline lobby, in particular Air Canada. Short-haul flights in the corridor are their bread and butter. A reliable and fast railway would threaten that cash cow.
Such a good point: people are less likely to use a car to get to another city if they don't need to have a car to get around when they're in (or in the vicinity of) that other city.
Never fully understood why this was a common complaint with trains but not with planes.
Also, Brightline.
The other aspect of this is user cost. If our government was serious about reducing cars on the road, transit subsidies would get prices to a point that I seriously consider taking the whole family on the train into Toronto instead of driving and parking close to the destination. Same applies for flying. I dream of the day that Ontario transit is frequent and connected enough to wake up and ride transit from any city along the corridor to Pearson Airport with minimal worry.
@@highway2heaven91 speed or overseas. If it's fast enough or they can't drive there (overseas), people are willing to just rent a car at their destination. Whereas by train, we don't have high speed trains. If you aren't even saving time on the train and you need to rent a car at your destination, you may as well drive for all of the hassle involved taking the train.
@@runningfromabear8354 Sorry but it still makes no sense. I’m done trying to prove this point wrong. See Brightline and Transit Tangent’s Austin with only Public Transit video. If those don’t convince anyone, then there’s nothing I can do.
The EA for O-Train Stage 3 came out yesterday, and it includes some details about making Fallowfield station into a super integrated LRT (Line 1), bus, and VIA HFR station. All nicely grade separated
One thing I've noticed, living in Sweden for a bit, is the amount of TOD in smaller towns outside the big cities due to the fast and frequent rail connections that surely help the housing market.
Using the same payment method in multiple cities has one obvious solution these days: regular contactless debit/credit cards for single trips. It can even be capped at the cost of a 24-hour pass or weekly pass. That way, the effort can be spent on handling the more complicated options in a ticketing app.
Yep! I have talked about this in previous videos!
The GTHA already uses a system called Presto that allows you to use the same "Tap" card on most municipal transit systems with one card. Transfers are free within 2h even between separate systems. GO transit charges by distance travelled, but you get a discount when transferring from regular transit and it is better for travel between/across cities rather than taking local buses
I'm one of many frequent travellers between Montreal and Toronto and I recently switched to Megabus from Via because until they stop charging business class rates for escape tickets and get dedicated tracks so their trains can actually reach their top speed, I just can't justify the cost. Huge rail fan too. I was ignoring their bs for years.
Can’t wait for the much needed and long awaited high speed rail in the region! It will benefit so much and will totally transform the corridor.
Fantastic Video, the biggest challenge we have is making all of it a priority for governments. That means it needs to be a ballot question.
The current (PC) gov't in Ont. will never build such a thing, unless they are dragged, kicking and screaming, out of Queen's Park at the next election. By that time there will have been so much damage done and money wasted, that we'll once again be left with rolling stock from another century and rusting tracks. Meanwhile, the 401 will have been expanded to 27 lanes in each direction. I think just one more lane will do the trick, though.
Stab me with a fork.
As a frequent user of Kingston station, the lack of amenities (including enough seating for the swarms of students, which is important on a route that is prone to delays) is honestly such a deterrent to travelling with Via.
Not to mention, travelling to the station from the city centre via transit is a pain.
It’s so fucked up that Kingston station isn’t downtown.
Exactly!
So much wasted potential for a station with shockingly good train service
When I was there over a decade ago the station felt like it was really
out in the woods.
When Reece said that the Kingston station building building was old, it made me feel pretty old. It was built maybe 25 years ago, and is an improvement over the previous station.
Good video! We often forget that each new segment of transit adds a lot more users to the system. The day the REM gets to the airport is the day I never take my car to the airport!
As a northeast corridor student (college and home both on NEC), I must say I’ve been truly blessed
another NEC resident checking in :D , acela is a blessing
As a former resident of North Bay, I'm looking forward to the return of the Northlander, as that should make, making trips back to see friends a lot easier and probably a a lot cheaper.
12:06 It seems increasingly like Montreal is going to use REM-style light rail to provide GO-style service in the region, rather than heavy rail. The region doesn't sprawl out as far as Toronto so that likely makes some sense.
REM in all metrics is Heavy Rail than Light rail, more so heavy rail metro. Nothing about the REM is light rail; automated trains, same model trains as metro systems worldwide, platform doors, wider than the Montreal Metro trains
@@TheRandCrews It's more comparable to metro, for sure, although the trains are shorter. I was comparing it to the much heavier Go Trains in Toronto, Metro North trains in New York, or the Exo trains in Montreal, all of which are conventional "heavy rail". Metro/subway trains are usually in between light rail and heavy rail (we're talking about the weight/track gauge of the trains here, not necessarily the capacity).
