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Originally Posted by Truenorth00
Smaller cities can actually be tourist and cultural hubs. It's not uncommon elsewhere. However, the very thing needed to facilitate this, is usually derided on this very thread: good intercity rail.
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Sure, but you are assuming that there are cities nearby that are worth flying over 5000km to see. I googled top cities to visit and the first list I found was
this one, and none of the 29 cities listed are in Canada. Now I realize this is only one list, but I still stand by my statement that people don't come to visit Canada to see its cities.
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Nobody is going to use Ottawa as the gateway to the region unless they can easily get on a train and go to Montreal or even all the way down to Niagara Falls.
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If someone wanted to visit Montreal for some reason, they would be better off flying to YUL and if they wanted to visit Niagara Falls, they would fly to YYZ or maybe BUF.
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We could at least attract some European discount carriers here, as an alternative to Montreal, if we had better connections to Montreal itself.
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The only way that would work is if the train had a stop at YOW and even then it would be a hard sell (the airline would have to save a lot on landing fees to transfer a majority of its passengers to a train), and you are still assuming that a lot of Europeans seek out Montreal (or any other Canadian city) as a primary tourist destination.
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