c/canada · by UraniumBlazer@lemm.ee · 1y

Trudeau announces $3.9B high speed rail between Quebec City and Toronto

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-announces-high-speed-rail-quebec-toronto-1.7462538

22 points · 8 comments · view on lemmy.world

8 Comments

Ugh. It's gonna be another public/private partnership, featuring a consortium of:

Trudeau said the consortium Cadence — made up of CDPQ Infra, AtkinsRéalis, Keolis, SYSTRA, SNCF Voyageurs and Air Canada — was selected to build the line.

The Globe reports that AtkinsRéalis is really SNC Lavelin, which was part of the consortium that screwed up Ottawa's LRT (although there's lots of blame to be shared for that one) and renamed itself after numerous corruption investigations.

Canada tends to do badly with public/private partnerships and transit. Given who the players are, and how this is a YOLO from an outgoing PM, I don't see why this would be different.

observantTrapezium@lemmy.ca · 11 pts · 1y

With that kind of money Doug Ford can build almost 4% of the tunnel under the 401.

Cruxifux@feddit.nl · 6 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Cool. Can we get our fucking green line going in Alberta too?

lol jk I’ve given up on that fucking dream.

UraniumBlazer@lemm.ee · 1 pts · 1y

HikingVet@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Good start... if it survives the next election.

saigot@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 1y

the funding doesn't get approved until the design phase is done in 5 years, it will have to be a liberal (or ndp) government then in order for this to happen. This is basically a campaign promise, which isn't necessarily a bad thing per se.

mp3@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 1y (1 reply)

3.9B for that seems to be quite lowball..

sbv@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 1y

It's unclear from the article, but it looks like that's the design phase:

Construction on the new line will not begin until the design phase is done, which could take four to five years. Funds are to be allocated at the end of that time period, so it's possible a future government could modify or cancel the project.

...

A government statement said "Canada's investment in the co-development phase of the project represents $3.9 billion over six years, starting in 2024-25," in addition to the $371.8 million announced in the budget.

Maybe it includes the first year of construction?

According to the article previous estimates were up to $80 billion. So yeah. 3.9b is not gonna cover it.