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I would love to see something like that in parts of Canada...where it makes sense.
It is HUGELY expensive since the track has to be guarded from wildlife and scrupulously maintained. Difficult to do in some very rural areas of Canada.
That's okay. By the time high speed electric systems are installed in North America the partially sunken rails and trains will all be enclosed and protected inside big solar collecting transparent glass-like tubes like tunnels, with overpasses for wildlife and anything else with legs or wheels that needs to cross over them. The solar collecting glass tubes will power the trains.
I would love to see something like that in parts of Canada...where it makes sense.
It is HUGELY expensive since the track has to be guarded from wildlife and scrupulously maintained. Difficult to do in some very rural areas of Canada.
Montreal - Ottawa- Toronto I don't think it would be too hard to maintain on that route. Lots of towns and cities in Eastern Ontario. It should be done.
I would love to see something like that in parts of Canada...where it makes sense.
It is HUGELY expensive since the track has to be guarded from wildlife and scrupulously maintained. Difficult to do in some very rural areas of Canada.
It would probably make sense in some areas like the Corridor, but wouldn’t be necessary for The Canadian.
BTW, Nat, do you know why the Canadian no longer travels east of Toronto? Why isn’t there a single line connecting Vancouver with Halifax?
That's okay. By the time high speed electric systems are installed in North America the partially sunken rails and trains will all be enclosed and protected inside big solar collecting transparent glass-like tubes like tunnels, with overpasses for wildlife and anything else with legs or wheels that needs to cross over them. The solar collecting glass tubes will power the trains.
Montreal - Ottawa- Toronto I don't think it would be too hard to maintain on that route. Lots of towns and cities in Eastern Ontario. It should be done.
I agree, but I also feel that there would be some pushback from the other parts of the country who will be helping to pay for it, and see no benefit in it for themselves.
BTW, Nat, do you know why the Canadian no longer travels east of Toronto? Why isn’t there a single line connecting Vancouver with Halifax?
There never was a single line between Vancouver and Halifax. The Canadian ran from Montreal/Toronto to Vancouver--one portion left Toronto, another left Montreal, and the two met and coupled up in Capreol, Ontario, before going to Vancouver. The process was reversed for trains leaving Vancouver and heading for Toronto/Montreal.
If you wanted to travel from Vancouver to Halifax, you had to change at Montreal, where The Canadian ended its run. From there, you would take The Ocean to Halifax. There were other routes that ran east of Montreal too, but the only ones that ran west from Montreal were Corridor trains, and The Canadian.
Nowadays, it is still possible to take trains from Vancouver to Halifax, but you have to take three trains:
-- Vancouver to Toronto on The Canadian;
-- Toronto to Montreal on The Lakeshore; then
-- Montreal to Halifax on The Ocean.
[Aside to Nat: Thanks for the information on the Winnipeg platform. Thinking about it, I can see how it makes sense that you don't want passengers in the way, especially when you're doing the very important task of re-provisioning the dining car, and especially, the bar. ]
Someone mentioned that Canadian railways never adopted the metric system. Does that mean they measure distances in miles and speeds in miles per hour?
That's correct. I once asked the same question of a friend who is a retired CPR freight train engineer. The answer is that Canadian and American railways are so integrated that it makes no sense to have two systems of measurement when equipment (and occasionally, personnel) is passing over the border. And since American railways are much bigger than Canadian ones, Canadian railways follow what American ones do. Thus mileposts and signals by Canadian tracks indicate miles from a divisional point, and Canadian railways' speed limit signs are in MPH.
Safety is another concern; nobody wants a speed limit sign in km/h to be misunderstood as MPH. If all railway personnel in North America agree that Imperial measurements are the default everywhere, then railways in both countries can operate without such misunderstandings.
Interestingly, America's preference for Imperial distances extends in other ways into Canada. Canadian football fields and golf courses are still measured in yards (American football players come to play in the CFL, and the occasional Canadian plays in the NFL; and many Canadian golfers play on the PGA tour); and horse racing is run in miles and furlongs (and occasionally yards, in quarter-horse racing). But North American horse racing is extremely integrated, with horses running in the US one day, and Canada two weeks later; and again, it's just easier if racing uses one system of measurement, under the circumstances I described.
There never was a single line between Vancouver and Halifax. The Canadian ran from Montreal/Toronto to Vancouver--one portion left Toronto, another left Montreal, and the two met and coupled up in Capreol, Ontario, before going to Vancouver. The process was reversed for trains leaving Vancouver and heading for Toronto/Montreal.
If you wanted to travel from Vancouver to Halifax, you had to change at Montreal, where The Canadian ended its run. From there, you would take The Ocean to Halifax. There were other routes that ran east of Montreal too, but the only ones that ran west from Montreal were Corridor trains, and The Canadian.
Nowadays, it is still possible to take trains from Vancouver to Halifax, but you have to take three trains:
-- Vancouver to Toronto on The Canadian;
-- Toronto to Montreal on The Lakeshore; then
-- Montreal to Halifax on The Ocean.
[Aside to Nat: Thanks for the information on the Winnipeg platform. Thinking about it, I can see how it makes sense that you don't want passengers in the way, especially when you're doing the very important task of re-provisioning the dining car, and especially, the bar. ]
Can you or anyone provide feedback on The Ocean? That might be another option for my son and I to take, especially as I’ve never been east of Montreal.
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