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.
The alternative to fast railways is more runways and highwaysβthe most polluting forms of inter-city transport.
I take a look at the history of opposition to railways, going back to England in the 1830s, in this HIGH SPEED newsletter:
One of the reasons NIMBY opposition can get a foothold is failure to use existing Rail-Right-of-Way.
For Alto, the plan is an entirely new route. The reason is the existing #RRoW is owned, aiui, by CNR due what I would describe as an exceptional subsidy to industry.
This is why the #Cascadia #HSR plan began by first acquiring RRoW from #Oregon through #Washington to #BritishColumbia. It is shovel-ready, once the plan is completed.
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Amgine