For an alternate Greenfield route for that section, this is what I landed on. Rather than trying to go around the city and come back to the alignment, I just followed the highway for a while.
Part of why I want to stick to the existing alignment as much as possible is that I beleive that it would be foolish to spend that much money and not plan for local service. With proper timing, the local service could be parked in station while the HSR passes through. Given the population density, I have no reason to beleive that such a service would ever be built if we were to bypass those communities completely. It would be a missed opportunity that would consecrate the car as the default mode of transportation for the next generation.
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I’m working on the next segment toward Québec right now. Its going to need more work. There more curves along both the highway and the existing railways.
The alignment proposed in this study seemed promising at first, but I’ve been finding that there are several issues. The proposed right of way runs close to the foot of the Laurentides. There isn’t any huge communities, so at first, it seems like a sure bet, but when you zoom in on Google Earth, you quickly find out that there are actually quite a number of scattered homes. As it happens, peoples like to live in high places and have a view. Theses are sleepy places that I do not expect would take kindly to HSR barging in.
Another thing worthy of note about this study is what we learn when we compare it to the outline that we see on the Interactive Pin Map that you can see on the Alto website. For the segment between Laval and Trois-Rivière, the alignment proposed by the study is clearly not being considered. We know that because the outline is mostly located between the existing alignment and the highway.
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Bonus: Some will note the X on the right near Trois-Rivière. Initially, I wanted to reuse the existing station, but I’m coming around to a more northern station along the unused highway 40 alignment. Part of why I’ve changed my mind on this is that the freight yard is hemmed in from all sides. Access would be rather difficult for both busses and cars. The main thing going for that location is the fact that it is near the touristic part of town.
Initially, a more northern location would not have worked with the other ideas that I have, but I’ve found ways to make it work. The bigger issues that I have with that location is how to get out of Trois-Rivière on the eastern side. The highway has a serious kink in it. There’s also a series of homes in the way as well as what looks like a marshy prairie. There’s also a waste water treatment facility nearby. That part needs more thinking.