In The Netherlands we have an public transit card which is valid in the whole country for almost every kind of public transport, InterCity train, commuter train, regional train, metro, tram, regional bus, city bus, ferries, waterbus, watertaxi etc. But what I like the most is that we can also use our debit card as public transit card. That’s the option I always use, because I don’t use PT so often privately. I also have a public transit business card for company use only.
Been to Ams this summer and looooved the GVB and the credit card system. so convenient
NS and OV chipkaart is convenient but expensive at the same time, for example, a Schiphol to Utrecht intercity trip costs about 16euro
Thanks Reece for an extremely interesting video' However you did totally overlook two existing weaknesses in the existing the Quebec-Windsor corridor service which need to be addressed immediately. Firstly, there are the extremely low platforms at many intermediate stations. Secondly, there is the fact (seemingly unique to VIA) that you have to check in for your train journey AND HAVE YOUR LUGGAGE WEIGHED.
Trois-Rivières mentioned let's GOOOO
We really need that damn trolleybus hahahahah
Currently the plans have changed. Via's new (possible) line will be on the south shore with a stop in St-Hyacinthe, Drummondville and maybe Laurier station.
@@robert-antoinedenault5901 realllyyyy. What s bummer
Kingston aswell!!!
It's got lots of potential and *three* rivers? Excited to see what they can do - hopefully a tram someday!
Thanks!
You're welcome!
Nice to see Kingston finally get some love in these videos.
Hamiltonian here. I'd advise putting as little stake into the LRT as possible, like, _negative_ stake if possible.
The soonest the shovels will be in the ground is next year, and that's assuming the proposal for post-LRT bus routes is accepted.
Hamilton is so good at not getting things done, I love it
G'day Reece!
I actually live within that megapolis
Great video Reece. Can I just suggest that you consider a couple of new lines for rail. Perhaps a future video? Niagara Falls, St. Catherines, Brantford, London and Sarnia are already connected by passenger rail, but there is no East West connectivity. By my estimate, almost 3 million people live along this 300 km corridor. If you want to connect universities, this line would connect Western, Laurier/Waterloo, McMaster and Brock and would be a university powerhouse. It could also be a sport powerhouse - you could have a whole league of teams on this rail line. It would also feed passengers into the Windsor-QC corridor and increase ridership. Another East West corridor would be extending Ottawa-Montreal to Sherbrooke (If you take the train a little further East, we could once again have train to slope ski trains - how European would that be?!). Such a plan, combined with Ontario Northland, would see almost every Census Metro Area in the Southern Ontario and Southern Quebec connected by rail. Moreover, people could take the train to ski slopes and Great Lakes beaches. It would truly make it possible for people to ditch their cars since there would be more than enough destinations to explore by train, than could be done in a lifetime.
Great episode, you are really presenting the big picture.
Thank you for mentioning integrated fare and wayfinding systems! I have nothing but anecdotal evidence to back this up, but it certainly feels like as long as all of these systems are so segmented, interaction with them will always feel disjointed. Travelling from one city to another and then having to use an entirely new payment and wayfinding system feels much more akin to international travel right now, where you have to adapt and opt-in to an entirely new system, which greatly reduces the convenience factor.
O-TRAIN MENTIONED 🎉
and it is partially closed again this weekend, with more closures planned in the upcoming weeks.
O, Oh-Train, and your politics-rushed development leading to constant shutdowns and insane fare hikes (8$! Eight loonies!!)
O train is so bad😢 rather not to mention it.
To bring some positive news, it looks like line 2 will be finishing up its trial runs soon.
@@DLCguy Line 2 seems likely to stay old reliable self in many ways which is nice given how unreliable line 1 is. Having a line 4 to the airport will also be great if it works out.
Great vid Reece, I hope this happens soon. Makes so much sense to use rail between these cities than to fly the time wasting, uncomfortable short haul flight model we have now. Also better than doing the stressful battle on the 401 too.
I agree, it's so important to develop good urban transit first before connecting regions. Nobody will take a high-speed train to their destination if they need to rent a car upon arrival.
love to see this! I hope much more transit gets built in this corridor!
