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.
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.
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, 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
@@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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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
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.
@@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
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.
If Via Rail’s proposed HFR project was a highway rather than a dedicated rail line, it would already have been built! Don't hold your hopes up for a timely approval for the construction of this HFR project, in light of the intense lobbying against HFR by the air, auto, oil and gas industries who stand to lose their duopoly if HFR goes ahead!
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.
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.
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 🙏
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!
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.
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.
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.
I kind of hope that the Toronto to Windsor via rail train. I'm hoping that we get the newer version soon cuz those new trains look really nice. The last year when I took that train to Windsor it was still the old one but I'm hoping to get the new train sometime
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)
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.
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.
I love how everyone demands these parks and greenspaces and than there is never a single soul just a few homeless people and maybe one straight path people walk thru it
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!
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… 🫠
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.
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
There are many North American city groups that can easily be made into northeast-level mega-regions, such as the California coast, Calgary-Edmonton corridor, Texas triangle, Portland-Seattle-Vancouver BC northwest corridor, the Mississippi River corridor from Chicago to St. Louis, and Peninsular Florida. Making these corridors into the next northeast US could be as easy as getting enough political will to do so. On a quick side note, I know you insist that all rail transit must be fully electric, and I agree electrified is always preferred over diesel, but diesel can still be good at times. GOTransit, Brightline, TexRail, LA Metrolink, and MBTA are all examples of good services provided with diesel trains.
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. However, 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.
The university of Ottawa is downtown. Carleton University has had rail transport for years. Too bad it didn't have it when I went. The current O train would have meant that I didn't have to drive, or skate.
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…
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
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
I think what would be nice too is if many of these connected cities to use the same bus card. I love presto card, and wish GRT in KW or Guelph buses would get on board. Nice not to carry so many transit cards.
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.
I can't wait for the day we have High Speed Rails with frequent departures between Quebec city and Windsor (and even further beyond like Lac St-Jean or Gaspé and the ROC).
Great analysis, you've covered it all. I just wonder how you think making the connection to the US easier would help this development? For instance, Windsor to Detroit or Niagara to Buffalo.
unfortunately baltimore light rail is no longer linked to pen station. they stopped running it in 2018 i think and even when they did it was only a single track and only northbound
Highly aspirational. For Montreal, yes the REM should connect to Doval...but nooo. Also in Montreal, connecting Bois Franc REM to the Orange Line. A true lack of foresight. As for Quebec City, well nothing will get done properly as along as the CAQ is in government as they seem determined to control a local project.
The federal government has been working on these plans for 5 years now, nothing about it is new. HSR was always being considered in the bidding process.
@TheTroyc1982 given that was over an election ago, I have absolutely no reason to believe that the government kept it secret when it was in a desperate situation where it needed every win it could get given the criminal corruption scandals it was embroider in at the time.
15:37 The system in the Netherlands 🇳🇱 is not perfect yet, having to top out and in at any change of transportation company. Though it is indeed national! This change topping could become obsolete in the future.
The new Via Rail train are great BUT they are so light they cannot go full speed on the same tracks. They are so lightweight they don’t trigger the sensors to lower the barriers at road crossings. The trip is now 40 minutes longer for the Montreal to Quebec corridor.
Train transit in Canada is a fecking joke. Expensive, have to book months in advance, very few options. Did I say it was a fecking joke? Europe utterly puts it to shame. And as long as the lines are owned by freight rail services, passenger traffic will be a distant second.
I've wondered how viable extending the Ion service in Kitchener-Waterloo to Guelph and Cambridge, essentially connecting the "Golden Triangle" in a transit loop. Something like this would cut down on a lot of commuter traffic between them as well as connect several major schools and universities. While light rail in the countryside between them might seem strange at first, there are obvious opportunities to add new stations and develop the land around them.
Traveled on ViaRail earlier this year and not that impressed with the new trains. We did not have to pay for our bags but the new trains gave a lot less bag storage and your expected to lift your bags up overhead, and for this you have to pay! And of the two new trains we took one broke down! And I won’t even start on the price and gap between services and the atrocious stations, anyone ever heard of platforms.
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.
Would be great if it actually happens, but I'm honestly concerned about what will happen to public transit in Ontario now that Doug Ford already wants to remove bike lanes. It sounds like he just got bribed by the auto industry.
