[SonicScrub]

As much as I would love this to happen, a high-speed rail network has been discussed along this corridor for decades at both federal and provincial governments, with no tangible actions to making it actually happen. Given the current Prime Minister is on his way out, and the party likely to follow (barring some large swing in the polls), this is unlikely to go anywhere. I'd love to be wrong though.

[lupusreal]

How is it that America and Canada are both well saturated with freight rail, but getting the right of ways and building permits for high speed rail is evidently a completely different animal? I understand that high speed rail needs different right of ways than lower speed rails, larger turns and all that, but it seems like the processes for getting shit done in one case should at least cross over to the other.

Or is it the case that all the rail we already have is from an era when we were still competent at building, and if we had to do it all over from scratch we wouldn't even be able to get freight rail done?

[voisin]

Our freight rail wasn’t built in recent history. Something about our cultural shifts in the interim has made it that no matter how desirable something is, we can’t possibly do it without spending a decade studying it. Governance by bureaucracy.

My personal suspicion is that when countries have excess, they waste it by CYA with endless bureaucracy. But when countries are hungry and striving for excess they are more practical and will literally and figuratively move mountains to make things happen.

[jamal-kumar]

Has anyone outside of China tried to tackle the kinds of long distances there are in Canada? If it costs this many billions to do it just from Toronto to Quebec City then yeah I could easily picture cutting through extant farmland across a nationas big as that one to be an incredibly expensive undertaking. Pretty sure Canada has worse problems than not having high speed rail right now in terms of money

[nonchalantsui]

Actually this very rail has been in discussion since 2016, started under VIA HFR.

You can view a timeline of it here https://altotrain.ca/en/key-milestones/

[betaby]

Actually... There is a study from 1989-1991 http://www.bv.transports.gouv.qc.ca/mono/0986299.pdf

Nothing going to be build though.

Although, yes, SNC-Lavalin (whatever realis they are called nowaday) will get the money for another study.

In fact there is currently study to study is going on.

[sleepyguy]

When I hear of infrastructure projects like this, It reminds me of that article about why we can't build anything anymore. Due to regulations, studies, and a myriad of other things, there is no chance. It will cost billions in just an environmental assessment and take a decade. Unfortunately, we don't have a system where projects like this are feasible.

[bryanlarsen]

Canada can build. The REM in Montreal was built on time and under budget.

[leshow]

As long as they remain "public-private partnerships" the goal for the private part of that relationship will be to extract as much money as possible out of the public for as long as possible.

[Neonlicht]

The Chinese are building high-speed rail line in Indonesia. So Canada shouldn't be impossible.

[throaway89]

Mark Carney as leader could do the trick, but I don't know if he has the charisma to pull it off.

[dismalaf]

When the contents of his book get more widely disseminated he's done. Right now Trump is just dominating headlines so anti-Trump sentiment is high. And even then Carney's still behind the Conservatives by a fairly wide margin.

[jszymborski]

> and the party likely to follow (barring some large swing in the polls)

Said swing is currently underway [0], and if the polling is correct, they'll swing further with Carney as LPC leader [1].

[0] https://338canada.com/federal.htm

[1] https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/article/leger-poll-carney-as...

[gedy]

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding something but your first link seems to show a solid lead by the conservative party?

[bryanlarsen]

This is perfect timing. Assuming that the Conservatives are going to win the next election, there are now two options:

- the Conservatives kill the project before significant money is spent

- the Conservatives can proceed with the project knowing that it won't be killed in 4 or 8 years if/when the Liberals go back in power. (On the off chance that the NDP forms the succeeding government, they'll have likely taken a position on the project in this election).

[boringg]

Conservatives in Ontario have been project proponents.

Also it is far from clear who will be the next election -- Federally conservatives are losing ground incredibly quickly due to their pro USA stance.

[boringg]

(barring some large swing in the polls)

You aren't watching politics right now are you? It's happening in real time. It is actually quite dramatic - the US/CDN relationship is superseding most other political issues.

[bilbo0s]

I thought this comment was bluster and looked it up.

Sigh.

Even Canadians dislike us now. How bad do you have to screw up that the Canadians dislike you? All I can say is that, (maybe?), this will only last the four years.

I'm sure conservative Canadian parties did not think Trump and Vance would go off the deep end. Neither did a whole lot of conservative Americans. But buyer's remorse won't get anyone anywhere at this point. Just have to try make the best of what you can and live with the consequences with respect to the rest.

Unfortunately for conservative Canadian parties, it's looking like that probably means absorbing some impact at the polls at this point.

[dismalaf]

It'll die out and people will remember that 9 years of Liberal rule has destroyed our quality of life and we've lost ground to all our peer countries...

[voisin]

> Given the current Prime Minister is on his way out

It seems pretty unethical to be making a commitment like this in his current lame duck position.

[cwillu]

Hardly, this has been discussed in parliament for years already, and the crown corporation responsible for it was established in 2022. It's not like the PM just woke up one day and decided to build a train before he resigns.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alto_(high-speed_rail)#History

[Teever]

Why? That assumes that the populace and other parties are opposed to HSR.