As Neal Lamontagne tweets (perhaps after noting the controversy over changing the parking on Yaletown streets): While we argue about parking …
High-speed trains at a depot in Wuhan Xinhua, China
Could be us. Probably won’t be us.
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Life is SO much easier since giving up my car nearly two years ago. You just have no idea how much more convenient it is to rely primarily on transit and walking. I live deep in the suburbs (albeit in a walkable mixed-use neighbourhood) and my daily commute is a major one. I haven’t totally stopped driving. Share cars are relatively convenient and I use them on average a day and a half a month to do those trips that I can only do using a car. I can only laugh at the hyper-anxiety that is displayed by many when the car is relegated to second place, such as the changes made to parking on two Yaletown streets. The world does not come to an end when transit, walking and cycling are prioritized.
I may be critical of your published opinions concerning public servants and “red tape” (usually a red herring) in various Metro cities processing record levels of development applications, but on Smart Growth and your willingness to walk the walk, I commend you. Kudos.
We were there.
â
Peter Ladner 604-760-1445 cell/text peter@peterladner.ca
There is now almost enough high speed trains in China to carry the whole population of Vancouver at one time, at a cost of 3 cents per kilometer per person.
To think, all we need is a single corridor across the land. Build the easiest parts first (flat Prairies, city pairs, most dense / highest potential ridership, etc.). Approach the most difficult parts (i.e. tunneling through several BC mountain ranges and the Canadian Shield) in a future phase after a decade of service and operational experience. Approach the public sector pension funds for partnerships; perhaps they build these sections and lease them back over 50 years.
One 250 m corridor could carry not just high-speed trans-Canada rail and possibly route segments for regional intercity commuter rail, but also a national smart grid for clean electricity that can be traded inter-provincially and exported to the US through a plethora of transmission connections beyond the border.
Some current politicians claim building an Alberta-based dilbit pipeline to the coast is in the “national interest” and have tied themselves in knots to connect it to fighting climate change. How absurd. Something like the above corridor could be a genuine national interest project that will bear far better results in lowering our emissions, (which are some of ther highest in the world on a per capita basis), building long-lasting 21st Century infrastructure and creating a million new jobs over time.
We can’t even get a profitable, major tax $ contributing privately funded pipeline built in an EXISTING corridor. How will we get one built with public $s that is not profitable and sucks up $s annually ? That will get more indigenous and public support ?
Not shipping diluted bitumen through it may help.
Now just try to find a location for a train yard of that size anywhere in Vancouver….
It is ironic that many of these trains are made by Canada’s Bombardier:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_Zefiro
Meanwhile, the only passenger rail in BC is our lowly West Coast “Express” (and Amtrak).