@straphanger

I expect a lot of people outside the Windsor—Quebec corridor (yes, they exist!) to be unhappy because of persistent underinvestment in their communities, and because of a perception that funding for high-speed rail in the corridor competes with funding for housing and hospitals across the country.

Federal support for transit which would help densify and revitalize the urban cores of cities such as Winnipeg, in particular electric surface railways, might be one aspect of an overall package. Another could be electrification of the main rail lines, starting from the BC coast and moving eastward, increasing the freight-carrying capacity of the railways and getting the grain harvests moved faster, which is a serious issue for the Prairie Provinces. And at the same time, increasing conventional rail capacity makes 120 kph passenger trains between city pairs such as Regina and Saskatoon, Calgary and Edmonton, more workable, assuming there is transit at each end so you don't necessarily need a car when you get there. And those routes will also support a certain degree of demand for longer-distance services.