Another intercity connection that would be really beneficial is some actual transit between KW and Hamilton. Right now on transit, it can take 3-4 hours to travel between two of canada's cities, even though they are only an hour drive away.
You Douggie's genius plan to build a highway under another highway :).
Along these lines the proposed Gatineau LRT would also be really good
still hoping for a Gatineau Connection at Bayview using the bridge which is at crossroads at the Rapidbus corridor
@@TheRandCrews that from my understanding isn't going to happen without major changes from some federal government departments, but I agree it would be awesome
I love how positive your videos are 😊
I think this video was put out just before the federal announcement of intent to build a high speed rail corridor between Quebec and Windsor?
Wow yes I wholeheartedly agree! So many great points!
im waiting on the Montreal-Tremblant train to come back and a Montreal-Sherbrooke train to serve the townships and southern Quebec.
A train to Tremblant would be amazing, it's insane that it was ripped out - especially given the state of traffic on highway 15. Also, I'll take a Montreal to Boston via Sherbrooke train please 🙏
@@TheNmecod isn't the rail to Sherbrooke used by freighy basically 24/7?
Just finished watching this on Nebula. I love the progress being made there. I thought that Ontario Northland line shown really needs to be straightened-out.
4:47 I wouldn't call the renovated Union station a "nicer place". The concourse is full of bright and disorienting ad screens. It is a very unpleasant place to be, even compared to the previous concourse environment.
Add end-to-end trains to the corridor. Have a night train go all the way from Quebec to Windsor (and maybe add the bus to Detroit for free or less than it costs normally)
Great to see streetcars spreading to other Ontario cities like KW, Mississauga, and Hamilton. More streetcars please!
Most of those cities had large networks of streetcar tracks in the 1800's. Auto companies bought up all the lines and rolling stock and ripped them out. This is true all over Ontario, and farther afield. Interesting how city councilors everywhere, were somehow convinced this was a good idea... Money sure does talk, doesn't it?!
I've seen Toronto's old PCC streetcars from the 40's and 50's still gliding through Cairo and other large cities around the world. Greed knows no bounds.
reece you're talking down the northeast 2:40 Baltimore has a subway line and Newark and Trenton have light rail connections
A line, but not connected to the NEC
My bank card (or Apple Pay express transit) is my universal transit card, even though the bus to my local Elizabeth Line station is on a different non-London fare network. The only slight annoyance is that on my local buses, I have to tap on and tap off for each journey, because the daily fare cap depends on which zones I travel in, whereas in London, I only tap on because London buses are in a single all-London fare zone. Also, if I want to download receipts I have to potentially go to three different places, TfL, the bus network for the town I live in, and the bus network for the neighbouring county.
Now if only CN and CP can get out of the way in allowing for far more service and to introduce service on all remaining EXO train lines here in Montreal. It legit depresses me that I have a perfectly usable train station that is effectively dead on the weekends within a few minutes walk from my home 😓
THIS THIS THIS
Nationalize nationalize nationalize
The best solution is to nationalize part of the network where high frequencies services should run and sell freight slots on open access system.
Same here, except that mine is actually dead on the weekend. But the good news is that the ARTM is considering closing 3 of the 5 EXO lines to save money so we won't have that problem any more… 🫠
If I could build one high speed corridor to start, it would be Oshawa to Pickering to Union to Pearson to Mississauga to Hamilton International. Hamilton International is severely
under utilized, pretty much the exact same distance from Toronto that Narita is from Tokyo, and would allow you to relieve Pearson without needing to spend billions on a new airport at Pickering you’d still have to build some sort of high speed link to to make viable.
You’d be able to pull drivers off the QEW and east 401 as well.
@@davidk9844 do you mean high frequency rail? because high speed rail going to places like oshawa or hamilton make as much sense as building a rocket launching pad in downtown toronto
HSR costs unfathomable amounts of money and takes sophisticated engineering, so it only makes sense to use it to connect major population/economic centres, then running more regional high frequency express trains to connect to smaller cities, suburbs or things like airports
@@kh-ro5su Nope, high speed rail, which can also be high frequency by the way. And what I've just described would mirror the Shinkansen in the Tokyo Metropolitan area - there are a lot of stops before it truly hits open country and runs distance. Pickering to Toronto core is roughly equivalent to Yokohama to Tokyo. The goal of these stops is to collect people and also move them reasonable distances quickly so they don't have to drive there. You can balance utilization with speed by running a mix of express service and local service on the HSR line as the Japanese do and serve the "smaller" cities - which is an interesting definition of places half a million people or more - by skipping over some of them every other train or so. I mean, even on the line they're proposing they're planning to stop in Peterborough or Kingston and those towns are 1/5 or so the size of Hamilton (~132K vs ~776K). So, if you think there's just going to be one contiguous line between Toronto and Montreal with nothing in between, you're not paying any attention to how these things have been built. There's still "local" stops. It's not an airplane ride.
