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I'm sorry but this is a stupid idea. It will be so expensive to ride this. Only rich people will be able to afford it. It will be underused. They should spend

I'm sorry but this is a stupid idea. It will be so expensive to ride this. Only rich people will be able to afford it. It will be underused. They should spend the money on INTRA city travel. Expand the subway systems in Toronto and Montreal.

filoleg 2y ago
> It will be so expensive to ride this. Only rich people will be able to afford it. If the price is around that of an equivalent airplane flight, I don’t see the problem here. How expensive to ride do you expect it to be? You have a reason to believe it will cost significantly more than an airplane flight?
- BigGreenJorts 2y ago
  Having done Ottawa-Toronto many times, Via currently charges about 60-70$ for advanced economy tickets. Same day tickets are typically in the 120-150$ range, but I have seen over 200$. So definitely cheaper than flying currently. Hard for me to judge how much that price would increase in response to HSR cost and popularity.
yabones 2y ago
High speed rail is not a luxury, it's quite the opposite. Labour is the biggest long term expense, even after construction, so it's actually cheaper to operate faster trains. The current trip time is 10-12 hours, multiplied by the wages of a large cabin crew.
sudosysgen 2y ago
There's absolutely no reason it would be more expensive than the gas cost of driving between the two cities, or the price of a plane ticket.
jokteur 2y ago
High speed travel in Europe is quite affordable. A 3h train trip (~360 miles, like the distance between Toronto and Montreal) costs about 40€ in Italy or in France if you buy in advance.
nubinetwork 2y ago
Also, who's going to want to go from Toronto to QC/Montreal? Unless you live in/near the French quarter of Toronto, this doesn't really benefit many people... language barrier and Quebec's deep hatred of English and such...
- cwillu 2y ago
  2.1 million people used the existing montreal-toronto line in 2023.
- triceratops 2y ago
  You're seriously asking who wants to travel between the two largest cities and centers of business in the country?
- BigGreenJorts 2y ago
  On top of the other comments, majority of Montreal is bilingual. There's a reason there's a whole neighborhood of anglophones, the city is very English friendly.
- crowcroft 2y ago
  You're severely overstating the 'hatred' for english, Montreal is essentially bilingual and most people there are very friendly to english speakers. Outside of Montreal you can get a bit a mixed reception to english, but there's no real hatred. Just pride in their own culture and a bit of fear about the ongoing loss of that which is probably reasonable.
nonchalantsui 2y ago
VIA can't do much for INTRA city travel. For Ontario it's on Metrolinx and for Toronto TTC. Just in November TTC got roughly $750m in fed funding for subway cars especially for Line 2 cars that are reaching EOL, but also for the expansion lines in Scarborough and Yonge North.

filoleg 2y ago

> It will be so expensive to ride this. Only rich people will be able to afford it. If the price is around that of an equivalent airplane flight, I don’t see the problem here. How expensive to ride do you expect it to be? You have a reason to believe it will cost significantly more than an airplane flight?

BigGreenJorts 2y ago
Having done Ottawa-Toronto many times, Via currently charges about 60-70$ for advanced economy tickets. Same day tickets are typically in the 120-150$ range, but I have seen over 200$. So definitely cheaper than flying currently. Hard for me to judge how much that price would increase in response to HSR cost and popularity.

yabones 2y ago

High speed rail is not a luxury, it's quite the opposite. Labour is the biggest long term expense, even after construction, so it's actually cheaper to operate faster trains. The current trip time is 10-12 hours, multiplied by the wages of a large cabin crew.

sudosysgen 2y ago

There's absolutely no reason it would be more expensive than the gas cost of driving between the two cities, or the price of a plane ticket.

jokteur 2y ago

High speed travel in Europe is quite affordable. A 3h train trip (~360 miles, like the distance between Toronto and Montreal) costs about 40€ in Italy or in France if you buy in advance.

nubinetwork 2y ago

Also, who's going to want to go from Toronto to QC/Montreal? Unless you live in/near the French quarter of Toronto, this doesn't really benefit many people... language barrier and Quebec's deep hatred of English and such...

cwillu 2y ago
2.1 million people used the existing montreal-toronto line in 2023.
triceratops 2y ago
You're seriously asking who wants to travel between the two largest cities and centers of business in the country?
BigGreenJorts 2y ago
On top of the other comments, majority of Montreal is bilingual. There's a reason there's a whole neighborhood of anglophones, the city is very English friendly.
crowcroft 2y ago
You're severely overstating the 'hatred' for english, Montreal is essentially bilingual and most people there are very friendly to english speakers. Outside of Montreal you can get a bit a mixed reception to english, but there's no real hatred. Just pride in their own culture and a bit of fear about the ongoing loss of that which is probably reasonable.

nonchalantsui 2y ago

VIA can't do much for INTRA city travel. For Ontario it's on Metrolinx and for Toronto TTC. Just in November TTC got roughly $750m in fed funding for subway cars especially for Line 2 cars that are reaching EOL, but also for the expansion lines in Scarborough and Yonge North.