The Agenda’s High Speed Rail Episode
For your weekend viewing pleasure…
Is it time for Canada to invest (subsidize?) a high speed rail corridor from Montreal to Windsor, connecting to President Obama’s new network south of the border?
On Thursday night, TVO’s The Agenda With Steve Paikin askied these questions, and more, with some interesting results. So weight in! Personall, a high speed rail corridor linking to our own municipal LRT system would be nirvana for me!
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Thanks for the link! I would have missed this otherwise…
I only caught part of it, but there was a big discussion on whether these things made economic sense. Thogh I didn’t hear the whole thing they said that construction made no economic sense, that the operations could be viable but not the initial construction.
What kills me is they just keep putting it off. They need to put like, a billion behind this to get it started.
1 billion? That would hardly get anything except for a few studies done and then enough would be left over to aquire some land for a small part of the way. One of the commenters on the show noted that with the 10 billion used to bail out the auto industry recently we could be almost halfway done the Toronto-Montreal section.. So that means total cost for Quebec to Windsor would be probably around 20-ish billion.. That is a huge number. Is it worth it? I personally think it is. However I’m not sure that it would have much of a scale-down effect as would actually allow people to live tramendously far from their workplace. Who cars about residential intensification when you can travel over land at 350+ kmph? This may be a draw-back we should be careful not to overlook.
I can attest from my time in Japan that although the shinkansen (bullet train) is an amazing peice of infrastructure, it is only one peice of infrastructure in a country largely built around rail and various forms of rail-rapid-transit. With some thought given to it, I am still an advocate for highspeed rail in our region but I believe strong efforts should be made to improve municiple transit before inter-municiple systems have billions poured on them.
The whole issue of the economics of high-speed rail is a red herring. It is public transportation, which is a public good like police or fire service or education, where the benefits to the entire population are great but difficult to quantify. The issue is whether the current balance between roads, air travel, and rail is appropriate.
I can’t believe so much time, in the debate, was wasted on the viability of the project. Air transport is not viable without government investment, just look at the announcement here on Friday to invest in the Windsor airport. And airline operations are subsidized thru government subsidies to aircraft manufactures who then pass it on to the airlines thru cheap financing. Road transport is not viable without government investments; just look at the DRIC highway, the new bridge, auto manufacturing subsidies and bailouts, and countless local road projects. From an operational basis, studies show that only about 60% of the cost of roadway use is covered by taxes and tolls. So, the fact that the operations of high-speed rail are economically viable means it is already better than the alternatives.
The big hurdle to Quebec City to Windsor high-speed rail is the airline industry. The Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal corridor is their bread and butter. They are not going to allow a new competitor to enter their hood without a fight. These guys are, or at least have been, a powerful and effective lobby group in Ottawa. That’s what killed high-speed rail in the past and it’s the biggest threat today.
I watched it also and I am tired - thirty some years tired! Almost the same arguments, same facts, same examples of successful HSR and not so successful attempts. I agree with Edwin and Tim totally, it is a public good that can’t be measured —aw..just like libraries, museums, art galleries and symphonies.
Speaking of money: OPINION Region has a transit plan, now what about money? The GTA
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/646501
In 2006 the province established Metrolinx, a regional transportation agency, to begin tackling these problems across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area (GTHA). In its first major report entitled “The Big Move,” Metrolinx estimated that it will take an investment of $2 billion annually, for the next 25 years, to give this region a 21st-century transportation system.
The province has made an $11.5 billion down payment on this $50 billion plan. The money is for light rail lines on Finch and Eglinton, and to extend the Scarborough LRT. Another $950 million was announced recently by Queen’s Park and Ottawa for a light rail line along Sheppard Ave. to Meadowvale. The TTC has placed a $1.2 billion order to replace its aging fleet of streetcars.
The planning is done. Metrolinx is being expanded and reorganized. And the recent funding announcements are encouraging. But where is Metrolinx going to find the remaining $36 billion to finance the whole plan?
Show me the money.
And the Obama version of High Speed Rail is really 30-year old High Speed Rail. 110 mph? That’s it? France and Japan have high-speed rail that exceeds 200 mph. We should be aiming to at least match the rest-of-world. Instead we are falling behind.