Protests have started against Alto, the low-emission, electric-powered high-speed rail project between #Quebec City and #Toronto.
According to Alto, the trains could carry 43M passengers, and bring $35B/yr in economic benefits to #Canada.
Many communities want a station...
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...but the media is foregrounding farmers, and Conservative politicians, who want to derail the project.
The same has happened in #California, where litigious landowners have stalled high-speed rail, causing costs to skyrocket.
If you look back, every high-speed project, from Japan's original bullet train to #France's TGV, faced NIMBY protesters. (Winemakers claimed railway vibrations would wreck their grands crus!)
It's all part of the process of building ambitious infrastructure.
@straphanger After first line built between Paris and Lyon, SNCF learned and has standards on crossings for farmers. So whenever they want to build new line, the farmers know in advance what they can expect.
The problem in Canada is Alto won't even release its route (or possible routes) and certaintly hasn't don any standard on crossings for farmers and small roads so there is much uncertainty and people just see a 200km long fence blocking any crossing.
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Jean-François Mezei