In reading the comments I am appalled by the lack of understanding of the cost of doing certain transit projects and the many different rules and priorities in urban and state budgets. Erecting overhead wire on train lines is NOT like putting up the lights outside for your christmas decorations. It takes a lot of both time and money and it might mean that you have to forego other needed projects and a big issue is the grid capacity to support it. A big issue I see on transit lines is grade crossing elimination or improvement, another is repair or replacement of bridges and other structures (this might be an emergency in some cases). Another thing that folks don't understand is simply the cost of running trains (or busses or trams), yes you own the equipment, the tracks, and the lights are on, but train crews and bus drivers don't work for free, and unions have won pay differentials for late hours and weekends/holidays. Everyone thinks that airline pilots make a fortune, some do, but the pilot on that regional jet you just flew on doesn't and the copilot makes way less, both make less than an average urban transit driver. Their is also an issue of adding miles to the equipment odometer, meaning more maintenance, more tires, more brake shoes, more vehicle cleaning, and more fuel. It is for this reason that systems don't have frequent after hours service where the traincrew might outnumber the passengers (as it does on a lot of Amtrak trains). Getting certain projects done in democratic countries is a lot like making sausage, a lot of things go into it. Getting service out to the airport sure makes a lot of sense but the taxi organization and the bus operators and drivers will make an almighty fuss as will the neighbors to the little used line that will be expanded to provide 24 hour pass. service when it formerly only handled a few trains a week of fuel for the airport. Planners and architects provide us with pretty pictures of projects and structures, it's the engineers and operators who know how to do it and what it will cost. What nobody wants is another CA high speed rail system that has become a model for failure.
Cascadia HSR from King George or Waterfront? I know Waterfront would integrate the system better but if there was a better connection from YVR to King George it might be worth looking at.
Yeah man the US is a lot more richer than us so they have all these rail systems. I'm glad things are changing and rail connection will become a thing. To not have a rail connection to and from the airport in our major cities is unacceptable.
And yet, the ARTM wants to CUT 3 of their greater Montreal suburban commuter lines. Maybe if they ran them more often than rush hour they would improve ridership.
The ARTM fought tooth and nail to get the REM de l'Est cancelled and the CDPQ off their turf and out of transit, and then proceeded to propose a 36-billion dollar fully-tunnelled Projet structurant de l'Est (that the Premier said made him "choke on his coffee") as well as the closure of three of five EXO train lines because we also don't have any money. Make it make sense
Yep, here in St Catharines we recently finalized the updated transportation plan which further pushed bike lanes. Now that's finished. Ford doesn't realize it's not just bikes that use them. There are a lot of older people who use them with their mobility scooters. Never thought I'd miss the previous provincial government.
After having lived in small rural towns and the suburbs my whole life, I would really be more open to living in a higher density city so long as it has strong, reliable public transit - primarily bus, rail, local intl. airport. My biggest concern is safety. I'd want to know if there's armed security on the light rail to handle the crazies.
What are your thought on renationalizing CN? They are a barrier to development in this corridor and were foolishly privatized by Jean Chretien's Liberals in 1995
Once the infrastructure is there I really hope the cost won't be exceedingly high... It can't cost the same to fly from YYZ to YUL as it does to take the train... :(
There's an alternate reality where the Quiet Revolution isn't so extreme, Montreal remains the economic/cultural hub and largest city in Canada and the Ottawa to Montreal area extended out to Quebec City and down to Washington DC and Boston is a crazy megapolis lol
I too am nostalgic for «une certaine idée de Montréal» and all that has been lost. I think Canada would be a more interesting country if Montreal was still its main city. But at this point, if we could at least get our trains to Boston and Washington back (as well as a decent one to New York instead of the one we currently have) I'd take it…
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.
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
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!!
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. 😒
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, 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
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.
Trois-Rivières mentioned let's GOOOO
We really need that damn trolleybus hahahahah
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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!
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
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.
You voice my thoughts beautifully.
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 actually live within that megapolis
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.
Great episode, you are really presenting the big picture.
If Via Rail’s proposed HFR project was a highway rather than a dedicated rail line, it would already have been built!
Don't hold your hopes up for a timely approval for the construction of this HFR project, in light of the intense lobbying against HFR by the air, auto, oil and gas industries who stand to lose their duopoly if HFR goes ahead!
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.
Wow yes I wholeheartedly agree! So many great points!
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.
If Polievre gets in, we're fucked.
Not necessarily. Poilievre has at least thought about transit linking federal funding for transit stations to high density development.
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 🙏
You Douggie's genius plan to build a highway under another highway :).
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!
G'day Reece!
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.
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.
The Northeast corridor connects with three more light rail systems all in New Jersey river line, Newark and Jersey City light rail
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.
I kind of hope that the Toronto to Windsor via rail train. I'm hoping that we get the newer version soon cuz those new trains look really nice. The last year when I took that train to Windsor it was still the old one but I'm hoping to get the new train sometime
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)
We should call it the 'Northeast Canador'
it's in the southeast of the country, not northeast
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.
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.
I love how everyone demands these parks and greenspaces and than there is never a single soul just a few homeless people and maybe one straight path people walk thru it
Has Doug Ford watched this? 50 Billion diverted away from a ridiculous highway tunnel could make all the difference!
