New Electric Lines in Canada?

RobertInOntario

Active Member
I was skimming through Canadian Railway Modeller the other day and saw a short note saying that Canadian Pacific was doing research on electrifying the CP and CN networks in Canada. The blurb said that, in the short-term, this would cost huge amounts of money but would have great long-term savings, as well as being good for the environment.

Has anyone else heard this or have further info? I'm not sure if this would apply to both passenger and freight trains ... I know that in the UK, for example, passenger trains are electric (either by a third-rail or via overhead catenary) but that freight trains are still diesel-powered. Also, do VIA trains use any CPR track?

Thanks,
Rob
 

60103

Pooh Bah
Robert: 30 years ago (or more) CPR installed a length of catenary at the side of the tracks in the Rockies to see how it survived Canadian winters. They eventually removed it.
VIA on CPR? depending on how you count them:
Vancouver Island.
North shore of Lake Huron (?)
maybe something in Quebec -- is the Quebec City station on CP or CN?
2 spots where CP and CN run parallel tracks in opposite drections: Fraser River canyon in BC and Parry Sound area in Ontario.
 

RobertInOntario

Active Member
Robert: 30 years ago (or more) CPR installed a length of catenary at the side of the tracks in the Rockies to see how it survived Canadian winters. They eventually removed it.
VIA on CPR? depending on how you count them:
Vancouver Island.
North shore of Lake Huron (?)
maybe something in Quebec -- is the Quebec City station on CP or CN?
2 spots where CP and CN run parallel tracks in opposite drections: Fraser River canyon in BC and Parry Sound area in Ontario.

Thanks, David. It will be interesting to see what, if anything, comes from this proposal. Maybe I should actually buy this issue of CRM -- I was simply skimming through it at George's Trains the other day! Cheers, Rob
 

Squidbait

Recovering ALCO-holic
Robert,

Perhaps you heard about MetroLink's new plan for Toronto/GTA? They call for electrifying the lakeshore GO lines from Hamilton to Oshawa. The Deux Montagnes line in Montreal is electrified, and there may be another line out to the east/north of the city I'm not aware of.

CP turfed VIA from pretty much all its lines in the first slashing of VIA under Brian Baloney's government. About the only place they run on CP trackage anymore is where they can't help it (Vancouver Island, Brockville-Smith's Falls). The transcontinental route was shifted to the CN line away from the north shore of Huron/Superior, and now has a fine view of rocks and trees and trees and rocks and rocks and trees and trees and rocks and.... water (to quote the Arrogant Worms). A moronic decision, since it completely avoids the major population centre between Sudbury and Winnipeg (Thunder Bay). But when has anything rational ever come out of govt/corporate rationalization?
 

doctorwayne

Active Member
[snip]

Perhaps you heard about MetroLink's new plan for Toronto/GTA? They call for electrifying the lakeshore GO lines from Hamilton to Oshawa.

[snip]

But when has anything rational ever come out of govt/corporate rationalization?

My thoughts exactly. sign1sign1 Chances are, the electrical power will be supplied from Nanticoke, on the Lake Erie shore of the Province of Toronto. :rolleyes::p

Wayne
 

Triplex

Active Member
30 years ago (or more) CPR installed a length of catenary at the side of the tracks in the Rockies to see how it survived Canadian winters. They eventually removed it.
In the 70s, they were considering a Vancouver-Calgary electrification. At the same time, some US roads were also planning large electrification projects. The biggest was the idea of electrifying the whole Santa Fe mainline from Chicago to the West Coast!
 

TinGoat

Ignorant know it all
The transcontinental route was shifted to the CN line away from the north shore of Huron/Superior, and now has a fine view of rocks and trees and trees and rocks and rocks and trees and trees and rocks and.... water

The only rational here is that the schedule for VIA trains has them passing through the best scenery north of Superior in the middle of the night anyway.

Rocks and trees and dark, dark, dark.....

