05-16-2024, 09:18 AM
(05-16-2024, 07:29 AM)nms Wrote:(05-15-2024, 12:59 PM)westwardloo Wrote: So in other words don't expect GO trains from Cambridge until 2040-2050 at the earliest. North America is a joke when it comes to transportation infrastructure timelines, it is actually getting out of control. I don't necessarily think that the proposed GO between Cambridge and Guelph is the best option, but it should not take a decade+ to upgrade 18km of track.
I have a feeling like we will be talking about this plan in 2034 with no progress made.
Aside from countries with authoritarian regimes, what's a typical timeline elsewhere for an infrastructure upgrade like this one? For instance:
1. We know that the track is privately owned, so negotiations needs to happen with CN before anything happens.
2. We know that there are no existing trainsets waiting to run.
3. We know that various capital budgets (municipal, provincial and federal) often are planned multiple years in advance.
What could be done differently here to speed things up?
I'd really like to know how Montreal/Quebec managed to plan, build and get ridership underway for the REM system so fast. That's a Canadian example that we really should be looking to emulate. The project officially started in 2015, they had contractors by early 2018 and broke ground a few months later, and despite delays (COVID and buried century-old explosives), they still opened the first stations in mid-2023. That's just 8 years to go from concept to execution, and they're still expanding the system.