[roger1818]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

What's the efficient way to transport goods according to you then?

I have said it before, but I would really like to see the government subsidize intermodal rail transport, similar to CPR's former Expressway service, but coast to coast. Major (and some minor) cities would have terminals where trailers could be picked up and dropped off. The "last mile"* would then be done by truck. While this will work well for goods, admittedly it won't work as well for fresh produce where time to market is critical.

* Obviously it most cases it would be far more than a mile.

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

For me, I've always thought that twinning TCH throughout Ontario was the way to go, both to make roads safer (0 head-on collision) and to make travel faster (for commuters and for truckers alike).

I am not against the idea of widening the TCH (be it by twinning or just making it 4 lanes) to make it safer, but not to increase long distance truck capacity. We need the highway if for no other reason than for local transport (both people and freight).

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

Then I thought that maybe we should revive rail transit.

Transit or transport?

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

Now I'd think that the best way to transport things quickly is to not have to do that at all. Take grocery for example. We should just go to the local farms off the suburbs to buy them. (Obviously, this eats so much into corporate interests of those chain grocery stores that it will end up being controversial.)

Certainly buying local is the best option whenever it is practical. Unfortunately it isn't practical for everything to be grown or manufactured locally. In those cases we need to encourage the most sustainable method of transport.

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...164316&page=87 #1729
So a train between Montreal and Sudbury via Upper Ottawa Valley, one between Toronto and SSM via Parry Sound and Sudbury, in addition to that between TO and Cochrane? xD

So you are quoting a post I made on passenger rail service between Vancouver (pop. 2.5 million), Seattle (pop. 3.7 million) and Portland (pop. 2.4 million) and applying it to Northern Ontario (pop. 780 thousand for the entire region)?

While as a rail fan I would love to see passenger rail return to Northern Ontario, I am not convinced it is practical. The passenger volume isn't there to make a train any more efficient than a bus (the rail line basically follows highway 11 from Washago to Cochrane), so it then all comes down to comfort and reliability in bad weather.

There are other routes that don't have decent road access that should be a higher priority for regular passenger service. The Algoma Central is one, but I would also like to revisit The Canadian and see if better service (possibly at a lower cost) could be provided by splitting it up into multiple routes.