A previous post on the High Speed Rail Canada website discussed the 1993 tour of the Swedish Asea,Brown. Boveri, (ABB) high-speed trail to Canada. It was at the end of a successful tour of the USA. Recently we became aware of promo photos taken on the Windsor, Ontario July 27th, 1993, stop of the tour. We have made a youtube video on our channel with these photos. Here is the LINK to watch it.

ICE - InterCity Express High-Speed Trains in Munich Germany - credit Paul Langan It is refreshing to continually hear Martin Imbleau, the CEO of VIA HFR, speak about the need for speed regarding the Toronto-Quebec City Corridor. During a speech to the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal, Martin Imbleau unveiled an ambitious plan for a rapid passenger rail project between Quebec City and Toronto. This project has seen significant advancements with the establishment of a new federal Crown corporation dedicated solely to its development. It is worth noting that this is the most substantial transportation infrastructure initiative in Canada since the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway more than six decades ago. High Speed Rail Canada Continues to Support Martin Imbleau in his goal for increased speeds for the HFR project. The proposed railway network will span approximately 1,000 kilometers, featuring dedicated tracks that are fully electrified. The route will include stops i...

 Imagine you walk into a railway station in Canada full of high-speed trains.

Benefits of High-Speed Rail for Canadians  As part of our outreach to educate Canadians on the benefits of high-speed rail, we have uploaded a video to our High Speed Rail Canada YouTube page. Click HERE to view video. 

  Martin Imbleau CEO of VIA HFR is on the Right Track  Martin Imbleau is the CEO of Via HFR Inc., a wholly owned Crown corporation that will report to Parliament through the Minister of Transport. He is giving interviews to the public about the challenges they face implementing faster, modern passenger rail service between Quebec and Ontario. It is refreshing to hear such straightforward, frank, open discussion on the issues facing the High-Frequency Rail project. Mr. Imbleau is quick to highlight the biggest challenge, which is, how to enter and exit the big cities quickly. He also has stated on numerous occasions that “It's not about frequency only. It's about being fast. It's about being reliable.” He even realizes the singular-focused name of the project "High Frequency Rail" needs to be changed. What a difference in Mr. Imbleau’s approach to that of the former VIA Rail CEO Yves Desjardins-Siciliano, now a Siemens employee.  During his tenure at VIA, Desjardi...

Canada's Cambia Consulting states on their website that they find compelling solutions for challenging transportation problems. They state. "In order to actually make a difference in the world, coming up with a great solution is not enough. You need to compel stakeholders, leaders and the general public to adopt your solution." Cambia research solutions concerning regional rail, high-speed rail, urban transportation and city planning projects. They produce audiovisual materials to inform, inspire, persuade and entice your audience. They develop comprehensive strategies to help make the change you want a reality. We at High Speed Rail Canada are impressed with the quality of their high-speed rail related blog posts. Feel free to check out these posts here .  

Cambia Consulting has released a study titled, Build it Right - A Study of HFR/HSR in Canada. Improving passenger rail and building High-Frequency Rail (HFR) or High-Speed Rail (HSR) in Canada is an important undertaking that will shape the future of this country. If implemented successfully, it will help millions of people each year connect with family and friends, conduct business and explore our country in a clean, safe and efficient way.  However, if we fail to employ the best design and construction practices, HFR/HSR risks becoming an overbudget boondoggle that under-delivers in providing a quality experience for passengers and may discourage future investments in passenger rail. It is critical that we get it right Does it makes sense to build High-Speed Rail in Canada? Or is High-Frequency Rail a better option? How should it be built and how much would it cost? This study investigates these questions and concludes that high-speed rail is viable and should be built now, not l...

High Speed Rail Canada is celebrating 15 years of educating Canadians about the benefits of high-speed rail. The main purpose then and now was to educate Canadians on the benefits of high-speed trains. High Speed Rail Canada biggest accomplishment was being the number one source for all previous high-speed rail studies in Canada. That included studies relating to Seattle-Vancouver, Edmonton-Calgary and Ontario-Quebec high-speed rail corridors.  These previous studies are available as a free download to all. Over 867,000 people have accessed the site and the studies there. Paul Langan, Founder of High Speed Rail Canada states,” It has been a difficult, but a rewarding objective to ensure the Canadian studies on high-speed, and the truth about the benefits of high-speed rail are made readily available." The High Speed Rail Canada website: http://highspeedrailcanada.com is the main way information is transmitted to the public. High Speed Rail Canada also utilizes their social media;...

