Four years? I doubt if the expropriations for the right of way would be done with by then, much less the payoffs for indigenous “consultation”.
On Thursday, LeBlanc said the work over the next four years would determine the final route between Toronto and Quebec City. “Imagine the assessments, imagine the Indigenous consultations along a 1000-kilometre route,” he said.
Alto CEO Martin Imbleau has estimated the total cost of the high-speed rail project at between $60 billion and $90 billion.
“Krusty wants out!!”
Reminds me of the old joke:
“Newfoundlanders were the most excited over Quebec’s separation, as it would cut the driving tme to Toronto in half!”
The only reason for me to go to Quebec City would be to celebrate Wolfe’s victory over Montcalm on the Plains and lament the fact the Brits didn’t deport all the French when they could.
Let’s call “high speed rail” projects for what they are … Public wealth transfer from productive sectors of society to “Green” leftists. That wealth transfer empowers Leftist politics, because as they say “Money is the Mother’s milk of politics”. Transferring MASSIVE wealth to leftist causes … is funding the dismantling of our society.
Projects like this … and the FREE light rail of Charlotte, N.C. … make ZERO economic sense or societal benefit.
My community spent billions on a LRT. My office overlooks the second last stop on the line at the north end. Hardly anyone there even during “rush hour”. My home is in the region, therefore I paid for it but the last stop going south is probably 8 miles from me. My gas powered car drive is 22 minutes. My estimated time to get to work using a combo of 2 buses and the LRT is 90 minutes.
Greg, I have a feeling you are in Waterloo Region (as I am). The LRT is the biggest boondoggle in our history, waste of money. I have to drive three miles to get to a station that takes me to…..nowhere close to where I want to go.
Five years to build 12 miles of track….600 miles will take decades if these goofball Liberals approve this.
Just some perspective: the CPR was built 140 years ago from Ontario to BC in four years.
Yup- live in Cambridge, work at Northfield and Weber
Gents …. my favourite transit joke was that the LRT / subway always goes from where you aren’t to where you don’t want to go. In other words it sucks and is a money loser.
The stupid monorail will likely lose 6 to 9 billion a year in operating losses but you get all the free knives in the neck you want!!
Public Transit. When you want to get nowhere and take forever getting there.
I used ti drive transit, works for the poor, non-drivers, children, aged.
I gave up using transit later in life, having the choice to spend time walking to-from work. Helps physical-mental health, costs next to nothing but shoes.
Trains can last several generations once in place, the initial cost being ridiculous.
For a preview of how these projects will end please read up on the Montreal Olympics.
It really is time to push back on the mythical FN “rights”. Having worked in the pipeline industry, we were proposing to cut a small corner of a FN reserve. The Chief (pretending he was some kind of a noble warrior) pushed back and wanted the sun and the moon and an awful lot of money to barely graze the reserve. Of course, there was the “sacred ground” BS and the “sacred medicinal plants”, bla bla.
After some internal consultation, we decided to reroute out of the reserve, but it cost us an extra road crossing, but the costs of both options was weighed and it was determined to reroute around them.
So we went to the band meeting and they were all rubbing their hands together to collect the lolly and when they were told we were going to route around the reserve because, you understand, we were sensitive to their “sacred” stuff, you could have heard a pin drop. They called every week after that and suddenly their “sacred” stuff wasn’t so sacred anymore and the amount of money they wanted kept falling. They were advised that we had already order the pipe bends of the additional road crossing and we wouldn’t reconsider.
And of course, they babble about “traditional” territory, but their rights there have been horribly overblown. Time to realign the discussion.
Yes, someone I know worked in telecom on expanding their cell network for decades. Every Canadian shield rock formation was a sacred burial ground until the appropriate bribe was paid.
Don’t forget the lawyers representing the FN, will be the first recipients of benefit from the project, whether it proceeds or not. As said above by Joey B, the FN want their palms greased. If the project ever gets the go ahead, that $60 – 90 billion will only be the down-payment.
Yes, there is a huge cottage industry surrounding the FN community. Grifters….all of them.
The first payment is $5 billion to whatever SNC Lavellin is called these days, for them to rehash studies that go back to the 1970s
https://www.highspeedrailcanada.com/p/all-canadian-hsr-studies.html
you can find them all here.
If this goes anything like the Big Dig in Boston, the 4 years will be used for politicians and people connected to them to acquire as much property as they can on the route they already know it will take, at depressed prices before the announcement.
The Libs already did a form of that when they legalized Mary Jane.
I sure hope they get li’l Jumpy Jimmy Waaaaatson to head it up. He did such a stellar job on Ottawa’s light rail.
He sure did.
I think there is all of one toilet on the whole line.
RTG didn’t want to maintain and keep secure washrooms for 30 years of their management contract.
I’ve had to piss in the street when working in them on night shifts…for repairs because they leak everywhere.
Watson should be in jail with his pal, McGuinty.
With conjugal visits from blubber douggie.
“ Alto CEO Martin Imbleau has estimated the total cost of the high-speed rail project at between $60 billion and $90 billion.”
Let me state the obvious
-Is that the cost of the project or how much gets redistributed to the various interests for their cut?
– this project was already announced as Trudeau’s vanity project, so not new
– this vanity project will be to the benefit of Toronto and Montreal. Specifically those that live within two blocks of the station in Toronto and the station in Montreal.
– when you consult with “First Nations” the consultations are never concluded. The discussions that happen conclude with “that will do for now” and recommence when another First Nation decides they need a cut of the action too. (Let me digress hereFirst Nations should not be seen as a collective but as that small group with too much authority in their community and far too much control over their reservation. 99% of First Nations have no desire to be wards of the state and would very much like to tell the government to GFY, personally when I see someone using their status to avoid paying taxes it gives me satisfaction, more power to them.
