Every once in a while, a proposal comes along that leads one to wonder: Why? What’s the need?
Sometimes it’s to demonstrate a technology. That was the purpose of the early experiments with high-speed trains. Sometimes it’s an ego trip, which is why the top third of some of the world’s tallest buildings are empty, existing only to make the building taller. One-upmanship.
But it’s hard to classify the latest mega-project proposal to come along. It’s for a kind of highway that would link London and New York. Through Siberia.
It’s the brain-child of Vladimir Yakunin, who is president of Russian Railways, and who has friends in high places.
One suspects that if the project were ever to go ahead, it would be because of the challenge of bridging the Bering Strait between Siberia and Alaska.
There is a proposal out there for a high-speed rail line originating in Peking, passing under the strait in a 200-kilometre tunnel, then down the North American west coast to Los Angeles. But Yakunin’s road would cross the strait on a bridge, although details haven’t been worked out. The narrowest stretch of water to cross is 88 km, so the bridge, including its approaches, would be somewhat longer than that.
Crossing the English Channel in a tunnel would be nothing compared to either a tunnel or a bridge crossing the Bering Strait, where construction, maintenance and repair in an arctic winter could be a nightmare.
The cost, were the job ever to be undertaken, would be enormous. For the European and North American parts of the route, existing highway networks could be used. But crossing Siberia would be virtually all new construction, and the Russian construction industry is notorious for its low productivity. The price would be in the trillions.
Closer to home, but still on the subject of big projects, we have one inching forward in Ontario.
The provincial government has taken the first steps in an environmental assessment of a high-speed rail (HSR) line linking Toronto, Kitchener-Waterloo, London and Windsor.
In this case, there is a real need. Highway traffic in the Toronto-Windsor corridor is heavy. The Kitchener area houses the country’s most important high-tech cluster. And travellers in southwestern Ontario need an easy way to get to the area’s most important airport — Toronto’s Pearson International, which would be one of the train’s stops.
Ontario Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca has said the environmental assessment alone could take six years. There is, after all, a lot to assess, including the most appropriate route, the technology options that are available, and, of course, the project’s environmental impact.
The rail service is part of the provincial government’s long-term transit and infrastructure plan, which would make almost $29 billion available over the next decade for investment in priority infrastructure projects.
This clearly stamps high-speed rail as an Ontario priority. If it goes ahead as planned, though, it might signal the federal government that high-speed rail really ought to be a federal priority.
There has been much talk over the years of an HSR line linking Windsor and Quebec City through London, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. That corridor is home to four of the seven largest Canadian metropolitan areas, with common interests and aspirations.
There have been studies, too, of an HSR line between Edmonton and Calgary, both with large populations sharing interests and needs. Those studies should be revived and updated.
Tunnels or bridges crossing the Bering Strait are great for amusement. But high-speed rail is important for its potential as a driver of regional and national economies, and for its environmental benefits, moving many people quickly with far fewer carbon emissions than older, slower forms of transportation. It should not be ignored.
Korky Koroluk is an Ottawa-based freelance writer. Send comments to editor@dailycommercialnews.com.
Recent Comments
comments for this post are closed