There's been talk of electrifying from Montreal to Toronto before. Only talk...

It'll happen about the time that they build Blue-22... wall1wall1wall1
 

B-Manic

Peripheral Visionary
Via rail on Vancouver Island does not run on a CN or CP line. The line is owned by the Island Corridor Foundation and operated under contract by Southern Railway of Vancouver Island (SVI). The SVI, formerly the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway, is a short line railway in British Columbia, Canada.

It runs from Victoria to Courtenay, with branch lines from Parksville to Port Alberni and from just south of Nanaimo to the SVI's main railyard and barge slip (dock) on the Nanaimo waterfront.

There is a local, popular, movement to use the lines right of way to build a LRT. Given the local environmental climate, if the LRT were to be built, it would undoubtedly be electric.

~Cheers
 

Squidbait

Recovering ALCO-holic
Douglas,

OK, it would be more correct to say that VIA is operating on a former CP line, since the Esquimalt and Nanaimo was operated as a shortline under parent Canadian Pacific, much as was the Dominion Atlantic in the maritimes.

I can't believe it's been 10 years since the line was spun off to RailAmerica. Where does the time go?
 

cpr_paul

Member
I believe Sudbury-White River is the only active VIA service on CPR right now (other than the parallel one-way lines in BC/Ontario mentioned above.

The Brockville-Smiths Falls line is owned by VIA now...I think.

Other than the GO electrification I can't think of any onther mainline projects in the works...HSR between Montreal-Toronto-Ottawa would more than likely be electric if it ever gets built. Is Montreal considering further electrification of its suburban lines?

Here's a shot of a former Montreal CN EMU...

P10303251.JPG
 

Squidbait

Recovering ALCO-holic
AMT has placed an order for dual-mode diesel/electric ALP45DP locomotives with Bombardier.
electric%20ALP45DP%20locomotives
amtnew.jpg


For more detailed info check out Canadian Railway Observations Vol. 3 No. 9.
 

Squidbait

Recovering ALCO-holic
Thanks, Squidbait. AMT is a French railway, right? Cheers, Rob

Kinda. ;)

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]L’Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT) est une agence gouvernementale à vocation métropolitaine qui relève du ministre des Transports du Québec.[/FONT] L’AMT a notamment pour mission d’accroître les services de transport collectif afin d’améliorer l’efficacité des déplacements des personnes dans la région métropolitaine de Montréal.

French-Canadian, eh?
 

RobertInOntario

Active Member
Kinda. ;)

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]L’Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT) est une agence gouvernementale à vocation métropolitaine qui relève du ministre des Transports du Québec.[/FONT] L’AMT a notamment pour mission d’accroître les services de transport collectif afin d’améliorer l’efficacité des déplacements des personnes dans la région métropolitaine de Montréal.

French-Canadian, eh?

I'm curious because I had never heard of this railway before -- I just did a quick Google search and so know very little about it. Rob
 

Squidbait

Recovering ALCO-holic
I'm curious because I had never heard of this railway before -- I just did a quick Google search and so know very little about it. Rob

Sorry Rob, I meant to hotlink to AMT's english site. As I understand it, Montreal integrated all its regional commuter services into AMT - kinda like Go Chancit in the GTA.

The rail portion used to be a separate agency (STCUM) which incorporated the commuter trains e/w on CP tracks, north on the CN Deux Montagnes line, and south to Delson (not sure whose tracks).
 

RobertInOntario

Active Member
Sorry Rob, I meant to hotlink to AMT's english site. As I understand it, Montreal integrated all its regional commuter services into AMT - kinda like Go Chancit in the GTA.

The rail portion used to be a separate agency (STCUM) which incorporated the commuter trains e/w on CP tracks, north on the CN Deux Montagnes line, and south to Delson (not sure whose tracks).

Thanks! Learn something new every day! :mrgreen: Cheers, Rob
 
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