200 to 600 miles is the perfect distance for high-speed rail. Too far to drive, too short to fly. Oh, and the lines should be between cities whose economies could benefit from greater connections. So we’re talking about L.A. to S.F. (383 miles), Atlanta to Charlotte NC. (246), Houston to Dallas (240). Oh, and Mpls to Chicago (408). Is this a good time to plan such things? It’s the perfect time. https://www.minnpost.com/cityscape/2025/02/even-in-todays-political-climate-lets-talk-about-high-speed-rail-to-chicago/ #HSR

@Alon The Canadian federal government recently announced approval of a project to build a high-speed rail line from Québec City to Toronto, passing through Montréal and Ottawa. I'd be very interested in your thoughts about the project, if you have some you'd wish to share.

(I was part of one of the losing teams, but with a technical role, focusing on bridges.)

#VIArail #HFR #HSR
#CanPol #cdnpoli

Trees and tracks playing well together , but not good for travel.

Part of the Providence, Warren and Bristol Railroad, approaching the Crook Point Bascule Bridge, unfortunately abandoned in 1976. We lost a lot of right of ways we could use today to restore regional lines.

#AbandonedRailroad so not #HSR or even #trains

"Canada Shouldn’t Build High-Speed Rail" - an interesting discussion of #ViaAlto #HSR mistakes so far:

wrong structure ("a murderer’s row of external partners, rather than well-staffed in-house agency")

wrong people ("almost no transport experience... none in passenger rail")

wrong process ("extensive consultation & negotiation... project will become mired in procedural gridlock")

wrong timing (jumping from car to HSR, without building up rail network first)

https://open.substack.com/pub/changinglanesnewsletter/p/canada-shouldnt-build-high-speed?r=bqtf&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

New step in the #HSR project in the Toronto-Quebec corridor

Cadence is an alliance of experienced Canadian and international private partners, including CPDQ Infra, AtkinsRéalis, SYSTRA Canada, Keolis Canada, Air Canada and SNCF Voyageurs
https://altotrain.ca/en/posts/green-light-for-development-of-a-high-speed-rail-network-between-toronto-and-quebec-city/

Canada to announce new high-speed rail project.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-announces-high-speed-rail-quebec-toronto-1.7462538
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Le Canada va annoncer un nouveau projet de train à grand vitesse.

https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2142035/justin-trudeau-annonce-tgv-toronto-quebec

If we actually invested in high speed rail, and treated it as a utility rather than a luxury, much of the demand for air travel would go away.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/feb/14/industry-influence-un-aviation-body?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

The Beijing-Guangzhou HSR line is the world's longest, stretching over 2,298km and connecting more than 30 cities. It significantly reduces travel time, with trains running at speeds up to 350km/h.

The Wuhan-Guangzhou section is notable for extensive use of bridges and tunnels, while the Shijiazhuang-Wuhan section features the world's longest combined road and rail cable-stayed span bridge. 142 km segment to Hong Kong has a 10.8 km underwater tunnel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1mR5WWGltU
#china #hsr #trains

Want to Ease the Housing Crisis? Build High-Speed Rail. | Maclean's

#hsr #canpoli #cdnpoli #trains

https://macleans.ca/society/want-to-ease-the-housing-crisis-build-high-speed-rail/

New #OA paper: What was the experience of family #physicians in #Canada during the #COVID-19 pandemic? Semi-structured #qualitative interviews with 68 family physicians show numerous additional roles to reduce the risk of #transmission of the virus with the support of their administrative staff. #Pandemic plans must include guidance for the roles taken on by primary care administrative staff..

https://doi.org/10.3389/frhs.2024.1471236

Elon Musk’s Hyperloop idea was just a ruse to kill California’s high-speed rail project

This just in: Elon Musk never intended to actually build his #Hyperloop idea in California. He proposed it just to stop the high-speed rail (#HSR) project.

That was news to me when @parismarx, a technology writer from Canada, wrote about #Musk for Time magazine and posted on Twitter Thursday. He quotes Musk’s official biographer as the source.

https://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/editorials/article264451076.html

The #HS2 project in the #UK is spending £100 million on a 1 km long structure to protect rare bats.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14054619/HS2-100million-shed-protect-bats-no-evidence.html

https://www.ft.com/content/fd5e34dc-e006-491b-93b2-576e3adf45f8?desktop=true&segmentId=d8d3e364-5197-20eb-17cf-2437841d178a#myft:notification:instant-email:content

Pricey.

YouTuber "Lucid Stew" is back with another video about Cascadia High Speed Rail, this time with a thought experiment of building HSR exclusively by taking lanes away from I-5!

Certainly not a realistic nor desirable scenario (for many reasons outlined in the video) but as a tongue-in-cheek proposal we can learn a lot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvgfGH2XERw

The high-speed rail could improve transportation in the Toronto-Québec corridor by having frequent service and shorter travel time.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/toronto-montreal-high-speed-rail-1.7367300
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Le TGV pour améliorer les transports dans le corridor Toronto-Québec en ayant un service fréquent et des temps de parcours plus courts.

// En anglais seulement //