I don’t call it the status card, it’s actually a government can FOAD card.)
– it’s rightly pointed out that none of these projects will get started for another four years minimum and will become Trudeau 1.0 white elephants. That’s because none them are about national unity, or building the country, they are a repeat of the Sponsorship Program, which was all about funding liberal party election campaigns disguised as patriotism.
90,000,000 per kilometer?
My bet is most if not all of it would have to be elevated.
That’s a lot of K-bec concrete, tabernac.
I think each Canadian would be better off with $2000+ in their own fcking pockets.
Taxpayer boondoggles are a checkbox on the Shithole Verification card.
And the ongoing, neverending subsidies and taxes … like the Bay Area’s BART system which has been a giant money pit since the day it opened. Ongoing maintenance, repair, rebuilding, life-cycle costing, electronic and software upgrades … on and on. A “Green” gift that keeps on TAKING.
Yes, all of it has to be elevated because of all the crossings between Toronto and Quebec city.
When MX took over the Guelph sub to do “high speed” to Kitchener and London from CN, there is 180+ crossings that need to be grade separated in order for high speed rail to happen. Each crossing takes several years to design and build, so it won’t be happening any time soon.
Residents in the Toronto – Quebec City corridor should use First Nations traditional high speed transportation.
By foot and travois equipped dogs only. Horses and pickups are Whiteman gifts.
What is it with liberals and trains?
All over the place “why cant we be more like europe”…
Anyone proposing a new mass transit project should be forced to use it. RIde the train.
“All over the place “why can’t we be more like Europe”… ”
Someone needs to tell them it is because is a bunch of small, densely populated countries close together, while Canada is a huge sparsely populated nation with great distances between our major cities.
which is the exact same reason the infamous ‘just in time’ production and supply methodology falls short.
The Carney Circus is lead by a guy who claims to be an Europeon
What is it with liberals and trains?
All over the place “why can’t we be more like europe”…
Anyone proposing a new mass transit project should be forced to use it. RIde the train.
They SOLD the CA “high speed rail to bankruptcy” on the myth that the “projected” cost of a rail trip between SF and LA (sic) would be $38.00. Yes! Even lower than my $59.00 flight from Oakland to John Wayne airport!
Railroader PUHleeze!
If this Quebec rail project was commercially valid, why can’t it be built? Where are the studies, estimates? It needs Alberta money and borrowed money to meet a wildly optimistic 90B$. This is a 20 year build at double the thumb suck estimate. Anybody heard about the California LRT?? The Liberal connected “consultants” are lining up for the gravy!, Yum yum!
Here are all the studies, but the government is giving whatever SNC Lavellin is called now another $5 billion.
https://www.highspeedrailcanada.com/p/all-canadian-hsr-studies.html
It’s not viable, never has been, but that won’t stop the government.
If this Quebec rail project was commercially valid, why can’t it be built? Where are the studies, estimates? It needs Alberta money and borrowed money to meet a wildly optimistic 90B$. This is a 20 year build at double the thumb suck estimate. Anybody heard about the California LRT?? The Liberal connected “consultants” are lining up for the gravy!, Yum yum!
This rail project is guaranteed to do one thing and one thing only. Increase the federal deficit hugely.
Not to worry….they will get those bright bulbs from California who are working on theirs to “help”. Boy, the Liberals will be rolling in the dough!
Has anyone considered Gaia?
WTF is the carbon dioxide foot print gonna be?
Has Carney’s Hag approved?
A real nation builder, that rail line between Ontario and Quebec. That is, if your nation consists of Ontario and Quebec, to the exclusion of the colonies, who exist only to pay taxes and surrender their resources. Here’s a thought. You can have the name Canada. It’s tainted, but it still sounds better than Ontabec. We’ll take back the west, call it Buffaloland or something, and use our resources to pay for what we need, without having to remit a chunk of cash to y’all. Fair deal? Okey doke.
Hahahaha ha … “incestuous rail lines”
Do I win the naming sweepstakes?
Alto CEO Martin Imbleau has estimated the total cost of the high-speed rail project at between $60 billion and $90 billion.
Huh. Merely 3-5 years of transfer payments from Alberta, then…
Remember the 407. Built using eminent domain with government money and sold cheap to private interests who continue to charge the public to use it.
What makes anybody think this would be different?
And if Quebec and Alberta secede from Canada, which is looking increasingly likely, will they have customs booths at both ends or in the middle?
And, if it’s such a great idea, why are there no private interests willing to finance and build it?
“Indiginous Consultations.” Let’s just call it what it is. How about the “Okay, how much money do you want?” Act.
“Alto CEO Martin Imbleau has estimated the total cost of the high-speed rail project at between $60 billion and $90 billion.”
High-speed rail is all about corruption and theft of public tax money through kick backs.
Of all of these projects all over the entire world only a single leg of the high-speed rail in Japan breaks even annually.
Study the Japanese trains. They are the best in the world.
They lose $20 Billion per year every year.
Have you seen how they pack people on the Japanese trains? The modesty of Japanese culture permits it.
You couldn’t do that over here. You’d have sexual molestation.
Only the Tokyo/Osaka leg of their entire national RR breaks even.
mebbe so. but, is 20 billion saved per year by the japanese who dont drive and park instead? there really has to be some saving from not using other forms of transit, how do the dollars/yen/whatever spent compare around the world?
the question is meaningless in the presence of graft
The tree frog’s next project.
What is the moose population like along the proposed route?
I can’t recall anything the federal gov’t has done which was completed on schedule or on budget.
I don’t care if this turns into another ’76 Montreal Olympic fiasco, it won’t be Alberta/Sask paying for it this time, it’s likely only to be another object of ridicule for us in the west, and as always, the funniest meme wins.
#Libranos