I think any commuter rail system will require a major financial investment to build (or repair?) the infrastructure that's needed for it. The most important point, IMHO, is how much of the necessary ROW still exists for it, and is it able to be obtained by the City or Province, if they (we) do not already own it?
They aren't making anymore land, so once the ROW is gone, it becomes that much more difficult and expensive to pull it off. Given the lackluster performance of the government(s) in their inability to get this going, I would say that once a major hurdle like this is in place, it will probably never happen. Geez, as per Keith's link, we were discussing this 15 years ago on this forum, and nothing, that is, ZERO, has been done since then, to get this rolling.
Meanwhile, let's spend provincial tax dollars (of which we pay too much, compared to other provinces at least) to study commuter rail in rural Cape Breton.
