[Bordercollie]

The discussion re Horizons on railroad.net mentions coach steps a number of times as being subject to un-remediated corrosion. Is it possible these are steel construction?

In any case, we see once again the consequences of “lean” practices colliding with insufficient industrial and capital capacity, which means thanks to previous issues like unplanned Talgo withdrawal, other than ancient Amfleets and the like there are little if any spare coaches to fill these gaps, which in turn is leading to capacity reductions and cancellations, just as we see LRCs continuing to be desperately needed up here on corridor and the LD fleet being stretched through lack of certain coach types.

It's a shame that those talgos were retired so early. If they didn't meet the safety standards, there is no way the other cars in the fleet do.

 

[dowlingm]

It's a shame that those talgos were retired so early. If they didn't meet the safety standards, there is no way the other cars in the fleet do.

They were built at an unlucky moment both politically and with respect to regulations. If they had ever gone into service when they were initially built their status would have been locked in. Their config being different to Cascades meant that the service management probably wouldn’t want them as anything other than contingency either, absent a refit.

 

[Bordercollie]

Examination of Horizon corrosion issues continue: Analysis - Trains

KANONA, N.Y. — Whether any of Amtrak’s 70-car Horizon fleet can ever return to active duty is still to be determined following extensive examination of ten vehicles at carbuilder Alstom’s 130,000-square-foot inspection and overhaul facility at Kanona in upstate New York. Meanwhile, the rapid...

www.trains.com

Seems like the corrosion is pretty bad. Although the body maybe made from aluminum, it seems that the structure is made of steel.

Perhaps a more extensive examination should have done on a regular basis, but you would need to remove the floor to see that there was corrosion.

Sounds similar to the Tubular steel New Flyer buses in the 90's.

 

[Bojaxs]

Great video explaining how the Swiss made the choice to focus on reliability over speed with rail, and how they upgrade their network incrementally rather than take any huge leaps. The Swiss don't want to upgrade any lines up to high speed until they get all existing lines up to 200km/h. I have a similar mindset when it comes with GO expansion. I would rather see Metrolinx spend the money on getting every line to have AD2W service than have some lines electrified while other lines still run on a purely commuter schedule powered by diesel locomotives (Richmond Hill).

 

[Urban Sky]

Great video explaining how the Swiss made the choice to focus on reliability over speed with rail, and how they upgrade their network incrementally rather than take any huge leaps. The Swiss don't want to upgrade any lines up to high speed until they get all existing lines up to 200km/h.

The video is really excellent, though as a German-born rail professional, I‘m slightly insulted - not by the notion that the German network is severely underfunded and the additional capacity provided by shiny High Speed Lines (HSL) has yet to be matched by increased capacity in urban cores, but by the unfavourable comparison with the UK and France (which are much less burdened by freight rail traffic, cross-border and especially transiting rail traffic, while severely struggling to let passengers transit connect beyond their main nodes, London and Paris).

The German „Deutschlandtakt“ is exactly modelled on the Swiss „Bahn 2000“ philosophy and leaves especially France (where timetables still mostly resemble those of the Deutsche Bundesbahn in the 1980s) in the dust. Germany has adapted the Swiss idea of „Integrated Fixed-Interval Timetables“ (rather striking that the video‘s author didn‘t now that term) as an important tool for rail infrastructure planning (i.e., you first define the „target timetable“ before you identify infrastructure gaps and start defining infrastructure projects to fix them), as shown here for Germany‘s overall long-distance network …

… and for individual regions (here for Hesse, centered on Frankfurt, which is the region where I grew up):

I have a similar mindset when it comes with GO expansion. I would rather see Metrolinx spend the money on getting every line to have AD2W service rather than have some lines electrified while other lines still run on a purely commuter schedule powered by diesel locomotives (Richmond Hill).

As long as CN doesn’t allow them to electrify past Doncaster (i.e., the junction with the York Sub), there is no point for Metrolinx to consider electrification of the southern end of the Bala Sub…

 

[Allandale25]

 

[nfitz]

View attachment 646182

25,000 in 8 months?

That's about 123 a day. I wonder what the expected capacity was. Better than the initial West Harbour numbers I suppose ...

 

[Bojaxs]

Some news regarding American commuter rail networks.

Cities located along the Northstar route are now left trying to figure out what to do with the shutdown of Northstar.

MN: With Northstar Commuter Rail likely to reach its end, cities on the train line want concessions

The Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Metropolitan Council said in a joint announcement last month that the rail line, which has long failed to meet ridership expectations...

www.masstransitmag.com

*rage bait*

Trinity Railway Express could potentially be on the chopping block due to a bill being consider in the Texas legislature that would severely reduce transit funding in the Dallas-Fort worth area.

