Impressive for Metrolinx to construct 5km of double tracking in 7 years. With these speeds, if we put Metrolinx in charge of Alto construction in Ontario, we could even see HSR from Toronto to Ottawa in just 935 years!
This entirely. I don't buy the woe-is-me or they're-trying-their-very-best narratives like double tracking or triple-tracking
an existing rail ROW is some groundbreaking concept never done on this Earth. Metrolinx already owns the roughly 260 km of ROW earmarked for GO Expansion on 5 lines:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GO_Transit_rail_services#History
This isn't them being hamstrung by freight companies rationing out trackage-rights agreements. This is some combination of lack of initiative, expertise, capacity, and funding.
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When I bring up how fast greenfield projects are done in comparison, I never get a proper answer along the lines of economic, political & labour differences.
This may be another Stuttgart 21 or Brandenburg Airport: literally the slowest rail and airport projects in human history---that were never formally paused, suspended, or cancelled---
bar none. Only difference is that GO Expansion might actually be slower than Stuttgart just to reach
minimum viable product, and might be further descoped into oblivion.
Whereas Berlin actually got a consolidated transport hub, and Stuttgart will benefit the southern half of Germany and more. At least we'll set a world record by the 2040 Lakeshore launch.