Where does my thinking lay when it comes to Via's business plan?
Where does it lay when it comes to past actions of federal governments?
I try to stay out of the pure fantasy, and stick to something that is within the realm of possible.
For example, there are places where HSR should be.
There are places where HFR should be.
And there are places where nothing more than a daily should exist.
For example, London - Kitchener- -Hamilton -Toronto -Ottawa - Montreal - QC should be built to modern world wide HSR standards. Calgary - Edmonton could be a HSR route as well. TBH, it is the only one outside the Corridor that would make sense. Regina -Saskatoon may work for HFR. London - Sarnia - Windsor also would work well for HFR until Amtrak decides to want HSR to Detroit.
Other than that, a daily to most cities would be enough.
So where does this post fit:
A discussion over on the Via Rail forum that I would like to continue here as it may be something to look into.
That is the separation of Via Rail's services. Currently, you have one organization that is expected to serve all of Canada with a variety of services. It is proving to be a problem given the various budget constraints. So, lets look at a way to make it better.
In reality,Via has 2 main services, they are the long distance routes/remote services and the intercity routes. Lets pull them apart. Have one, fully government subsidized and controlled. Simply call it Via LDS. It would be all long distance and remote services. The second one,lets call it Via HxR. It would be all intercity services.
Via HxR are services that currently would be all of the existing Corridor routes. The future routes are any viable routes that would be more than once a day.This entity would have some sort of P3 element to it to allow investors to invest into adding rail service throughout Canada where regular,multiple trains a day would be viable. This could be simply a frequent service or a high speed service. This would mean that if there places that could be served, but have challenges to having a service there, the financing for it can be a mix of public taxpayer money and private investment.
The governments tend not to be in the business of services that make a profit, so, let the private world do that.
If we look at how during a skyrocketing deficit, and we take into account what a CPC government might do, the P3/privatization of the Corridor HxR is within the realm of it. The only reason a 50 year old fuel tanker in the RCN was sent out with major engineering deficiencies was sent out, and subsequently caught fire, was so that the CPC government could make money on the fuel it can carry. Same reason stocks were sold that was purchases from companies like GM. So, finding a way to maximize profits out of the parts of Via that can be profitable makes sense. Adding other routes that could also be profitable, especially in the heartland of the CPC makes sense.No politician would want to ignore a photo op in their heartland especially when it can be shown to help their platform promises.
As far as no one responding?
Better it is here than in the other forums. If someone wants to pull my thoughts apart, I welcome the discussion. If it goes ignored by everyone, that is ok too.
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