Passenger Trains > How is VIA coping with the snow in ON?

With all the news about the blizzard along the south side of Lake Erie/Lake Ontario affecting the Buffalo area, we've heard nothing about what snowfall Toronto/Hamilton/Niagara Falls and other areas in southern ON are dealing with and how VIA service is being affected.
Thanks!

Andy
Jacksonville, FL

Not a snowbelt area so maybe no serious problems. Lake effect snow is always localized and the variations from one place to another can be extreme. I was on an airport shuttle from Ithaca, NY to Syracuse. About 20 mi south of Syracuse we went from sunshine to heavy snow whiteout in about 1 mile!

Reporting live from Buffalo...

There has been little or no snow north and northwest of Buffalo including all of the immediate southern Ontario area between Niagara Falls, ON, Hamilton and Toronto.

The major issues here locally has been along a line from just barely north of the ex-NYC mainline in from Batavia, through Depew, past Frontier Yard and then south over CP-Draw towards the NY-Penn state border.

For a perspective, there is considerable snow (~3 feet+) in the Buffalo-Depew Amtrak station area, but at the Buffalo Airport which is only about a 1.5 miles north of the Depew station, there has only been ~12" and another mile further north from the airport maybe only 8" total.

The hardest hit areas have been south of Buffalo, where both the CSX and NS main lines go through areas which have received over 5 feet of snow so far, with more coming today.

As with all Lake Effect snow storms, it all depends on the winds and your location...It can be sunny and clear in one spot and only a 1/2 mile away it can be a total white out!

From what I have seen on the radar maps of the snow patterns, southern Ontario is not getting any of this storm. I know on Tuesday, while Southtown Buffalo was getting 5 feet of snow, Northtown Buffalo was sunny. This morning the radar maps are again showing lake-effect snow with a northern limit just about at I-90 (NY State Thruway), which puts CSX right in the middle of it all. I am attaching some aerial photos of Buffalo that show how sharply delineated the storms have been.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/14 08:20 by RevRandy.

---

---

RevRandy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> I am attaching an aerial photo of Buffalo that shows
> how sharply delineated the storms have been.

That's a good day for a baseball game!

The comparable snow-belt area in southern Ontario involves the Lake Huron coast from Goderich up to Owen Sound. The main lines west from Toronto generally aren't affected. Sometimes if the wind blows the right way, Parry Sound might get dumped on.

Great pictures. The night shot is stunning. Thank you very much.

All are correct, there is very little snow in southern Ontario. The attached photo shows CN 148 passing CN 580 in front of the VIA Station in Brantford, ON 2014-11-20.

Rob Smith
Hamilton, ON

---

RevRandy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
I am
> attaching some aerial photos of Buffalo that show
> how sharply delineated the storms have been.

The daytime photo shows all of the roads being cleared of snow. Seems like some pretty impressive snow clearance ability by the City of Buffalo, Erie County and/or New York State Department of Transportation.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/14 17:54 by RuleG.

There was a lot of snow in London. Five cm. was predicted for Wednesday. I arrived on train #73 and there was lots more than that and it didn't stop until about 8:00 p.m. Train #73 was essentially on time. Today I returned on #72 which was only a few minutes late. There were some unspecified "operational reasons" that closed the "back route", i.e. the Guelph Sub. There is a note on VIA's site about bustitutions. Train #85 operated today direct to London via the Oakville/Dundas Subs. VIA has operated the Maple Leaf - with some delays - to and from Niagara Falls.