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I'm curious what you mean by letting the Chinese build a Canadian railway. I have an uncle who died building the Burma Railway. I'm guessing that's not what you mean. Perhaps you mean that China should own a High Speed Rail in Canada? China doesn't do anything without long term profit and ownership. They are not building in Afghanistan to help the Taliban or the Afghani people. China wants resources for China.
Various parts of Canada have debated high speed rail for decades. So far, it has not been necessary.
It is a joke. But still possible. The Chinese seem to build infrastructure everywhere.
One must always remember that trains are not airlines, going between Vancouver and Calgary, or Toronto and Halifax. They're more like buses, or even better, a subway system. Yes, you may be going between Toronto and Montreal, but there will be those who are going between Toronto and Belleville, or between Trenton and Montreal, or between Guildwood and Brockville. Those people must be served, just as those going from Lawrence to King on the Toronto subway, in spite of the fact that the "Yonge line" only technically runs between Finch and Union. In other words, trains are very good at picking people up and dropping them off, where they need to go. Put in a high speed line between Toronto and Montreal only, and watch ridership shrink. Why? Because not everybody needs to go between Toronto and Montreal.
We will have to consider how population growth unfolds in Southern Ontario. Usually, adding more stops in an HSR network will only reduce the operating speed and it won't be able to compete against air transportation. the vast majority of the demand (therefore profit) will be from big cities - Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.
Kingston definitely needs a station as it's the largest city in between but if you build a station in Kingston, making another stop in Belleville or Brockville will be redundant. it will reduce the competitive edge of the network. Usually, when building HSR networks, sacrifices have to be made somewhere but politics get in the way and ruin things.
That said, given that Belleville is only about 188 km away from Union Station means that the commute from Belleville to Toronto could be done in like 45 minutes with the HSR. In this case, depending on the population of Belleville at the time and housing prices in the GTA at that time, this might actually make sense. Sometimes if you create supply first, the demand will follow.
Btw population of Belleville CMA in 2016 was 103,472 with Belleville proper only being 50k
Last edited by jamesse; 10-13-2021 at 08:53 AM..
Reason: population of Belleville
HSR for the bulk of Canada is neither needed or desired yet for the same reasons there is not one single bridge crossing the Amazon River; lack of viability and requirement.
HSR for the bulk of Canada is neither needed or desired yet for the same reasons there is not one single bridge crossing the Amazon River; lack of viability and requirement.
I did not know this!
I'm saving it for Trivia night
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