High Speed Rail: will Canada follow suit?

[Kitchissippi]

• Video Link

This is enough to make a railfan cry tears of joy. So with Obama so gungho on HSR, I wonder if our government will have the balls (or penis-envy) to announce something similar. Hope it shows up as a big election issue next time.

[Kitchissippi]

Quebec-Windsor corridor fits into this quite nicely

[jmt18325]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

Quebec-Windsor corridor fits into this quite nicely

Yes, I don't think it will be long until we're looking at a Quebec - Windsor corridor or a Calgary - Edmonton corridor.

[kitchener-lrt]

If you check your local paper, you'll probably see an interesting article about "Ignatieff's big plan" or something along that line. Iggy's been talking high speed rail for some time now. He has mentioned Windsor-Quebec City, Calgary-Edmonton, and Vancouver-Calgary.

[jmt18325]

Originally Posted by kitchener-lrt

Vancouver-Calgary.

That would be difficult.

[kitchener-lrt]

If the Swiss can tunnel through the Alps, then we sure as hell can tunnel through the Rockies! The Europeans and Japanese didn't let physical barriers hold them back too much, so why should we? We're Canadian !

[Metro-One]

A Vancouver Calgary corridor would be great, but it would need to have a stop in the Okanagan, but that sure would be sweet. Then from Calgary you could take the high speed train to Edmonton.

[Jamaican-Phoenix]

Originally Posted by kitchener-lrt

If you check your local paper, you'll probably see an interesting article about "Ignatieff's big plan" or something along that line. Iggy's been talking high speed rail for some time now. He has mentioned Windsor-Quebec City, Calgary-Edmonton, and Vancouver-Calgary.

Go Iggy!

Still don't like him that much though.

[waterloowarrior]

from Iggy's new book

Are the east-west linkages strong enough to sustain us today? We have had free trade with the United States for 20 years, yet we still do not have free trade in labour and capital among Canadian provinces. We still do not maintain a single economic space from ocean to ocean. We still maintain barriers that prevent Canadians from doing business with each other or from pulling up stakes and moving where the work is. Our forefathers would not understand why we lack the will to pull them down.

The ribbon of steel that used to tie us together is almost gone. Now we have the airlines and the bus companies and we pretend to have a national highway. In many places—northern Ontario or the interior of British Columbia—it dwindles down to two-lane blacktop, and the local residents will tell you these narrow sections make our national highway a death trap. We could do better. The Americans completed a four-lane national highway system 50 years ago. We are still awaiting ours.

The Europeans have used high-speed railways to tie Europe together. After 50 years of studies, we are still considering a high-speed rail link to connect Windsor to Quebec City, Vancouver to Calgary and Calgary to Edmonton. If we want to tie Canadians together, if we want to be nation builders, we would start on them right now. Here the 19th-century buccaneers—Fleming, Van Horne, Rogers, John A. himself—offer an example of the political grit and daredevil entrepreneurship that Canada has always called upon when it truly wants to achieve great things.

[Denscity]

Sweet! Vancouver and Montreal are already included in the U.S. high speed rail plan.

[Yume-sama]

A Calgary - Vancouver railroad would be a HUGE waste of funds. It would cost BILLIONS of dollars, very few people would use it, and you can fly in 60 minutes for $100.

I'm not sold on the feasibility of Highspeed rail in North America. It's practical in Japan because it is so well done, and is the ONLY mode of transportation for MOST of the people, locally and nationally.

The Shinkansen in Japan is losing out to airplanes in a lot of areas, now, too, as it is actually cheaper to fly than take the train. They are eliminating many services, including overnighters between Tokyo and Sapporo.

As a result, they will be focusing more on LUXURY travel, currently they have a "Green Car" and a normal car, but they are going to be adding a more deluxe, luxury car, to try and compete with airlines.

[Aylmer]

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

A Calgary - Vancouver railroad would be a HUGE waste of funds. It would cost BILLIONS of dollars, very few people would use it, and you can fly in 60 minutes for $100.

I'm not sold on the feasibility of Highspeed rail in North America. It's practical in Japan because it is so well done, and is the ONLY mode of transportation for MOST of the people, locally and nationally.

The Shinkansen in Japan is losing out to airplanes in a lot of areas, now, too, as it is actually cheaper to fly than take the train. They are eliminating many services, including overnighters between Tokyo and Sapporo.

