High-Speed Rail (HSR) - Toronto/Pearson/Kitchener/London

[plam]

It is certainly a super annoying risk factor that the 401 being broken means you miss your flight, and that can and does happen anytime.

401 is indeed annoying, though somewhat less so if someone else is driving.

And you can indeed miss your flight because of traffic or (more likely) an accident, but it really does not happen very often. I have taken several hundred flights from YYZ, and I have missed a flight due to the 401 issues exactly once. And I generally would get to the airport 90-120 minutes ahead of departure, so that's not based on a huge safety margin.

You're right, I haven't missed flights from YYZ either and I have quite a large number of flights from there. It's the potential of missing flights that's worse than actually missing them. We'll see what happens tomorrow in a potential snowfall situation with leaving Waterloo 115 minutes before my flight departure. Not ideal.

I seem to recall that there were different (greater) subsidies at play in the US vs. Canada.

But yeah, Canadian flights aren't cheap. Once upon a time I'd fly into Buffalo or Detroit, but I'm unwilling to do that now...and not just because I won't travel to the US but also because it's super inconvenient with a child.

FWIW, I'm okay with low cost carriers pushing down the barrier to entry for flying. I think the ability to travel is a social good. My objection to flying is more the wastefulness of it. Flying for a once in a lifetime trip to experience other cultures, or for immigration, or to return home to visit family on occasion is fine. Flying to Paris for the weekend because you're a billionaire or racking up 100,000 flyer miles in a year because you're an executive who hasn't figured out Zoom...well...those are the problem people. And also, the flights from Toronto to Montreal...a trip that should be handled much more competitively with a high speed train...those are the problem flights. If we eliminated all those air travel would be worth the harm it creates, IMO. As is...we have work to do.

I believe that airports are more subsidized in the US than in Canada.

Buffalo flights are also less attractive than they used to be.

So the thing about low cost carriers is that it really does get people flying to Paris for the weekend. I dunno. Then again they are flying to Paris relatively efficiently. But less efficiently than in a train.

I really would take alternatives for Toronto to Montreal whenever possible, but with the current schedules, that's not very often unfortunately. I used to be able to do it more.