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EllisDon to Lead Prairie Link High-Speed Rail Partners - Edm-RD-Cal

and would probably double in value in a couple of decades. One jurisdiction (unlike two between Montreal and Toronto), mostly flat, much of the land already set aside... this is attractive to private capital and will move forward in due course, I have no doubt.
Has the Province been expropriating a right of way along a proposed route already?
 
Has the Province been expropriating a right of way along a proposed route already?
As far as I know, the province has ensured that land in the cities has been set aside. I'm not sure about beyond the cities though
 
As far as I know, the province has ensured that land in the cities has been set aside. I'm not sure about beyond the cities though
Correct for Edmonton and I'm assuming Calgary is the same. But, the urban portions of a potential ROW is only maybe 5% or less of the entire ROW length, which will cost much more to expropriate.
 
Correct for Edmonton and I'm assuming Calgary is the same. But, the urban portions of a potential ROW is only maybe 5% or less of the entire ROW length, which will cost much more to expropriate.

Yes they would cost more, and would have to be included in the overall cost for the project of course, but land acquisition/expropriation would be much less of a challenge outside of urban areas. If the province hadn't set the 5% of urban land aside a project like this may become near impossible.
 
What may happen first - HSR between Edmonton and Calgary, or HSR between Toronto and Quebec City?

We don’t even have VIA regular service betwwen Edmonton and the wicked sister city. The Feds are unlikely to invest in transpod as its new technology that comes with mega risks. IMO they would invest in high speed rail assuming there are large components that can be manufactured in Canada - but is Canada capable of producing trains and engines that are 300-500 km an hour? As to which egg gets cracked first - if we are talking Federal dollars then my best is on the Quebec City to Windsor corridor.
 
IMO they would invest in high speed rail assuming there are large components that can be manufactured in Canada - but is Canada capable of producing trains and engines that are 300-500 km an hour? As to which egg gets cracked first - if we are talking Federal dollars then my best is on the Quebec City to Windsor corridor.
Canada as already helped produce high speed train sets. Back in the mid-late 1990's when a 75% Bombardier/ 25% Alstom consortium built the original Acela sets for Amtrak, the cars were partially built in Canada. I'm not sure if either the power cars or HHP-8 locomotives were partially built in the Canada, or were entirely built in the US however. Although the Aclea sets are based upon TGV technology which does operate at over to 300 km/h, due to Acela operating on legacy railway infrastructure, their top speeds are a lot lower.
Frankly, I don't know if would matter with Federal dollars or not. The new VIA corridor equipment was award to Siemens and is being built in the US, while Bombardier (now Alstom) lost out.
 
In a perfect world we would just contract JR or SNCF to build out and completely manage these projects. Even bring over workers from Europe or Asia if it means more efficiency.

Yes its nice to create jobs in Canada but I can already see any HSR being plagued with problems and overruns as soon as local firms with no experience are involved (just look at California HSR). All because our society values temporary job creation more than having functioning infrastructure delivered in a reasonable manner.
 
Has EllisDon given any sort of, update, or timeline, or expectation that we might hear something about this project? Or even what they're working on right now? It feels like another one of those things where someone made an exciting announcement and then it disappeared into the void, never to be seen again.
 
Has EllisDon given any sort of, update, or timeline, or expectation that we might hear something about this project? Or even what they're working on right now? It feels like another one of those things where someone made an exciting announcement and then it disappeared into the void, never to be seen again.
EllisDon is one of the TransEd partners so I would imagine their mind is focused on another train at the moment.
 
This may be a side topic, but I wonder if CP Kansas City Southern would have more potential to build a high speed rail route with routes across Canada, the Central U. S., and Mexico.
 
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This may be a side topic, but I wonder if CP Kansas City Southern would have more potential to build a high speed rail route with routes across Canada, the Central U. S., and Mexico.
I would say absolutely not. CPKC, just like its predecessors, is a freight railway. They are not in the business of carrying passenger traffic.
 

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