(01-03-2025, 05:09 PM)tomh009 Wrote: 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.
France banned any domestic flight that takes a route that could be served via 2.5hrs on a train instead: https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/12/0...-proposals
Quote:The law will mostly rule out air trips between Paris Orly airport and regional hubs such as Nantes, Lyon and Bordeaux.
Critics have noted that the cutoff point is shy of the roughly three hours it takes to travel from Paris to the Mediterranean port city Marseille by high-speed rail.
Straight-line Paris to Marseille is 650km, Toronto to Montreal is 500km.
local cambridge weirdo