As a result, they will be focusing more on LUXURY travel, currently they have a "Green Car" and a normal car, but they are going to be adding a more deluxe, luxury car, to try and compete with airlines.

I do find it ironic that your location reads: Vancouver/Calgary!

[Wooster]

I just can't see a Vancouver-Calgary route for a very, very long time, if ever. Especially if both cities have their transit systems linked to the airport. Vancouver does now, Calgary likely will in the next 15 years or so. HSR seems to function most effectively if it replaces driving that takes 3-6 hours and inefficient flights that are under an hour or so. The Vancouver-Calgary route is neither - add in the enormous geological challenges of a bunch of mountain ranges in between...

I'd love to see a Edmonton-Calgary route and a Windsor-Quebec route in the nearer future though.

[O-Town Hockey]

Iggy was on CBC News: Sunday this morning talking about raising the bar in terms of infrastructure projects in Canada. I completely agree that the conservative mindset in Canada in recent years has drained a lot of enthusiausm and nationalism from Canadians in exchange for a culture of regionalism and beaurocracy. He mentioned the possibility of a Windsor-Quebec HSR corridor and seemed quite confident that he could make it happen. A PM with vision, what a novel idea.

[Aylmer]

Originally Posted by O-Town Hockey

Iggy was on CBC News: Sunday this morning talking about raising the bar in terms of infrastructure projects in Canada. I completely agree that the conservative mindset in Canada in recent years has drained a lot of enthusiausm and nationalism from Canadians in exchange for a culture of regionalism and beaurocracy. He mentioned the possibility of a Windsor-Quebec HSR corridor and seemed quite confident that he could make it happen. A PM with vision, what a novel idea.

I enjoyed that interview. Iggy did a very good job answering questions.

[SteelTown]

Would be nice to link HSR from Buffalo through Hamilton to link up with the Windsor-Quebec line.

[Rathgrith]

Originally Posted by O-Town Hockey

Iggy was on CBC News: Sunday this morning talking about raising the bar in terms of infrastructure projects in Canada. I completely agree that the conservative mindset in Canada in recent years has drained a lot of enthusiausm and nationalism from Canadians in exchange for a culture of regionalism and beaurocracy. He mentioned the possibility of a Windsor-Quebec HSR corridor and seemed quite confident that he could make it happen. A PM with vision, what a novel idea.

Its called being pragmatic, really, really pragmatic.

I listened to that interview too this morning. He had good points, but I still don't like Iggy and the underlying sediment of the federal Liberal party's that they are still "Canada's" natural governing party.

When I took the train from Oshawa to Ottawa on Easter. I was surprised by how busy the Oshawa station was. I arrived 30 minutes before I got on my train arrived. In that time 1 train bound for Montreal arrived (on its own and not with the joint Montreal-Ottawa train sets) and 1 train bound for Toronto past me. Demand is there. Its just political will.

As for Calgary - Vancouver, its a great idea but population numbers are not there... yet.

[Yume-sama]

Originally Posted by AylmerOptimist

I do find it ironic that your location reads: Vancouver/Calgary!

And I enjoy my frequent $100 1 hour flights.

[Beltliner]

Originally Posted by Wooster

I just can't see a Vancouver-Calgary route for a very, very long time, if ever. Especially if both cities have their transit systems linked to the airport. Vancouver does now, Calgary likely will in the next 15 years or so. HSR seems to function most effectively if it replaces driving that takes 3-6 hours and inefficient flights that are under an hour or so. The Vancouver-Calgary route is neither - add in the enormous geological challenges of a bunch of mountain ranges in between...

I'd love to see a Edmonton-Calgary route and a Windsor-Quebec route in the nearer future though.

Have to agree that a Calgary-to-Vancouver TGV line would be hideously expensive to build, but I have to mention that while you can certainly fly from YYC to YVR in under an hour, getting downtown to downtown is quite another kettle of fish, what with the pre-flight check-in formalities and the insecurity theatre getting to your departure pier and the lame excuses unforeseeable circumstances beyond Aeroflot's control resulting in departure delays and your suitcase being the last one to find its way to the baggage carousel and your cab driver taking that wrong turn at Albuquerque and....

[SpongeG]

i don't really see that much business between calgary and vancouver either - neither city is really that important to each other - say the way edmonton and calgary is - i think vancouver - toronto would have more business connections

and the train as it is now is for sightseeing and tourists - making it faster wouldn't benefit that industry