Quote:
Originally Posted by someone123
There seems to be a pattern on this thread that people talk about how much the focus should be on Ontario and Quebec without much nuance or acknowledgement of the huge disparity in service levels. I agree that high-speed rail isn't going to make sense in many places, or maybe anywhere in Canada. But there's a wide range of possibilities between that and the ~0 service or ~useless service that exists in several well-populated regions.
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I don't think that's the case. People just understand that the reality is that the government are total tightwads when it comes to investing in VIA, and also understand that implementing rail between Calgary - Edmonton that is worthwhile will cost a lot of money. While it would be desirable, and totally within the fiscal means of Canada to be able to build both HFR and a Calgary - Edmonton railway at the same time, the federal government has shown ambivalence to VIA. So I think that while people may not be totally happy about the state of affairs, they agree with VIA that HFR is the best, last shot at making at least one railway the type of railway Canadians deserve. And with that done, maybe the rest of the country can start being upgraded.
And TBH, there is nothing stopping Alberta building that line. Or at least there wasn't. Now our economy is totally screwed and I'm not overly confident our population will keep growing. And in that world, of stagnant economic and population growth, the business case for passenger rail looks pretty weak.
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