Also, I said this was my "start". You're going to build on this to run the line to Buffalo (or east to Quebec, or west to Windsor/Detroit). So, there's going to be a stop at Hamilton anyway you look at it (and St Catherine's/Niagara Falls) because there's literally no other city of significant size to route through on that part of the stretch.
As planned, It's a perfectly good starter section that provides immediate benefits and allows you to build up your local construction and engineering knowledge as well as operational knowledge before you go all in on 800 to 1000 KM of infrastructure from Toronto to Quebec City.
As a Windsorite - YES PLEASE! Our transit needs so much help
You voice my thoughts beautifully.
The Northeast corridor connects with three more light rail systems all in New Jersey river line, Newark and Jersey City light rail
A friend of a friend was taking VIA Rail more than half of the week from London to Toronto, and back, so that they could attend U of T. I think that was the first time that I realized how much of a mega region this corridor was becoming. I really love the idea of tram-trains, regional rail, proper trams and electric BRT coming off of the spine that is the main corridor!
Admittedly I'm really feeling a train that passes through Peterborough! I'm a Trent U alumni who lives in Toronto currently.
More train to niagara region had been talked about forever. To make it actually happens, both st.catharines and niagara falls needs a new platform and west harbour need to connect to the mainline... So far only one of them is in the works as far as i know.
Other Points!! ... Also Longer service Hours Rail/Bus Service, Better Rail Service to Milton/North Halton Region (fast growing) .. I love the Idea of a One Pass for All (Euro-rail pass) .. Awesome idea keep up the Good Work!
I just took Via Rail from Quebec City to Ottawa literally yesterday lol. What great timing
I just saw on CTV that CN is blaming the extra wheels the VIA Chargers have as damaging to their rails and they’re making them slow speeds to 72km/h?
that's such a non-problem, CN should just have good quality tracks, and the issue will go *poof*
@@cbthecollector CN should be renationalized so we don't have to deal with this nonsense anymore. Privatizing it was a catastrophic error.
Extra wheels? The Charger is a four-axle locomotive, like any other passenger locomotive.
@@marco23p since they have 32 axles now vice 24 CTV stated as the reason
The claim is that the new trains don’t trigger the crossing arms soon enough at speed.
Ho I like the mention of integrated card system like the IC card in Japan. Hope one day we'll have that and also a HST in the corridor as we desperately need it !
Trois-Rivières isn't really served right now, but I guess you could send a train along the Mascouche line and serve Montreal Nord, Mascouche, Louiseville (?), Trois-Rivières, Portneuf {Notre Dame}, Quebec Airport, Quebec Gare. You could restore a ROW or build a junction near Portneuf so the Ocean could reach Sainte Foy (and drop Charny; would probably only serve Montreal Nord, Trois-Rivières, and Portneuf en route)
Trois-Rivières is part of the VIA HFR/HSR project, they even held a press conference at the beautiful old train station there. So although it's not currently served by anything (hell, it's almost impossible to even get to neighbouring Shawinigan via public transport), it will be…
@@YoungThos at least ROW exists there too (and I think it’s almost daily service on that part)
I can't wait for the Northlander to come back. Hopefully they increase the frequency and upgrade the track to allow for decent speeds sooner rather than later. I was told at the public info night last year that the tracks are only rated to 100km/h, and the tracks south of North Bay aren't owned by ONR anyway :(
I am very excited about this - even if I am not Canadian.
Let's hope for the best!
In France, where I live, trains are electric, regular, and cheap. The price of a return ticket frame Cannes to Monaco (app 50 km each way), for example, is about 22€. Trains are popular so the frequency of arrival/departures was just increased to one every 15 minutes. Nice to Paris is about 690km, one way. Return cost is between 40€ and 60€, return, and there are often sales on tickets. That trip takes on average 51/2 hours. Population density in southern Ontario is about the same as France, according to Google. TGVs go several times a day. Your review of the need for improved rail transit is what we experience here already.
