As someone who has been a transit supporter for as long as I can remember, I would like to echo an opinion that I’ve seen appear in a handful of Western — predominantly Anglo-sphere — nations: If we cannot build new infrastructure, we are a failed nation.
If you’ve travelled anywhere in Ontario at any point in your life, be it by car, on foot or through transit, you have probably noticed that most modes of transportation are either slow or humiliating.
GTA politicians have the idea that if a bus isn’t standing room only and is at least at 150 per cent overcapacity, it is inefficient and has pushed more people to drive. Our population has exploded and an area like Southern Ontario isn’t large enough to have a sufficient number of highways to move people faster than a snail’s pace.
You may ask, what about pedestrians and e-bikes?
Things have gotten so expensive that e-bikes and scooters are essentially people’s first vehicles now. Though there’s nothing wrong with that, the infrastructure to accommodate this modern mode of transportation simply doesn’t exist or is being actively attacked, like Premier Ford’s bike lane paranoia.
What ends up happening is that these modes of transportation move onto sidewalks, placing pedestrians at risk of being hit by e-bikes that are very capable of speeds above 40km/h.
On this alone, I could argue that we’re a failed nation; we have essentially allowed populations to grow yet left our transit systems and sensible planning stuck in the 1960s — with Toronto still not adding any new transit lines and actually losing some.
However, I will argue that my final straw is whether we can actually build high-speed rail along the Quebec Windsor corridor without it ending up like it did in California or with Britain’s HS2; both of which are failed projects.
The corridor between Toronto and Quebec City — which follows the Alto HSR proposal recently announced by the Prime Minister’s office — is really the culmination of every rail improvement plan that has been proposed since VIA was created, making it a painfully perfect project.
The proposal looks at a more northern route that follows an abandoned rail line going through Peterborough, because frankly, the government doesn’t want to mess with Canadian Pacific Kansas City or CPKC’s track ownership.
This proposal, which might allow for the avoidance of legal drama or nationalization messes, is geographically the same as the current route.
Southern Ontario is mostly flat farm land with next to no geographical barriers that would otherwise complicate constructions, such as the mountains or ravines seen in countries like Japan and France.
Given how perfect Southern Ontario and Quebec are for high-speed rail, it should be easy to breeze through route planning and preparation for construction.
This project will most likely have some sort of environmental impact, but honestly, I think that it’s worth it considering the overall benefit of reduced road and air travel-based pollution.
If done correctly, this project could have massive economic, social and environmental benefits. It could transform Southern Ontario into a unified metropolis like the Northeast U.S., rapidly expand the livability and economic opportunities in secondary cities and allow airlines to phase out unprofitable short haul flights.
Interestingly, Air Canada is an investor in the Alto highspeed rail project. This is heartening to see one less corporate interest working against development. Their support may arise from the fact that short haul flights tend to be unprofitable and incredibly polluting.
The reason why I’m holding off on deciding whether we’re a failed nation is because this project is headed by the federal government as a high priority nation building project.
Naïve I may be, but I haven’t yet given up hope that if we as a nation really put our best foot forward, we can accomplish building infrastructure, just like we did when governments weren’t dominated by profit motives and neo-liberalism wasn’t a spoken idea.
This is a hard sell when you look at the 10 provinces and their records on transit development.
Vancouver and its sky train project might be our biggest hope, followed by the clobbered GO expansion project — though you also must consider Ford’s incredibly serious plan to build a double-decker highway.
I don’t have much hope, but I have enough to believe that if we seriously focus on the Alto project, we can radically transform the corridor to the benefit of nearly everything.
However, if we fall to politics, whataboutism and the minor objections that so many have, we have truly failed as a nation.