Parliamentary Budget Officer prices Alto's Toronto to Quebec City corridor at $75 billion-$113 billion, warning European construction benchmarks will collide with Canadian Shield rock and Laval tunnel
Thanks Mike. I really enjoy reading your articles. It sounds as though the PBO has the right of it and that this little excursion into "I wanna HSR" needs the dose of reality the PBO has just provided. Hopefully that a PBO review of Doug Ford's tunnel beneath the 401 can meet a similar fate.
"Building the Eastern Corridor will require Parliament to provision at least $75 billion to $113 billion, with every kilometre of Canadian Shield granite and urban tunnel threatening to push the final invoice higher." Is the alternative a lot of battery operated buses on the 401 and battery operated air buses?
Thank you, Mike. I have my doubts on this project; why are we still throwing in secondary stops on the high speed route? Perhaps better Toronto Montreal Quebec City. Reverse, rinse and repeat. And how many numbers of travellers will use this service?
I checked the PBO's report on Alto to see how they model those ridership trade-offs. Alto projects 17 million to 24 million annual passengers by 2055. On secondary stops, connecting Ottawa is central to the federal mandate, but intermediate stops create a built-in penalty. In assessing a Kingston detour, the PBO found that while adding a city of 180,000 draws local passengers, slower run times between the main hubs offset those gains. Outside rare corridors like Paris-Lyon, the watchdog warns global high-speed rail rarely covers operating expenses from ticket sales alone.
Thanks for the excellent information, Mike. Acknowledging this would be a private/public venture with many benefits I can’t help but think how many hospital beds, defence expenditures, social housing and any other programme could be funded better.
It's impressive how the Liberals are sticking to the "nation building project" to describe a vanity project which will probably cost double what they're guessing, service a fleetingly small number of people in a single region of the country.
Assuming the project is completed, I'll bet in 10 years of operation, less than 1% of Canadians will ride the train, it will never be financial viable, and it will be described as one of the biggest boondoggles in Canadian history.
Thanks Mike. I really enjoy reading your articles. It sounds as though the PBO has the right of it and that this little excursion into "I wanna HSR" needs the dose of reality the PBO has just provided. Hopefully that a PBO review of Doug Ford's tunnel beneath the 401 can meet a similar fate.
"Building the Eastern Corridor will require Parliament to provision at least $75 billion to $113 billion, with every kilometre of Canadian Shield granite and urban tunnel threatening to push the final invoice higher." Is the alternative a lot of battery operated buses on the 401 and battery operated air buses?
Thank you, Mike. I have my doubts on this project; why are we still throwing in secondary stops on the high speed route? Perhaps better Toronto Montreal Quebec City. Reverse, rinse and repeat. And how many numbers of travellers will use this service?
I checked the PBO's report on Alto to see how they model those ridership trade-offs. Alto projects 17 million to 24 million annual passengers by 2055. On secondary stops, connecting Ottawa is central to the federal mandate, but intermediate stops create a built-in penalty. In assessing a Kingston detour, the PBO found that while adding a city of 180,000 draws local passengers, slower run times between the main hubs offset those gains. Outside rare corridors like Paris-Lyon, the watchdog warns global high-speed rail rarely covers operating expenses from ticket sales alone.
Thanks for the excellent information, Mike. Acknowledging this would be a private/public venture with many benefits I can’t help but think how many hospital beds, defence expenditures, social housing and any other programme could be funded better.
It's impressive how the Liberals are sticking to the "nation building project" to describe a vanity project which will probably cost double what they're guessing, service a fleetingly small number of people in a single region of the country.
Assuming the project is completed, I'll bet in 10 years of operation, less than 1% of Canadians will ride the train, it will never be financial viable, and it will be described as one of the biggest boondoggles in Canadian history.