12:50 absolutely in ottawa we're literally missing the whole of gatineau with rails still in place just begging for service, and a bunch of corridors owned by the city for transit that are going underused
I’m so excited for hxr!
I appreciate your enthusiasm. I don't necessarily share it since the costs of these options often make them unreasonable. For example where we live, downtown Ottawa, transit makes no sense for a couple when it's about $22 for two day passes. VIA makes no sense as it costs more than flying to Toronto from Ottawa (just checked, cheapest fare from Ott -> Tor for two is $320!). We have a PHEV and driving is relatively cheap compared to transit options. We can't seem to create these services AND subsidize them to make them attractive.
Okay so if the plane tickets and fuel were more expensive, what would you do?
Nice to hear something good is happening in our neck of the woods/urban sprawl
I actually was a student that lived in Kingston and used VIA + ION to get to my university in Waterloo! One thing that disappoints me is the price of VIA to go from Kingston to Toronto. Currently most trips cost $100 oneway which makes it extremely expensive, to the point it doesn't feel like you're actually connected.
I think we're about 10 years behind you in the US, at least in our denser cities. Looking forward to the future because things are definitely poised to get better
I definitley think Oshawa, Belleville, Kingston, Brockville, and Cornwall are going to need an inexpensive and hopefully a high speed rail to actually use it. I mostly use transit as I hate driving anywhere near the GTA, as it is usually more expensive and slower than just driving. I would love more rails
I would desperately love to be able to use my Presto to ride VIA. I mainly get on the GO Train at Aldershot (as everyone in Hamilton does, they need every train to come into West Harbour and need more buses to end there) and take the train to Union. I should be able to tap my Presto, hop on a VIA bound for Union, and be able to make a 10-stop 70min ride into a 2-stop 45min ride.
In building transit of any kind, at any level in this province, it seems that customer safety and ease of travel is always an afterthought.
Talk about the "407 Transit Way" and why it hasn't been developed yet.
Interesting to see the quick sidenote about the OV-chipcard which works nation wide here in the Netherlands. Altho there are still some problems with the system especially with Open-Access type competition starting up. Since, in the case of trains, you need to check in/out to specific check in/out poles so the system can know which specific trains you will probably have used.
There is of course a lot of good points about it too, especially with the introduction of OVPay where you can just use your bank card to check in/out.
Sidenote: There have been developments in the successor to the OV-chipcard which partially is the paying by bank card and partially a new idea of only needing an app and that app checking which route you have taken.
As a Vancouverite who often prefers transit over taking my car, I chose to drive my car in Toronto downtown when I visited it FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER. The transit service was that bad per my standards that I willingly chose to drive in a city I hadn't driven in-before in addition to look for and pay for parking. In Vancouver, taking SkyTrain and car takes me the same time so given that I'd have to look for and pay for parking, I always chose SkyTrain. In Toronto, it saved me time to use my car instead. Let them work on GTA connections first before intercity corridors.
I love that the Northlander is coming back! Too bad Huntsville, Ontario sold it's train station building 😂.
PS - Huntsville train station is currently a delicious BBQ restaurant that is absolutely worth paying a visit to!
One think you missed to have mentioned that is needed within the corridor is high speed interconnectivity through out the entire rail systems so that people can be working on the go. Currently VIA claims to have internet be is slow when available and there are many spots along the lines that there is no internet at all.
Sounds amazing! Now for reality, Toronto has been working on the Eglington crosstown for 13 years. Still no sign of it being completed.
I admire your optimism, but Ontario's biggest problem here is VIA Rail. I did a comparison between Aldershot Go station to Montreal Central station, vs London Kings Cross to Edinburgh Waverley. Both are a very similar distance in km. The price of a rail ticket was very similar, but in the UK I would have the choice of something like 30 different trains throughout the day, and VIA Rail had basically only 3. Also the journey time in the UK would be 4.5hrs (compared to 8hrs driving in a car), whereas in Ontario, driving would be only 6hrs and the train would be 7hrs. So basically, to make this really work as a true corridor, you need massively faster rail speeds and wayyyyyyyyy more frequency. I don't know if that would be possible with small upgrades to the existing infrastructure, but I feel like it would probably require a new dedicated high speed rail line.
The TurboTrain did the Montreal-Toronto route in 3 hours and 40 minutes...back in 1969! I think the technical problems soured politicians' opinions on rail transit back in the day and believed 100% of intercity travel would be done by air. But the collapse of Greyhound Bus lines might have been the final push for the Government of Canada to take action in a new strategy.
