Boston-Montreal?

Does anybody think this route could work well?

Interestingly, this map (which, in the interests of full disclosure, I did find on Wikipedia) states Boston-Montreal as a possible "High Speed Corridor".

Im trying to think what routing would make that possible today. Something via PAR to CN? I have no idea.

...Montrealer?

i thought it had been in disicussion to try to re-run that old route but funds, and state support was lacking.

fairlane57 wrote:...Montrealer?

i thought it had been in disicussion to try to re-run that old route but funds, and state support was lacking.

Montrealer didn't even go through Boston.

The proposed highspeed corridor route was via Concord and it would require relaying track on an abandoned B&M route.

http://www.aot.state.vt.us/Planning/BostonRail.htm

But there are other options:

Boston-Palmer (Lakeshore route) then up the New England Central (Vermonter route) and on into Montreal on CN.

Or:

Extend a Downeaster beyond Portland on the St. Lawrence & Atlantic to Lennoxville, Quebec (Sherbrooke) then into Montreal on the former VIA Atlantic route.

This topic keeps coming up. Boston-Montreal might have some potential for tourist and local traffic, but it has absolutely no chance in the current funding environment. Maybe when gas reaches $5/gallon, a new administration is in place in Washington, and the general public starts clamoring for more intercity rail service.

I will say that based on my time in New England, such a route would be very scenic but I'm not sure how cost effective engineering a high speed route through the mountains would be.

This has come up on here previously and the situation has not gotten any
better since the last time that this was discussed.
There is NO direct route that could possibly compete with the private car
or a bus for that matter either.
Any attempt to use existing railroad routes would be pretty darn slow and
the average traveler would not want to spend the time that it would take
to do this trip by train today.
Previously, the most direct route passed through much of New Hampshire
which is not supportive of railroad passenger service for the most part
and much of this route is abandoned and torn up.
The interstate highways from Boston to Montreal do not pass through
areas where there would be major traffic congestion problems and an
express bus could make this trip in far less time than any train could too.
I do not see this as a go anytime within reason and maybe never.
Noel Weaver

If you did an overnight route, it wouldn't be as bad "hotel on wheels" - Boston to Montreal via the NEC/New Haven route or CSX line to Palmer then up to Vermont and on to Montreal! Course Amtrak would need some single level sleepers - and a dream to come true!

As an idea, Boston-Montreal makes a lot of sense-- two cities that rely heavily on tourism dollars, both centers of culture and commerce in their respective regions, a fair amount of bus and auto traffic between the two, and an ROW that hits some interesting spots in between (ski country, a few colleges)...

But as a workable plan, there's just so much money that needs to be sunk into going from idea to steel wheels, there's little chance Amtrak, state governments or Canadian government would go for it.

I will toss this out there: If I were a bored billionaire looking to sell privately owned rail transportation to the United States (paging Richard Branson), this would be one of a few routes I'd think about as a candidate for a pilot program (others, off the top of my head, being Florida, Texas, and the Mid-South-- the corridors that time hath forgot)

Boston-Toronto day train?

Suburban Station wrote:Boston-Toronto day train?

Yes, its called drive to Albany and take the Maple Leaf.

Thruway buses to connect with the canad trains at Albany would be a start .

Does anybody think this route could work well?

Work well for what? jscola30, can you add a little bit more before we start guessing at what it is you want to discuss?

-otto-