07-06-2023, 07:07 AM
(07-05-2023, 07:30 AM)danbrotherston Wrote: The problem with "slow but incremental progress" is that it doesn't occur in a vacuum. If we very gradually add train service, but rapidly expand roads and develop more sprawl we are actually losing ground, not gaining it.I'm not sure how quickly major road expansion actually occurs. For instance, the Highway 8/401 interchange expansion plus the widening of the 401 east of Waterloo Region felt like it took the best part of 15 years without including the planning work that happened before the first shovel hit the ground. Highway 7 between Kitchener and Guelph has been on the books for the best part of 40 years but it hasn't exactly roared out of the gate.
For better or for worse, gone are the days when a railway (or anything else that large) can be built halfway across the country in a decade. (Excluding the the existing railways that it absorbed, the CPR was built from 1875 to 1885 between southern Ontario and BC).