Ugh. Why did we ever privatize rail. People would riot if we privatized the highway network, and yet...
When were the railways ever not private in Canada? One barely solvent passenger service that's a crown corp hardly constituted nationalized rail.
Wasn't it originally a huge public undertaking? It was my understanding that the rails and CN began their lives in public ownership before being privatized.
Did I misunderstand things?
Because the rails were there before Canada!
I'm gonna take a guess without watching and say:
Because freight company CP owns the lines people use riding Via.
And the various governments for decades have done nothing about anything to make rail better.
VIA operates on CN tracks in the west, but that doesn't negate the overall correctness of your statement.
They're always late because they don't own the infrastructure and have to take a back seat to their "landlord's " schedule.
Actually, Canada is a leader in high speed rail studies.
I may be wrong but I recall learning somewhere that the recent rail project used the UK and Australia as a study for it. Neither of these countries are known for amazing high speed rail. Why didn't we look at Japan, France, Spain, or other countries that have world renowned high speed rail, high ridership rates, and good frequency?
The the time to build this rail was decades ago, lets use some of the most successful examples to study so we can catch up and build a modern system instead of building something that is already outdated.
