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Originally Posted by Truenorth00
Explain to me how Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal would be substantially different from Barcelona-Zaragoza-Madrid, one of the most successful HSR lines anywhere. Similar distance. Similar population centres. And unlike us, they have cheap flights and don't get poor driving conditions a third of the year.
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The main difference between intercity rail corridors in Europe and those in Canada is that whereas cities of almost all tiers have highly developped urban, suburban, regional and intercity rail networks which turn their downtown rail termini into buzzing hubs, only Toronto Union offers a remotely comparable connectivity, very unlike Montreal and the cruel joke we call our capital.
If we look at Berlin-Munich (because it has exactly the same distance as-the-crow-flies as Toronto-Montreal), Halle, Leipzig and Nürnberg have an impressive level of interconnections and even small nests like Ingolstadt (population: 142k, i.e., sinilar to Brantford) have a regional rail network which leaves Montreal in the dust.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Truenorth00
Canadians are full of excuses for why something can't get built. Same mentality is contributing to a housing crisis in another area. It's incredible to imagine that this is the same country that built a railroad across the country or mobilized massively for WWII. Would definately not happen with the current lot.
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To be fair, Ontario is the one jurisdiction in this country which spends on transit (at least in the GTHA) like there is no tomorrow. Granted, even after all of these projects have been completed, Toronto will have only narrowed the massive gap which separates it from its European peers, but the list is still sheer impressive:
- Scarborough Subway Extension
- Yonge North Subway Extension
- Ontario Line
- Regional Express Rail
- Eglinton Crosstown (incl. Western Extension)
- Finch LRT
- Hurontario LRT
Despite all the shortcomings, I don’t think Ontarians give themselves enough credit for how their steady stream of (funded and approved!) projects occupies a massive proportion of the transit-related Architecture, Construction and Engineering industry not just in the country, but in all of North America, and even more so for nurturing and building these capabilities within the GTHA, as I can attest first-hand…