Dorval does have a shuttle bus for the via station... but it doesn't have nearly enough capacity.
Waiting for the moment where @RMTransit says "Fine, I'll do it myself" and runs for office to get some of this done.
The ion connects 2 malls. The fact that it goes by the 2 universities is a bonus.
The VIA 'high frequency' project evolving over the past year towards higher speed should help this corridor develop into a mega region.
If it ever gets built! Similar projects to the proposed HFR were submitted over a dozen times over the past thirty years to our Federal Government only to be backshelved, most likely due to intense lobbying by the air, auto, and oil and gas industries.
And with the upcoming federal election, it is highly unlikely that Mr. Pierre Poilievre will allow this HFR to be ever constructed, regardless of the ever-increasing and destructive effects of climate change now at our door!
The issue with that is the plan is to build it through the wilderness between Peterborough and Ottawa, avoiding the populated part of that corridor.
@@adrianwintle5284 But at least that way, the new construction can be grade-separated and "high speed" too. Connecting tracks from Kingston badly need updating as well.
@@adrianwintle5284 its unfortunate but that part of the corridor is owned by CN. That is somewhat mitigated by Oshawa and points west having frequent allday GO train express service.
Considering Bridge-Bonaventure redeveloppement, Pointe Saint-Charles poor integration to the metro and Lasalle/Lachine lack of transit they should close the REM loop and not only add a station at Dorval VIA/EXO station. Connecting to Jolicoeur, going down De La Verendrye and back toward the aeroport would add lots of people and opportunities for more roads
VIA Rail is actually operating a shuttle service from Dorval VIA Rail station to the airport. It would be better if they increase their frequency and add other modes of transport from Dorval VIA Rail Station to the airport.
I think in the end, the ultimate solution from Windsor all the way to Quebec City is a 300-320 km/h (186 to 199 mph) high speed train using a Siemens _Velaro_ or Alstom Avelia Horizon train set modified to operate with Canada's colder winters. And run the train with headways as little as 10 minutes. At those speeds, Toronto to Montreal travel times could be dramatically shortened, to say the least.
Most amused by your comment about the circuitous pedestrian link from Dorval station to the airport. Once upon a time if you didn't mind traversing uneven grassland the walk would take 10 mins or less! Quite an adventure in the dark! Alas that route is built over now.
10:25 is it bad that I cringed more about the airport people mover from than station than I did at making the 20 minute walk easier. I guess it's a one seat ride if you don't get another seat or ride.
While Kingston significantly redesigned and improved its transit system around a decade ago (a process I contributed to and my two main suggestions became core routes), transit beyond its control is in the process of abandoning it. Scheduled air service, which was only between Kingston and Pearson, was stopped at the start of the pandemic - Air Canada charged more for that flight than Pearson to Charlottetown, which didn’t help. VIA’s plans for high speed rail drop Kingston altogether. Our city transit have a major transit transfer point at the intercity bus terminal, which has the city’s transit garages and repair facilities (also used by semi-trucks needing work) and behind that is the CN Mainline, possibly a better consolidated location for train service than its current location in a paved over marsh.
Historically, Kingston had the largest locomotive manufacturing facilities in the entire British Empire, but that closed nearly 60 years ago, the train spurs used by it and the downtown CN and CP services to the waterfront wharves and the locomotive works were pulled out, and only the old “outer station” in the north end, long since abandoned by VIA’s current facility, served for a while but burned down decades ago, only to sit derelict as it is a “historically significant site” (it isn’t in its current state). Kingston pre-Seaway was also the site where Great Lakes ships transferred their wares to lower draught river ships to take goods on to Montréal, but now other than the 401, Kingston is bypasssed.
If VIA does move to a highway 7 type route from Toronto to Ottawa, places along the 401 east of Toronto need the province to step in - Extend GO Transit service east all the way to Cornwall. Imagine if it could cut down on the passenger traffic on the 401 in favour of commercial vehicles, and the “GO” does stand for Government of Ontario, which that area is a part of. It would also extend justification for it to reach west to London, Windsor, and possibly Sarnia, reducing pressure on more of the 400 system of highways. Most of those routes have downtown or at least accessible to central area stations, and if GO built a modern station at the current bus terminal area for Kingston commuting to Toronto may not be what happens, but commuting from Windsor to London or Port Hope to Belleville or Brockville to Kingston would be far better enabled, broadening the province’s economic strength from just the GTHA. Yes, getting to Ottawa from Kingston will still mean a bus unless a regional rapid transit system for Ottawa also extended to Cornwall (but Ontario leaves running Ottawa’s service to the city rather than a provincial entity like GO or MetroLinx, which people in Ottawa have long noticed and resented) but to not do something will be counterproductive to those centres outside the GTHA along the 401 as transports choke off the utility of that route for individuals.
