The Corridor is a Via Rail passenger train service area in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario.
Corridor is used by Via to refer to all Via inter-city passenger trains which start and end within the geographic region known as the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor. Other inter-city trains from outside the Corridor may have their terminus at stations in the Corridor, such as the Canadian and the Ocean, but are marketed by their respective train names and are not considered to be Corridor service.
The Corridor service area has the heaviest passenger train frequency in Canada. About 67% of Via's revenue comes from Corridor routes.
Via runs a mix of local-service and express trains in the Corridor. The majority of the trackage is owned by CN, although Via also operates Corridor services on two former freight lines which originate in Ottawa and run to Smiths Falls, Ontario and Coteau-du-Lac, Quebec.
Prior to Via's formation in 1978, CN Rail operated its Rapido trains on the same tracks and CP Rail also offered limited service.
All trains are identified by number, however in previous schedules these trains were named as well.
High speed proposal
During the 1970s and early 1980s, CN and later Via Rail operated the Turbo Train on existing freight rail trackage. This equipment was later replaced by the Bombardier LRC (Light, Rapid, Comfortable) train sets. Beginning in the 1980s and through the 1990s, Via Rail, Bombardier and the provincial and federal governments studied the feasibility of establishing a dedicated high speed passenger rail network linking Quebec City-Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto-Windsor similar to the French TGV as a means of reducing domestic air and highway travel between these destinations.
After a hiatus of ten years, a feasibility study on launching a high-speed rail service in the Corridor will be updated at the joint cost of the federal government, Ontario and Quebec.[1]
Primary inter-city Corridor routes
- Montreal—Alexandria—Ottawa—Fallowfield
- Montreal—St. Lambert-St. Hyacinthe-Drummondville-Charny—Quebec City
- Montreal—Kingston—Toronto—Oakville—Aldershot
- Toronto—Kingston—Ottawa
- Toronto—Kitchener—London—Sarnia
- Toronto—Oakville—Aldershot—Brantford—London—Windsor
- Toronto—Oakville—Aldershot—Niagara Falls
Commuter rail
Two commuter rail agencies, provincially-funded and independent of Via, offer services focused on Toronto and Montreal using some of the same railway tracks as Via's Corridor Trains
- GO Transit operates its Lakeshore West and Lakeshore East lines, connecting Hamilton GO Centre in the west via Toronto's Union Station to Oshawa GO Station in the east within the Toronto region. Tracks are shared from Bayview Junction (located west of Aldershot station) through Oakville, Toronto and Guildwood as far east as Durham Junction, where GO trains switch to a separate parallel line immediately north of the CN/Via tracks.
- Agence métropolitaine de transport operates its Dorion–Rigaud and Mont-St-Hilaire lines, reaching out to Rigaud in the west and Mont-St-Hilaire in the east, respectively. A single physical right-of-way stretching from Dorion to Lachine contains parallel sets of CN and CP tracks; Via Corridor trains operate on the former while AMT Dorion–Rigaud trains operate on the latter. Tracks are actually shared with AMT trains from Central Station east to Mont-Saint-Hilaire.
See also
Notes
- ^ Greenaway, Norma (2008-01-10). "Ontario-Quebec to study rapid rail link". National Post. http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=228684.
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