Trinity Railway Express commuter train service could be cut if lawmakers reduce funding

Two bills that seek to reduce Dallas Area Rapid Transit funding could affect commuter train service between Fort Worth and Dallas.

fortworthreport.org

Tri-Rail in Miami potentially on the chopping block.

Tri-Rail ridership climbs, funding concerns loom

Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties all have to significantly increase their funding and pay $10 million a year to subsidize ridership.

www.cbsnews.com

Now the state of Florida wants to download SunRail onto the municipalities it serves and already some cities are complaining. Could lead to a similar situation we're now seeing in Dallas & Miami.

Central Florida municipalities now paying for SunRail operations

The Florida Department of Transportation stopped funding on Dec. 31, 2024, leaving local government partners to pay up.

mynews13.com

 

[MisterF]

Great video explaining how the Swiss made the choice to focus on reliability over speed with rail, and how they upgrade their network incrementally rather than take any huge leaps. The Swiss don't want to upgrade any lines up to high speed until they get all existing lines up to 200km/h. I have a similar mindset when it comes with GO expansion. I would rather see Metrolinx spend the money on getting every line to have AD2W service than have some lines electrified while other lines still run on a purely commuter schedule powered by diesel locomotives (Richmond Hill).

The difference is that Metrolinx doesn't own a lot of the tracks that their trains run on. Given the political influence of the freight railways and economic importance of those lines, running reliable all day passenger service on them is a whole different animal than upgrading publicly owned lines. So holding up electrification on lines Metrolinx owns because of limited service on lines they don't own doesn't make sense.

The Richmond Hill line has its own unique challenges. The part Metrolinx owns runs on a meandering path through river valleys prone to flooding and disconnected from the rest of the transit network. And the section with most of the stations is a CN mainline.

 

[DSCToronto]

The difference is that Metrolinx doesn't own a lot of the tracks that their trains run on.

Indeed! That is a HUGE difference and why rail passenger travel (both inter-city and commuter) is so 19th century here! As long as freiqht trains get priority over passenger ones we will never have a 21st century rail network as it is unlikely we will ever have the $$ and the will to build two totally separate rail networks.

 

[crs1026]

Indeed! That is a HUGE difference and why rail passenger travel (both inter-city and commuter) is so 19th century here! As long as freiqht trains get priority over passenger ones we will never have a 21st century rail network as it is unlikely we will ever have the $$ and the will to build two totally separate rail networks.

Six months ago I would have agreed with you, but the world really has changed since then.

Perhaps it is time to discuss the option of forcing all freight in the Ontario-Quebec corridor onto one set of tracks in a coproduction mode, with the other set of tracks dedicated to passenger.

Not so big a change compared to what else is happening in North America. And not really that expensive as a percent of total market cap by major railways across the continent.

- Paul

 

[micheal_can]

Six months ago I would have agreed with you, but the world really has changed since then.

Perhaps it is time to discuss the option of forcing all freight in the Ontario-Quebec corridor onto one set of tracks in a coproduction mode, with the other set of tracks dedicated to passenger.

Not so big a change compared to what else is happening in North America. And not really that expensive as a percent of total market cap by major railways across the continent.

- Paul

What if instead, the government owned all the connected tracks and rail operators leased the slots. the maintenance could be contracted out. The governments own the roads and ports.

 

[MisterF]

Indeed! That is a HUGE difference and why rail passenger travel (both inter-city and commuter) is so 19th century here! As long as freiqht trains get priority over passenger ones we will never have a 21st century rail network as it is unlikely we will ever have the $$ and the will to build two totally separate rail networks.

To be fair, a separate rail network is what Metrolinx is building regionally. And even though Alto is far from a sure thing, they're planning the same for intercity.

What if instead, the government owned all the connected tracks and rail operators leased the slots. the maintenance could be contracted out. The governments own the roads and ports.

It would be nice, but the government has shown time and time again for decades that they're never going to do this.

 

[lenaitch]

Setting aside the political weight held by the the Class 1 railways in Canada, and setting aside what is would cost to expropriate some or all of the properties (couch it in any terms you like, but that's what it would be), any alternative stewardship of our nation's rail would have to recognize the impact that rail-borne freight has on the Canadian economy. As ha been pointed out several times here, the tonnage of freight carried by rail in this country far outstrips anything in western Europe.

 

[lenaitch]

The governments own the roads and ports.

A government owns the roads and some of the ports. Roads are divided between provincial and municipal ownership. Federal ownership of major ports is an extension of their constitutional responsibilities for navigation and shipping as well as international trade and commerce. That ownership is mostly divided between Transport Canada and federal Crown corporations.