I was going to say; I definitely think that mountain investment would make sense, but the better approach might actually be to build a new publicly owned corridor that can allow passenger prioritization and mostly sell access to the freight operators. Even with infrastructure on the level of HFR, YVR-YYC-YEG starts to look like a reasonably viable passenger corridor if there is dedicated track in Alberta and some kind of assured timing in the mountains.
The unfortunate irony is that, the more tunnels one builds in the mountains, the less scenery VIA has to offer.
My simplistic/naive observation is that Hope to Crowsnest is only slightly over 300 miles as the crow flies. Imagine if all the current CN and CP traffic through the mountains ran on one straight-line double track tunnel only 300 miles in length.
Crowsnest is only 300 m higher than Calgary, and it would be all downhill from there to the Pacific. No Rogers Pass, no Kicking Horse. No mudslides, avalanches, etc.
Gotthard Base Tunnel is 35 miles in length and double track. It cost 9.6B Swiss francs.
Maybe the full Hope-Crowsnest thing is out of reach financially and practically, but one has to wonder hypothetically if the payback might actually be there for things in that vein. Glacier to Golden straight line is 23.3 miles, and that eliminates Rogers Pass altogether. Connecting Golden to Eldon is 25 miles, and that eliminates Kicking Horse Pass. There must be a price point that makes those propositions attractive.
I can see why CP's financiers would not propose that project or try to raise the money - but with public money being used, recovering the cost over some number of decades, maybe that's a useful role for Canada that the private sector can't fulfil.
- Paul