11-03-2015, 03:26 PM
[quote='ookpik' pid='13282' dateline='1446573016']
The Record's view: Answers needed on high-speed passenger trains through Kitchener
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By contrast, a joint federal, Ontario and Quebec study from 2011 concluded a high-speed link between Quebec City and Windsor would cost $21 billion to build. Even when you take into account the estimate is for a greater distance, the $2.5-billion figure seems off. Heck, it's costing close to a billion dollars just to build an 18-kilometre light rail line in Kitchener and Waterloo...
[Via's president] Yves Desjardins-Siciliano, considers high-speed rail a poor investment and has no interest in building such a system in this corridor. Instead, he wants money for a Windsor to Quebec City rail corridor dedicated only to passenger service that could run at 160 km/h. "That option is much cheaper (than high-speed rail) at a third of the price and it serves more people," he said earlier this year.
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I would want to know what the $2.5 billion and $21 billion are per kilometer. Quebec City to Windsor is 1160km. I’m not sure the exact distance to Toronto, but it looks to me like those numbers are in the same ballpark, per kilometer, so just saying that the $2.5 billion “seems off” is — or maybe I should say, “seems” — irresponsible.
Comparing to the LRT line is obviously completely invalid, to the point where I question the sincerity of the argument. Our project has to contend with enormous amounts of buried infrastructure and work on city streets. By contrast HSR construction would be almost entirely out in the countryside, and from what I understand much of it would not even be on existing corridors so the issue of road and rail closures would be almost non-existent. It is entirely believable that the cost per kilometer for HSR would be way lower than for LRT.
I must count myself as a bit of an HSR skeptic (even though as a fan I love the idea), but I don’t want to see arguments against that are clearly not thought out. If I see bogus arguments against and no possibly-valid arguments against, it makes me start to think there are no actual arguments against.
The Record's view: Answers needed on high-speed passenger trains through Kitchener
[quote]
[....]
By contrast, a joint federal, Ontario and Quebec study from 2011 concluded a high-speed link between Quebec City and Windsor would cost $21 billion to build. Even when you take into account the estimate is for a greater distance, the $2.5-billion figure seems off. Heck, it's costing close to a billion dollars just to build an 18-kilometre light rail line in Kitchener and Waterloo...
[Via's president] Yves Desjardins-Siciliano, considers high-speed rail a poor investment and has no interest in building such a system in this corridor. Instead, he wants money for a Windsor to Quebec City rail corridor dedicated only to passenger service that could run at 160 km/h. "That option is much cheaper (than high-speed rail) at a third of the price and it serves more people," he said earlier this year.
[....]
[/quote]
I would want to know what the $2.5 billion and $21 billion are per kilometer. Quebec City to Windsor is 1160km. I’m not sure the exact distance to Toronto, but it looks to me like those numbers are in the same ballpark, per kilometer, so just saying that the $2.5 billion “seems off” is — or maybe I should say, “seems” — irresponsible.
Comparing to the LRT line is obviously completely invalid, to the point where I question the sincerity of the argument. Our project has to contend with enormous amounts of buried infrastructure and work on city streets. By contrast HSR construction would be almost entirely out in the countryside, and from what I understand much of it would not even be on existing corridors so the issue of road and rail closures would be almost non-existent. It is entirely believable that the cost per kilometer for HSR would be way lower than for LRT.
I must count myself as a bit of an HSR skeptic (even though as a fan I love the idea), but I don’t want to see arguments against that are clearly not thought out. If I see bogus arguments against and no possibly-valid arguments against, it makes me start to think there are no actual arguments against.