01-03-2025, 05:09 PM
(01-03-2025, 04:23 PM)danbrotherston Wrote:(01-03-2025, 02:51 PM)tomh009 Wrote: Absolute yes to building a faster train (whatever speed).
Realistically even a non-stop maglev wouldn't eliminate all the air travel, though. People doing a flight connection in YYZ or YUL would still fly (switching between the two modes not so easy or quick) and for some people getting to the airport is much easier than reaching Union Station. But it would certainly be a significant positive impact.
So you’ve used a vaguely passive sentence here. A quality fast transit connection wouldn’t by itself kill off flights in our current regulatory framework. But it would eliminate the practical need (any connecting air passengers can use the train connection) and if we really cared we could change the regulatory framework to encourage or enforce this.
And of course plenty of people will scream bloody murder about this idea. It’s a complete nonstarter in today’s political climate. But todays political climate is one where not only does HSR not exist but it practically cannot exist. We are speaking in hypotheticals here. In some of the places where HSR of this form does exist they have indeed eliminated competing flights through regulation.
Technically possible, yes. But neither Union Station (35+ minutes by train) nor Gare Centrale (45+ minutes by bus) currently offer a fast connection to the airport; those would also need to be built in addition to high-speed rail. Luggage handling should also be built (check your luggage when you board the train, automatically transferred to the flight at the other end) as well as a check-in infrastructure. (Unified security is probably not realistic.)
In terms of regulatory framework ... if you are thinking of banning flights between Toronto and Montreal, that surely would eliminate the air traffic, but I can't think of any country that has actually gone that extreme.