(11-07-2015, 04:40 PM)BuildingScout Wrote: staunch conservatives who opposed any and all changes (this is almost unique to Britain, can't think of any other country where a significant percentage of population opposes change as a matter of principle).

(11-07-2015, 05:39 PM)ookpik Wrote: How about the US, especially the Tea Party types? One significant difference, however, is that British conservatives tend to be wealthy, educated, old boys while in the US they tend to be poor, uneducated, red necks.

(11-07-2015, 01:46 PM)BuildingScout Wrote:

(11-07-2015, 12:28 PM)ookpik Wrote: Hardly applicable to Canada.

Additionally, we can easily justify a Calgary-Red Deer-Edmonton HSR. This, aside from being sorely needed, would also go a long way towards the Liberal party mending fences with Alberta.

(11-10-2015, 09:27 PM)nms Wrote: I could foresee a more likely situation here that GO Transit will continue to expand and improve its railway network.  At some point, they may even begin to operate trains that do not terminate at Union Station (think London to Georgetown; or Pickering to Kingston).  This will continue to build rail demand and eventually, VIA may be able to cobble together enough resources to expand its own trains in Southern Ontario.  GO could operate various all-stop routes and VIA would operate more limited stop options.  At the same time, passenger rail would be rebooted and refurbished elsewhere in Canada with frequent departure trains operated either by a provincial agency or VIA (think Vancouver-Whistler; or Edmonton-Calgary; or Quebec City-Montreal). 

(11-10-2015, 09:27 PM)nms Wrote: A dark horse entry could be a private railway offering passenger service. As far as I know, there is nothing that would prevent a private railway from offering a service, particularly on a secondary line.  The Florida East Coast Railway is building a four stop passenger service, set to start hauling passengers in 2017.

(11-10-2015, 09:50 PM)plam Wrote: I was surprised to see suburban rail routings in Zurich which did not go through the Hauptbahnhof. Wouldn't happen in today's Ontario.

(11-10-2015, 09:27 PM)nms Wrote: The Florida East Coast Railway is building a four stop passenger service, set to start hauling passengers in 2017.

Quote:Toronto’s high-end airport express train is a failure. A city that urgently needs better transit has been saddled with a deluxe boutique rail service that cost $456-million to build and runs nearly empty, 19½ hours a day...

Trains are running at under 10 per cent capacity and carrying about 2,200 riders a day, and falling – aggravating the frustrations of ordinary Torontonians who badly want and need transit to and from downtown, but whose tax dollars were arbitrarily redirected to this white elephant on wheels...

Metrolinx, the Ontario agency that operates UPX, is under pressure to reduce fares and broaden the line’s appeal to local commuters by integrating it more closely with Toronto’s broader transit network...

Quote:Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic sat down with Toronto Mayor John Tory in Toronto on Thursday morning promoting the importance of two-way all-day GO service and/or high speed rail between the two regions.
Vrbanovic and Tory are expressing the need for an innovation corridor between the two cities – similar to San Francisco and Silicon Valley.
Vrbanovic says “Transit drives innovation and innovation drives economic growth….Now is the time to lead not only the province, but the country in creating a high quality of life, and a strong and competitive economy.”