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!
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… 🫠
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.
I’m so excited for hxr!
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
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.
We need frequent GO trains during the day both ways. Not just for commuters back and forth to work in The Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
There are many North American city groups that can easily be made into northeast-level mega-regions, such as the California coast, Calgary-Edmonton corridor, Texas triangle, Portland-Seattle-Vancouver BC northwest corridor, the Mississippi River corridor from Chicago to St. Louis, and Peninsular Florida. Making these corridors into the next northeast US could be as easy as getting enough political will to do so. On a quick side note, I know you insist that all rail transit must be fully electric, and I agree electrified is always preferred over diesel, but diesel can still be good at times. GOTransit, Brightline, TexRail, LA Metrolink, and MBTA are all examples of good services provided with diesel trains.
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. However, 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.
Orca payment for the Seattle region is so handy.
The university of Ottawa is downtown.
Carleton University has had rail transport for years. Too bad it didn't have it when I went. The current O train would have meant that I didn't have to drive, or skate.
Hopefully construction will start during this decade, however I fear we have missed the financial and political window of opportunity…
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)
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
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
I think what would be nice too is if many of these connected cities to use the same bus card. I love presto card, and wish GRT in KW or Guelph buses would get on board. Nice not to carry so many transit cards.
Hey what's up with all the people DEMANDING videos about their own cities?
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.
8:42 better not say that to Rob (I am going to build beautiful underground highway) Ford! There's a guy who believes in private, not public, transit.
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.
Talk about the "407 Transit Way" and why it hasn't been developed yet.
Video 14 of asking for a Cleveland Video
At least it's not Detroit, eh?
I can't wait for the day we have High Speed Rails with frequent departures between Quebec city and Windsor (and even further beyond like Lac St-Jean or Gaspé and the ROC).
Great analysis, you've covered it all. I just wonder how you think making the connection to the US easier would help this development? For instance, Windsor to Detroit or Niagara to Buffalo.
unfortunately baltimore light rail is no longer linked to pen station. they stopped running it in 2018 i think and even when they did it was only a single track and only northbound
Go! & the railroad is dope & nice but it needs to be kind of vast bc it's one of the only commuter railroads in Toronto/Ontario
Alan Fisher mentioned‼️
Please make another crayoning video for Vancouver 🙏🙏
Highly aspirational. For Montreal, yes the REM should connect to Doval...but nooo. Also in Montreal, connecting Bois Franc REM to the Orange Line. A true lack of foresight. As for Quebec City, well nothing will get done properly as along as the CAQ is in government as they seem determined to control a local project.
An act of desperation from a government that could have done this 10 years ago if they actually wanted it.
There is mention of intercity rail but the Transit Super Region is also about each city having transit access.
HFR has been in the works for years, since before the pandemic though. It's not something they just came up with last minute this year.
The federal government has been working on these plans for 5 years now, nothing about it is new. HSR was always being considered in the bidding process.
@TheTroyc1982 given that was over an election ago, I have absolutely no reason to believe that the government kept it secret when it was in a desperate situation where it needed every win it could get given the criminal corruption scandals it was embroider in at the time.
15:37 The system in the Netherlands 🇳🇱 is not perfect yet, having to top out and in at any change of transportation company. Though it is indeed national!
This change topping could become obsolete in the future.
For me I live here in Oshawa and I wish that Oshawa had like its own light rail train like other cities have
The new Via Rail train are great BUT they are so light they cannot go full speed on the same tracks. They are so lightweight they don’t trigger the sensors to lower the barriers at road crossings. The trip is now 40 minutes longer for the Montreal to Quebec corridor.
Train transit in Canada is a fecking joke. Expensive, have to book months in advance, very few options. Did I say it was a fecking joke? Europe utterly puts it to shame. And as long as the lines are owned by freight rail services, passenger traffic will be a distant second.
I've wondered how viable extending the Ion service in Kitchener-Waterloo to Guelph and Cambridge, essentially connecting the "Golden Triangle" in a transit loop. Something like this would cut down on a lot of commuter traffic between them as well as connect several major schools and universities. While light rail in the countryside between them might seem strange at first, there are obvious opportunities to add new stations and develop the land around them.
Traveled on ViaRail earlier this year and not that impressed with the new trains. We did not have to pay for our bags but the new trains gave a lot less bag storage and your expected to lift your bags up overhead, and for this you have to pay! And of the two new trains we took one broke down! And I won’t even start on the price and gap between services and the atrocious stations, anyone ever heard of platforms.
Dorval does have a shuttle bus for the via station... but it doesn't have nearly enough capacity.
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.
Would be great if it actually happens, but I'm honestly concerned about what will happen to public transit in Ontario now that Doug Ford already wants to remove bike lanes. It sounds like he just got bribed by the auto industry.
