VIA Rail

[milomilo]

Originally Posted by Bread_Kaczynski

I like this idea of having Go and Exo take over the Corridor, but why not take it a step further and just let the private sector take over intercity rail entirely? I know that privitization can be problematic, but if there's a strong business case for HFR, I could easily see Brightline or another company do it faster better than VIA. Better yet, they wouldn't be subject to the same kinds of political pressures as VIA is now. And let's face it, if GO ever runs trains to Ottawa, it's going to have to deal with the same political landscape as VIA. A private company won't be held hostage by railfans butthurt over not getting the train stopping at their tin can. They'll also be incentivized to do things that maximize speed over nickel-and-diming the route. And they certainly won't run routes like The Canadian that just hemorrhage money.

The fact is, the most ambitious rail projects of recent years have been done by Brightline and Texas Central. HFR is VIA's last hope, and seeing as how they've been cutting routes since day one, I'd say it's rather unrealistic to expect they'll change their tune after 40 years. As people in this thread have pointed out, the political capital from improved intercity rail just isn't worth the investment.

TLDR: scrap VIA/sell it to Brightline so we can actually have a shot of rail worthy of a G7 country.

Because rail is a natural monopoly, a public utility and will almost certainly still require an operating subsidy (let alone the capital cost) once HFR is built. If the route truly had a positive business case, the private sector would already do it. There's a reason truly privately run railways are almost non existent.