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Just have to look at Scarborough or the Younge extensions. That being said even the Ontario Line is spiralling too. Underground stations are expensive. Larger underground stations are even more expensive. As they grow the price doesn’t grow in a linear way, just as the cost of a clear span...

The private proponents have been working since 2016 or so. So faster? I don't know. It also helps that the private proponent can clear barriers by throwing money at problems, instead of the government needing to follow careful and risk averse procedures. It is a weird project, because while the...

With the picture of the station at Banff, there is no technical reason it could not be expanded. 34 miles of twinning/trippling track, some bridges. The track is close to a river and on a slope, but nothing insurmountable. Given in the last two decades the highway was twinned, the environmental...

It isn't like they have a $30 billion bank account. They have rights to draw $30 billion. Which creates a -$30 billion on the Government Books, and a +$30 billion on the CIB books, even if no money is borrowed, and no money flowed. For assets owned by VIA Rail, if it is $6 billion lets say, it...

Except not. CIB has assets. Grants do not generate assets. Deficits are measured on change of assets.

Its funny, spending CIB money as grants increases the deficit. Oops.

Relatively frequent on the CP mainlines west of Winnipeg - just aren’t going to happen without twinning. 4 frequencies a day if they operated at freight speed displaces 1/6th of the freight traffic. More at higher speed.

Forgive the inevitable inaccuracies...

The organized anti UPX group from Weston made it a point that they were paying a price without a benefit, so a stop for them was added. Not a fight I want to relive.

So the best of best worlds is the government designs a solution it is ok with, and allows bidders to propose optimizations which either improve service for the same price, or improve price for the same service or both. Then it isn't an unlimited variable optimization.

The expropriation process is literally how you do this. Giving expropriation notice happens either when earlier attempts hit an impasse, or continued delay will impact the critical path therefor making expropriation cheaper than any other option. It is in everyones best interest to settle just...

Why? The government it self does this for infrastructure projects, they let private companies do this for infrastructure projects - why wouldn't they let a public company do this? It happens a lot - maybe just because of the volume of it going on all the time you don't really notice it - the...

I don't think anyone is arguing that they should have access for even just cost recovery - having those axles helps carry the financial burden - why leave the money on the table? Just saying, you shouldn't be surprised if it does come to pass.

I think people are looking at this the wrong way - like CP/CN would somehow force themselves onto the line. I say the company which will design, build, operate, and finance HFR will WANT all potential revenue they can get that doesn't degrade their business case (creates more maintenance issues...

Why? It might not be 'friendly', but it will be ok. Lighter freight unit trains can likely use it just fine at the very least. Only use it in one direction. You're thinking of the HFR as a specialist service for freight between Montreal and Toronto, and that somehow there will be another...

If the freight railroads want to lease extra capacity, I'm sure VIA/the private owner/operator of the tracks will oblige.

Yeah, it is also risk transfer. Once a project is generating revenue and no construction or regulatory risk exists it is pretty easy to sell it even if it only generates 1 or 2%. Then the CIB can use that money on the next project.

The PBO is getting weirder and weirder. Their leader is more political (even appearing on political chat shows alongside politicians to opine on the news of the day!). Anyways, from the article: "The independent spending watchdog reached his conclusion by reviewing the bank’s latest...

Important to remember that making VIA's sales GST free, while not making its inputs GST free, actually makes VIA worse off. And it is free to see, it is in VIA's annual report (including straight sales taxes like BC, SK and Man.):

It is quite easy in comparison to convince people burning oil probably isn't the best thing. The public health arguments though - they are so diffuse imo to be meaningless to most - basically the urbanist version of chiropracty - a 15 minute city will solve all your ills! Bascially the urbanist...