# High Speed Rail between Boston and Montreal?



## RicktheChemist (Jul 18, 2001)

Had anyone every heard of this? I like the idea! It would make travelling to Boston simple and more importantly ... cheap..

http://www.bostonmontrealhsr.org/

Cheers,

RtC

P.S. According to the website, it's only in the study phase.


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## MACSPECTRUM (Oct 31, 2002)

wtih the amount of business travellers in the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal corridor, it would make much more sense to have a high speed rail system there.

RapidAir tickets to these destinations on a same day purchase or day before purchase make up a huge amount of Air Canada's air traffic.

The market is there. Just need the high speed rail infrastructre. Licence to print money.


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## MacNutt (Jan 16, 2002)

High speed rail is diverting a lot of people from air travel in Europe...especially on the shorter routes. It is actually quicker than flying and delivers the passengers closer to their final destination (especially if they are headed for major urban centers) Supefast Maglev trains might just eliminate a lot of the longer overland routes as well, if all goes as planned....even here in North America. They're already on this, big time, in Europe and China has just installed the very first Maglev commercial shuttle service in Shanghai (to the airport)

But if everyone switches to high speed trains then you can expect the same sort of congestion and extra users fees that have choked up airline travel. If terrorism is still a factor then expect a couple of horrendous incidents at some time in the future....and that will be quickly followed by new rules that require long delays while everyone is thoroughly searched before boarding the superfast trains.

I'm hoping that massive terrorism is NOT going to be a part of our future lives and that we will have a healthy blend of high-speed rail and air travel to choose from.

If not...then we will have to get busy building a whole bunch of new highways to handle the load. Or stop having babies.

Yeah.... _that_ might happen.


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## RicktheChemist (Jul 18, 2001)

I want to see a Quebec-Windsor Corridor High Speed TGV.. now that would be cool to ride on.. but I like this idea to.. you could make an interconnection to Toronto or something. In this case also, there is the infrastucture, but it has to be retrofitted like the Quebec-Windsor corridor.










Cheers,

RtC


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## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

Rail travel in Europe is a way of life, and is not considered to be similar to some of the Amtrak and ViaRail "cattle cars". Still, I am all in favor of rail travel, will choose this mode of transportation whenever I am not in a rush. 

Sadly, the last railroad here on the island part of Newfoundland and Labrador was discontinued. Good bye to the "Newfie Bullet" as it was called.


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## MACSPECTRUM (Oct 31, 2002)

i don't know if there is the traffic to warrant a hi speed line from toronto to windsor

since i fly to montreal on a regular basis, i see the lineups at the rapidair at the Toronto airport with planes full of hi paying passengers going to montreal and ottawa

a 2 hour train trip would certainly be faster than plane, especially with downtown terminals

a friend of mine was in japan last year and they have bullet trains travelling every 15 min. or so to major centres almost like subways here.

the airline industry would take a huge hit, but i wonder if they would be better suited to longer flights across the country and as well, if the envrionmental savings would be beneficial in the long run to eliminate short flight air travel..?


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## MacNutt (Jan 16, 2002)

The airlines are already taking a huge hit and most of the biggest are in some form of financial trouble. There will be some serious reorganisation happening in the air travel industry over the next few years, that's for sure.

One thing to keep in mind, when determining which type of travel is the most efficient from a standpoint of fuel useage, is the amount of time that a jet has to sit on the ground with it's engines running while waiting for a takeoff slot. You also have to figure in how long it has to circle while waiting for landing clearance. Plus how much fuel is used by all of the individual private vehicles that are used to deliver all of the passengers to the terminal, and how long THEY have to wait in traffic (with motors idling) to get there.

And then weigh that against the large amounts of petroleum fired electricity that it takes to run most modern high-speed trains. It's a pretty complex equation....one that is worthy of close study by some of our more mathematically minded ehmaclanders, eh?

(cue macspetrum's theme music and hit the applause sign here)


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