Glen Murray National Green Party Leader Candidate Good news in the race to replace Elizabeth May as national leader of the Green Party of Canada. Glen Murray former Winnipeg Mayor and Ontario MPP Glen Murray has entered the race to replace her. In this introductory comments entering into the race he once again talked about his passion for high speed rail to be built in Canada. Supporters of high speed rail in Canada will remember in 2014 then Ontario Transportation Minister Glen Murray was part of  the then Liberal government that promoted the Toronto-Kitchener-London high-speed rail line. Let us hope that Glen can win the leadership race for the Greens and restore a national voice for high speed trains in Canada.

Despite a wealth advantage, Canada lags behind Spain on high-speed rail, VIA Rail Canada Toronto Star - Jan. 18, 2020 by Amir Barnea is an associate professor of finance at HEC Montréal As a pair, Toronto and Montreal, Canada’s two largest cities, have a lot in common with Madrid and Barcelona. Both city couples are roughly 600 km away from each other: Madrid is 650 km from Barcelona, and Toronto is 540 km from Montreal. Jointly, 11 million people live in the metropolitan areas of the two largest Spanish cities, compared to 10 million in the metropolitan areas of the Canadian cities. Read the whole article HERE.

VIA Rail passenger car -photo copyright Paul Langan One thing is constant in Canada - we never really move forward to having a truly modern passenger rail system. Periodically the government invests in rolling stock for VIA Rail but then it is back to the ‘same old, same old’.  That is: slow trains, high fare prices, and the absence of safety requirements that are mandatory in other countries. The federal government has recently given money ($1billion plus) to VIA Rail to update their aging fleet of passenger rail vehicles. Just like the previous 2002-2003 federal government VIA Rail Renaissance Funding, this funding is heralded as modernizing VIA Rail service.  It remains to be seen if Canada can ever have a modern passenger rail system. The federal infrastructure bank is ready to invest in big infrastructure programs. Should they invest in VIA Rail’s flawed High Frequency Rail (HFR) plan? HFR (High Frequency Rail) I have written extensively about this plan by V...

Italo Private High Speed Rail Company in Italy It has been a difficult journey for the two Italian businessmen that started up the idea of  a private company operating Italo high speed rail trains in Italy. It has been a success. Nearly 13 million passengers have traveled on Italo’s sleek red trains in 2017, while revenue rose by a quarter and core earnings jumped 64 percent last year. Twelve years after inception Italo HSR has broke even. To suggest the "privatization" of passenger rail in Canada causes fear among some rail advocates. Add in the fact that passenger rail travels on rails owned my mega freight rail companies and it seems like a difficult solution. True high speed rail solves the problem of the travelling on freight rails as they would have their own designated corridor. High speed rail would also solve the problem of ensuring  VIA Rail Inc. is not involved. VIA Rail Inc. does not support high speed rail. Maybe the time is right for a new modern era...

Turbo Train photo by John Stewart For subscribers of our newsletters you already had access to this short video clip of the legendary CN Turbo train. We have added it to our Turbo Train Playlist on our YouTube Channel  .It is getting harder to find any Turbo train quality footage from when Canada's only high speed train ran between Ontario and Quebec. Here is the complete  Playlist of the Turbo Train videos on our Channel. 1967 - Rare Early film - features slides, footage, turbo train  model - 1:35min 1970 - Professional Shot Turbo Train Film - 23min.- Shot professionally for CN Date unknown - 3:59 - Turbo Train - The Lost Film - 5min. Shot professionally for CN 1968 - Passenger Train - CN Turbo Train and Rapido Trains -4min 47 sec.- Super rare silent film shows not on the Turbo but also the Rapido trains with great onboard footage. 1968 - UAC CN Turbo Train film - 1min. 16 sec. - 1968 professionally shot by Pathe Films England 1968 - Turbo Tra...

by Anonymous -Mobility via road transportation is almost at a standstill in the Quebec City/Windsor corridor and we must now look at train travel as the missing third link in order to allow people to move from A to B in a quick, safe, cost-effective and environmentally-friendly manner. It is so sad to see that other developed countries realized this long ago and have invested long-term in railways as a viable alternative to the automobile and short- to medium-length airline travel. As a result of our short-term thinking, Canada is at least 50 years behind the times when it comes to rail travel. And we have no excuse for being in the dark in terms of finding transportation solutions as most Canadians have access to a wealth of information via the internet... Also, a lot of us have travelled to Europe and have literally emerged in shock after witnessing their seamless transportation systems that allow a passenger upon disembarking a plane to quickly make the transition to other ...

I have written an article comparing Uzbekistan vs Canada. Uzbekistan has high speed trains, Canada does not. Read the whole article HERE.