Canadian Railroads > VIA Buys the Brockville Subdivision

VIA has purchased the Brockville Subdivision (Brockville-Smiths Falls) from Canadian Pacific. This now puts nearly the entire 235 km line from Brockville to Coteau through Ottawa under VIA ownership.

http://www.viarail.ca/en/about-via-rail/media-room/latest-news/99672/23-november-2015-via-rail-expands-its-rail-network-acqui

VIA has already upgraded the Brockville Subdivision with additional sidings and a new CTC system for higher speeds. There’s 16 trains a day...... 8 each way between Toronto and Ottawa with some continuing through Ottawa to/from Montreal.

 Sorry, the tax payer's of Canada paid for this.. VIA does not make money to pay for anything..

bob
 

It's good to know those north of the border have the same problems as we south of it.  Or maybe I should say, sorry to hear it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/23/15 13:51 by tomstp.

That sounds like good news.  How does the speed compare with 10 or 15 years ago?

Speeds are about the same but trains have increased from 5 per day each way......to 8 each way for a total of 16 trains/day.

sooman1 Wrote:
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>  Sorry, the tax payer's of Canada paid for this..
> VIA does not make money to pay for anything..
>
> bob
>  

Neither to the roads or airports that taxpayers pay for.  It's called public infrastructure investment.

This is an old piece of railway, built in 1859 as the Brockville & Ottawa.  At one time it included a tunnel under downtown Brockville to the harbour. As the tunnel closed in 1970, I'm assuming that is when freight service vanished on this CPR branch.

Before Via Rail, CN used the CPR line from Brockville to Smiths Falls for passenger trains to access their own tracks from Smiths Falls to Ottawa.

eminence_grise Wrote:
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> This is an old piece of railway, built in 1859 as
> the Brockville & Ottawa.  At one time it included
> a tunnel under downtown Brockville to the harbour.
> As the tunnel closed in 1970, I'm assuming that is
> when freight service vanished on this CPR branch.
>
> Before Via Rail, CN used the CPR line from
> Brockville to Smiths Falls for passenger trains to
> access their own tracks from Smiths Falls to
> Ottawa.

was this the location where Via divided trains into two sections, and ran them to different termini?

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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>
> was this the location where Via divided trains
> into two sections, and ran them to different
> termini?

Yes....here’s the Canadian & Lakeshore heading to Montreal being split from the Capital for Ottawa back in 1983.

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thanks for the pictures

Brockville had a semaphore protected turning loop just north of the CN station.  The line from Smiths Falls must originally have crossed the CN (Grand Trunk) at grade and there must have been some type of interlocking. I'm assuming the road overpass is close to where the CP crossed,