Great video, I noticed the SD Trolley lines in the background could you make a video on it?
Hi RMTransit, while your qualitative analysis in your videos is usually very good I think your content would benefit from adding more quantitative analysis. In this video (and most others), you pretty much mentioned 0 numbers. I think that data like ridership level, budget and costs (capital and operational) could have increase the quality of this video, even if your goal is to reach an audience from all backgrounds.
I don't think its realistic to try to project ridership numbers or costs in a video like this. The goal is to talk about what is possible as opposed to the technical details.
Hi, I would like u to talk about safety on transit and other cities in canada that aren't getting lrt cause of safety like Manitoba or Saskatchewan
Winnipeg isn't getting rail transit because the subway was cancelled in 1959 and then 50 years later mayor Sam Katz travelled to Ottawa to have a look at the O-Train and decided buses were better for Winnipeg
@YoungThos Hmm. I think anyone looking at the O-Train would have to conclude that ANYTHING ELSE would be better for their city. Even the old Ottawa Transitway for all its flaws was a more reliable transit system!
@@coachbobbarnes8715 This was long before the new line and all of its problems. This was back in the day of the original diesel O-Train. Winnipeg has infinite rail corridors in every nook and cranny of the city, so it was conceivable that one or more of them could have been put to use for passenger rail.
@YoungThos Oh. Then same argument. The original O-Train line went from nowhere to almost somewhere back in the day, and had ridership to match. I can understand the underpersuasion.
It's cute that you guys think there will be a train between Québec and trois rivière
My Montréal Opus card isn't even compatible with the Longueuil Opus card ir the Quebec city Opus card. I'd be happy if those could speak to each other! Being able to use the same one in another province sounds like a dream.
Quebec City's tramway project has been reorganised by CDPQinfra (same as the REM) earlier this year and is projected be completed by 2029. No connection to Gare du Palais train station, Gare Ste-Foy train station or airport Lesage in the current project though, but the intercity bus hub in Ste-Foy is one of the stations, as well as University Laval. Future expansions linking the South shore could link both train stations, but that would be for phase 3.
Yeah the omission of Gare du Palais is a real shame - I hope that when they build the line between Quebec City and Lévis they include a station there before it links up with the main tram line at St-Roch. It's not in CDPQInfra's plan, unfortunately, but if VIA's project picks up speed (literally and figuratively) then hopefully they revise that plan to include this crucial connection.
I checked the CDPQInfra's plan and left here a comment and a link, but it seems it was deleted, probably because there was a link. One day, I'll remember not to post links on youtube comment...
More to the point, in phase 1 of the plan, the one the current government say it will deliver for 2029, Gare du Palais is not among the station of the tramway, but it seems to be the Eastern terminus of the secondary BRT line. On phase 3 (after 2039), it is possible to get both an extension to the airport Lesage and a tunnel link between the two shores, which could include a station to Gare du Palais, at least as the illustration suggest.
The 2 other train stations of the region, Gare Ste-Foy and Gare de Charny are illustrated on the map, but it's not clear if or how they would be connected.
@@mariannerichard1321 You are correct, and I was indeed referring to the tunnel. I'd have to find it, but it says that the plan would be for 3 stations: 1 in QcC at St-Roch to join the main tram line, and 2 more in Lévis (similar to the yellow line in Montreal).
Much like Montreal's yellow line could use a station in the old port, it would be nice for that tunnel line to include stations at Gare du Palais and another one in Vieux-Québec (the intersection of Quai St-André and Dalhousie would seem like a good option to me - the station building could replace the current gas station). That would also be a connection to the cruise terminus, so all the more interconnection!
Orca payment for the Seattle region is so handy.
Signed the letter! I would love a high speed rail, it’s so much more convenient than a flight from Toronto to Quebec.
Average high-speed nowadays is 300 km/h. 250 is the slower one, 350 is the latest. Hope folks will get the one operating at 300 km/h in the end.