As many of you know, I am an advocate for high-speed rail in Canada. Specifically along the Windsor-Quebec City corridor, which is the most densely populated part of the country. And so I found this comparison interesting:
“If there is one project that would create thousands of jobs, improve business productivity, clean up the air, reduce the output of greenhouse gases and cut the demand for endless highway construction, it would be high-speed electric rail between Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, where population densities are high enough to make the project sensible. Cost estimates are all over the map. The University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy put the price tag at about $12-billion, which is $2-billion less than the bucks being thrown at the Volkswagen battery plant alone. But forget it – the Canadian government wants more cars, not fewer. Canadian cities will remain car sewers forever.”
The above excerpt is from this opinion piece talking about EVs and the public subsidies being paid to encourage battery production within Canada. I get that we want to be part of this important mobility shift. But we are way behind when it comes to high-speed rail.
And by behind, I mean that we don’t have it at all in this country.
BRANDON DONNELLY 
There have been previous attempts to build high speed in that corridor One was called Rapido It could not go fast because, I think, it is the track bed that has to be totally redone. I believe the tracks are currently controlled by the freight business which I assume, would not benefit from such an improvement. It would seem that an entirely different set of tracks would be needed. But yes it would be great. I believe you have been on the train to Marseilles as I have I have also experienced the bullet trains and the elevated train into Shanghai all of the are amazing
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Decades ago an engineer with Alcan proposed a monorail along the 401 corridor. For reasons unknown, it was rejected.
The current discussions always revolve around property rights but that corridor belongs to the public and could easily accommodate high-speed rail or elevated track for one. The federal government could do this if it had the will!
My guess is that the airline and trucking lobbies are just too powerful for governments to be rational. And the media are too busy listening to Poilievre bleat!
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Canada is the only G7 country to have no HSS rail.
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😢
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