In reading the comments I am appalled by the lack of understanding of the cost of doing certain transit projects and the many different rules and priorities in urban and state budgets. Erecting overhead wire on train lines is NOT like putting up the lights outside for your christmas decorations. It takes a lot of both time and money and it might mean that you have to forego other needed projects and a big issue is the grid capacity to support it. A big issue I see on transit lines is grade crossing elimination or improvement, another is repair or replacement of bridges and other structures (this might be an emergency in some cases). Another thing that folks don't understand is simply the cost of running trains (or busses or trams), yes you own the equipment, the tracks, and the lights are on, but train crews and bus drivers don't work for free, and unions have won pay differentials for late hours and weekends/holidays. Everyone thinks that airline pilots make a fortune, some do, but the pilot on that regional jet you just flew on doesn't and the copilot makes way less, both make less than an average urban transit driver. Their is also an issue of adding miles to the equipment odometer, meaning more maintenance, more tires, more brake shoes, more vehicle cleaning, and more fuel. It is for this reason that systems don't have frequent after hours service where the traincrew might outnumber the passengers (as it does on a lot of Amtrak trains). Getting certain projects done in democratic countries is a lot like making sausage, a lot of things go into it. Getting service out to the airport sure makes a lot of sense but the taxi organization and the bus operators and drivers will make an almighty fuss as will the neighbors to the little used line that will be expanded to provide 24 hour pass. service when it formerly only handled a few trains a week of fuel for the airport. Planners and architects provide us with pretty pictures of projects and structures, it's the engineers and operators who know how to do it and what it will cost. What nobody wants is another CA high speed rail system that has become a model for failure.
Megalopolis, directed by Doug Ford Coppola
Dorval Circle has Stm buses. Nobody walks to the airport.
Sounds good
But living in NYC
Riding trains can be dangerous
They are many unstable people
Cascadia HSR from King George or Waterfront? I know Waterfront would integrate the system better but if there was a better connection from YVR to King George it might be worth looking at.
Yeah man the US is a lot more richer than us so they have all these rail systems. I'm glad things are changing and rail connection will become a thing. To not have a rail connection to and from the airport in our major cities is unacceptable.
I wish America cared enough about trains to make the system better.
What is frustrating to me is how simple it is. If you make public transportation easy to access and use, people will use it...
And yet, the ARTM wants to CUT 3 of their greater Montreal suburban commuter lines. Maybe if they ran them more often than rush hour they would improve ridership.
The ARTM fought tooth and nail to get the REM de l'Est cancelled and the CDPQ off their turf and out of transit, and then proceeded to propose a 36-billion dollar fully-tunnelled Projet structurant de l'Est (that the Premier said made him "choke on his coffee") as well as the closure of three of five EXO train lines because we also don't have any money. Make it make sense
@@YoungThos Yeah I remember reading that, poor Legault haha. The REM de l'Est could have been so great.
Hard to maintain optimism about cycling in Ontario given recent statements by the premier.
Yep, here in St Catharines we recently finalized the updated transportation plan which further pushed bike lanes. Now that's finished.
Ford doesn't realize it's not just bikes that use them. There are a lot of older people who use them with their mobility scooters.
Never thought I'd miss the previous provincial government.
After having lived in small rural towns and the suburbs my whole life, I would really be more open to living in a higher density city so long as it has strong, reliable public transit - primarily bus, rail, local intl. airport. My biggest concern is safety. I'd want to know if there's armed security on the light rail to handle the crazies.
What are your thought on renationalizing CN? They are a barrier to development in this corridor and were foolishly privatized by Jean Chretien's Liberals in 1995
if the northeast corridor is so good why does it take 11 hours from mtl to nyc?
Once the infrastructure is there I really hope the cost won't be exceedingly high...
It can't cost the same to fly from YYZ to YUL as it does to take the train... :(
You should make a video on Glasgow
There's an alternate reality where the Quiet Revolution isn't so extreme, Montreal remains the economic/cultural hub and largest city in Canada and the Ottawa to Montreal area extended out to Quebec City and down to Washington DC and Boston is a crazy megapolis lol
Less extreme? Like, the Catholic Church is still in charge of hospitals and churches, and electricity production belongs to foreign investors?
@@hdufort I mean in terms of pushing the Anglos out of Quebec. Montreal would've been the number one city in Canada and and a bilingual city.
I too am nostalgic for «une certaine idée de Montréal» and all that has been lost. I think Canada would be a more interesting country if Montreal was still its main city. But at this point, if we could at least get our trains to Boston and Washington back (as well as a decent one to New York instead of the one we currently have) I'd take it…
Apparently MARC has to pay to use the wires despite Amtrak operating the trains in the electrified territory