Kicking Horse Pass Trains/Day?

[edkyle99]

Does anyone know how many trains CP runs across Kicking
Horse on an average day? My impression is that it is in the
high 20s (both ways total).

- Ed Kyle

[FM/CLC Fan]

I don't think it's quite that high. I believe it's about 15 or so trains total passing thru. And they seem to go in clusters, I once waited almost 5 hours for a train to pass thru.

[AlM]

They definitely go in clusters. It's a slow trip from Lake Louise to Field, and if they alternated eastbound and westbound they'd have pretty poor capacity. I've driven the highway and passed at least 2 trains, if not 3, going in the same direction, in the 10+ minutes it takes to drive from Lake Louise to Field.

[edkyle99]

I found an interesting paper titled "The Kicking Horse Pass
Problem" by Werner E. Kluge of the University of Kiel in Germany.
["http://www.informatik.uni-kiel.de/~wk/kick.ps"]
Mr. Kluge studied ways to increase traffic on the line. He wrote
that it takes about one hour for a train to traverse the 15-mile-long
single-track Kicking Horse Pass section between Field and Stephen
(Lake Louise). The section includes two sidings (Patridge and
Cathedral) positioned on either side of the two spiral tunnels on
the Pass.

Mr. Kluge wrote that the current traffic load was about 30 trains per
day (15 each way). He showed that it is possible to fleet three trains
per hour through the Pass, without using sidings, if they are
travelling in the same direction. When the fleeting direction is
changed, no trains can enter the Pass for one hour, but up to
36 trains per day can cross this way nonetheless. If the sidings
are used for meets, up to 48 trains can cross in a day.

None of this answers my original question, but it seems to
suggest that more than 15 trains cross Kicking Horse Pass daily.
In addition, CP Rail's annual report indicated that this section
carried more than 45 MGT per year - an amount consistent with
something more than 24 trains per day on average.

- Ed Kyle