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.

Ontario High Speed Rail The Ontario government moving ahead with plans to build high speed rail between Toronto and Windsor, a first for Ontario and Canada. Currently, they are in the early stages of the planning, design and environmental assessment work. You can learn more from visiting their WEBSITE . They want to hear from you during the planning, design and EA process! Your input will help inform the evaluation process and will influence decision making. Have your say and sign up for their mailing list to stay up-to-date on the program. The route identified in the Special Advisor’s Report is a concept route only. High speed rail is a priority initiative and the EA Terms of Reference will be scoped to identify and evaluate route alternatives for high speed rail from Kitchener-Waterloo to London. Getting Your Input They want feedback and input from the people, Indigenous communities, businesses, municipalities and agencies that could be impacted by high speed rail. This ...

David Collenette Talks High Speed Rail on CBC Afternoon Drive Radio Show Former federal transportation minister, David Collenette will take the lead to bring high-speed rail to Ontario. Ontario Transport Minister Kathryn McGarry and Kitchener Centre MPP Daiene Vernile announced Tuesday that Collenette will chair the provincial government's high-speed advisory team. This comes as work is set to begin on a $15 million-dollar environmental assessment to study the feasibility of high-speed rail between Kitchener-Waterloo and London this spring. Listen to the interview with Mr. Collenette . http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/london/former-federal-transportation-minister-david-collenette-to-lead-ontario-s-high-speed-rail-project-1.4534262 

Ontario Appoints Chair to Drive High Speed Rail Project Forward Ontario has appointed the Honourable David Collenette to lead Ontario's High Speed Rail (HSR) Planning Advisory Board-continuing progress to bring high speed rail service to the province and cut travel times between Toronto and Windsor.  Kathryn McGarry, Minister of Transportation, and Daiene Vernile, MPP for Kitchener Centre, were in Waterloo today to announce Mr. Collenette's appointment. A former federal Minister of Transport, Mr. Collenette was the province's special advisor for high speed rail. As Chair of the HSR Planning Advisory Board, Mr. Collenette will continue to provide strategic support and advise government on this landmark project. The introduction of HSR would be a first in Canada, connecting communities from Toronto to Windsor as part of Ontario's Innovation SuperCorridor. High speed trains would travel at up to 250 kilometres per hour on a combination of existing track and new dedi...

Michael Schabas , who prepared the 2014 High Speed Rail study for the province, has an excellent article refuting the recent critics of the Wynne government high speed rail plan. A recent Toronto Star interview and CBC interview with people, who know seem to now have turned into high speed rail expert,s suggest that the population density does not warrant HSR and that we should use an incremental approach in passenger rail development (Note: We are 50 years behind the rest of the modern world in passenger rail speeds) The Toronto-Kitchener-London corridor has the population density and traffic demand to support HSR service. Read the excellent article HERE in the Toronto Star.

High Speed Rail Canada is releasing to the public the an updated list of the previous 22 studies that been completed relating to Ontario high speed rail. WireService.ca Press Release (04/27/2017) - High Speed Rail Canada is Canada's only advocacy groups dedicated to promoting the modernization of passenger rail in Canada. High Speed Rail Canada is the authority on previous high speed rail historical studies in Ontario and Alberta. They are announcing they have updated the Ontario list and have included links to 3 more Ontario high speed rail studies that were previously not available to the public. The studies added to the list are:  1990 - Sprintor, Pre-feasibility Study, Windsor-Quebec Rail Corridor, ABB Canada Inc 1990 The Canadian TGV Project - Bombardier, GEC, Alstom 1991 Groupe de travail train rapide QuebecOntario Rapport Final  High Speed Rail Canada's mandate is to educate people on the benefits of modern passenger rail. They do it through ...

 Riding on Canada's Last High Speed Rail Train - The Turbo Train in the 1970s Multiple sources are stating the long awaited David Collenette report on the business case for high speed rail between, Windsor,London, