Early High Speed Rail in Canada
CN Rail placed some early hopes with the UAC TurboTrain, in its Toronto–Montreal route during the 1960s. The TurboTrain was a true HST with the train sets achieving speeds as high as 200 km/h in regular service. CN's, and later Via Rail's, TurboTrain service were marred with lengthy interruptions to address design problems and having to cope with poor track quality (accounted for by dual passenger-freight use); as such, the trains were operated at 160 km/h. The TurboTrain featured the latest technology advances such as passive coach tilting, Talgo attachment for rigid coach articulation and gas turbine power.
Beginning in the 1970s, a consortium of several companies started to study Bombardier Transportation's LRC, which was a more conventional approach to high-speed rail, in having separate cars and locomotives, rather than being an articulated train. Pulled by heavy conventional-technology diesel-electric locomotives designed for 200 km/h normal operating speed, inspired by the British InterCity 125, it entered full-scale service in 1981 for Via Rail, linking cities in the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor, but at speeds never exceeding the 170 km/h limit mandated by line signalling. It was the world's first active tilting train in commercial service.
In 1998, the Lynx consortium, including Bombardier and SNC-Lavalin proposed a 320 km/h high-speed train from Toronto to Quebec City via Kingston, Ottawa and Montreal based on the TGV and the French Turbo-Train technology. Recently, Bombardier and Via have proposed high-speed services along the Quebec City–Windsor corridor using Bombardier's experimental JetTrain tilting trains, which are similar to Bombardier's Acela Express, but powered by a gas turbine rather than overhead electric wires. These trains resemble the first TGV prototype (TGV001) powered by a gas turbine that were tested on the Strasbourg–Mulhouse line. After promotional stops in the USA and Canada, no government purchased the Jet Train. As of August 2012, the Jet Train now sits idle. The prototype is stored serviceable at the AAR/FRA Transportation Technology Center at Pueblo, Colorado, USA.
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