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Originally Posted by esquire
Totally agree that this is the real reason. The feds spend money on all kinds of things all the time so the ability to do so is not the issue at all here. It comes down to political will which is totally lacking.
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Find me a political party that does anything without expecting electoral return. And that's really the problem. You want to convince any of the federal parties to invest in inter-city rail, you gotta show them which ridings can be flipped (or retained) and for how long. If I'm a federal Liberal MP, looking at the Transport Minister and this $4-6B HFR idea he's pitching in caucus, I'm thinking $20M in my riding can win me quite a lot of votes. Will HFR give me the same benefit? Now imagine the math for $16B HSR proposals.
It's also why the federal Liberals don't show much interest in rural rail. Trudeau could ribbon cut a Hyperloop to their doorstep and they'd curse him for it. And the Conservatives know those votes are in the bag, so they might as well use that money to buy votes elsewhere. There's a similar dynamic to why, for example, expensive subways (like the DRL) are ignored while governments will happily spend all kinds of money vote swinging suburbanites (like GO's $12B RER).
I don't blame politicians for playing politics. I blame voters for not caring enough.
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Originally Posted by esquire
Considering the fact that the last meaningful progress towards HSR in the corridor was the purchase of Turbo trainsets in the 60s, the two provinces might as well step in and take over... it's not like they would really do any worse than Ottawa/VIA have over the last 40+ years.
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I look at what is happening with GO RER and I think it's time to acknowledge that GO is going to outshine VIA in the Corridor. Even the feds are throwing billions at this. Their RER commitment even came before they started HFR studies or before GO had even finished RER definition!
And no political party at the federal or provincial level questions any of GO's plans any more. They ask for billions and they get it. And that's entirely because of the massive swing vote belt GO serves. Give them the Corridor and watch GO develop it at a pace that VIA's CEO could never dream of.
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