03-10-2022, 10:14 PM
Here are a few (very much tongue-in-cheek) suggestions:
- Convince CN and CP to get back into the passenger service game (that would take a lot of subsidies)
- or nationalize the entire rail network and rent the tracks slots back to CN & CP (much the same way that some rail systems are run in Europe)
- Connect Ayr to Cambridge with a DMU service that runs from Woodstock to London (because the CPR will support that)
- Connect Stratford to Guelph with a DMU service that includes either flag stop stops or proper stations at every village or settlement in between
- slowly resurrect the old Grand River Railway system to connect everything from Elmira to Brantford
- make sure that every former village along the rights-of-way has the option for a flag stop.
Railway building in the 19th century attracted the same kind of venture capital that tech start-ups do today. Unfortunately, it lead to a lot of over building before Southern Ontario really had a population density to support passenger rail. Once the lumber was cleared out of southern Ontario, private railways (and later just CN and CP) had little to justify maintaining their railway networks. Interestingly, after several decades of shedding branch lines, the big two have become interested in them again but who knows how long that will last.
- Convince CN and CP to get back into the passenger service game (that would take a lot of subsidies)
- or nationalize the entire rail network and rent the tracks slots back to CN & CP (much the same way that some rail systems are run in Europe)
- Connect Ayr to Cambridge with a DMU service that runs from Woodstock to London (because the CPR will support that)
- Connect Stratford to Guelph with a DMU service that includes either flag stop stops or proper stations at every village or settlement in between
- slowly resurrect the old Grand River Railway system to connect everything from Elmira to Brantford
- make sure that every former village along the rights-of-way has the option for a flag stop.
Railway building in the 19th century attracted the same kind of venture capital that tech start-ups do today. Unfortunately, it lead to a lot of over building before Southern Ontario really had a population density to support passenger rail. Once the lumber was cleared out of southern Ontario, private railways (and later just CN and CP) had little to justify maintaining their railway networks. Interestingly, after several decades of shedding branch lines, the big two have become interested in them again but who knows how long that will last.