Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill Bumface
Exactly. Look how long it takes the Rocky Mountaineer to travel from Banff to Vancouver. Average speeds are abysmal, which is important when it's not merely a sight-seeing tour.
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The Rocky does Banff to Vancouver in 2 days, and the only reason it takes that long is because they stop overnight in Kamloops so the riders don’t miss seeing any of the scenery. It gets priority over freight trains and makes even better time than the “hotshot” intermodal trains.
That said - it’s one train. Try adding any kind of frequency to the equation and the situation would change rapidly. CN and CP(KC) are both freight railways and have been very clear about that, and network fluidity is usually dictated by your slowest trains, not the fastest. If anyone expects to operate multiple higher speed trains with any degree of consistency, new infrastructure will absolutely have to be build. CP’s main line west of Calgary is already at or near full capacity with freight traffic only expected to increase.