[crs1026]

Excellent info, as always @Urban Sky

Questions(s). for you, or @reaperexpress

1) Working with the existing infrastructure and freight schedules is there theoretical room for any additional slots for VIA, within the desirable time ranges that could be negotiated wiht CN/CP, in theory?

2) If not, what is the lowest level of infrastructure investment that would be required to open up new slots, (passing track, rail to rail grade separations, switches/turnounts, etc) and would there be any credible case for the investment, when considering dollars to sustained revenue/service gain

3) Would any of the above investments overlap, to a high certainty with any HSR plan, such that they could be considered an 'early work' advancing the later.

4) Finally, is there 'room' and any logic, to using a portion of the existing CP mainline (Bellevillle) route to bypass any congestion in the CN corridor for even a couple of slots a day? There are multiple crossings/connections between Oshsawa and Belleville.

The 2008-2009 expansion plan that Ottawa approved was cut back as costs mounted.... there must have been a next-highest- priority piece of that program that almost got built. The plans for those incremental pieces are no doubt sitting in a drawer somewhere and likely actionable on a short timeline.

Those next-to-do pieces may have higher price tags than the ones that were completed.

From watching various bits of train dispatching over the years, the segment immediately west of Belleville is definitely an impediment - but the missing piece may be the need for a bridge at Moira, to enable freights to clear the existing tracks further west and access the yard

Coteau is likely still high priority piece. I wonder about Liverpool- Darlington also, and again bridges are one key cost driver.

It makes a lot of sense to shift CN freights to the CPKC route to ease congestion (and avoid having to upgrade track speeds on CPKC to VIA requirements) - but few sidings on the CP route are long enough for CN's needs. CP uses fleeting to remove the need for longer sidings, it might take a lot of rearranging to freight achedules to i ject CN trains into that pattern. I suspect the institutional barriers rather than the track geometry is the bedrock here. A bridge too far, it seems.

I have wondered whether all that is needed on the Kingston line might be a few short sidings not unlike the Smiths Falls-Brockville portion, giving CN the ability to run opposing VIA trains on a single track rather than having both tracks occupied by passing VIA trains.

- Paul