Friday, May 01, 2009

Growing p

Chris Selley: High-speed train to nowhere
Posted: April 30, 2009

I’m all about high-speed rail. Real high-speed rail, I mean—electric trains cruising on dedicated track at 300 km/h, not some kind of watered down diesel chug-a-lugs that slow down at level crossings. I don’t want the Sheppard Subway of high-speed rail; I’d rather fly Porter and wait until this country grows up to get the real thing. There’s a lot of wide-open space between here and Ottawa, and between Ottawa and Montreal, and the benefits of a TGV-style service couldn’t really be any more obvious. Never mind greenhouse gases, can you imagine a two-and-a-quarter hour trip from downtown Toronto to downtown Montreal? Edible food, on-board wi-fi, private compartments for business meetings, no security checks? My heart palpitates at the thought. On those routes, the airlines would instantly be reduced to the status of Greyhound.

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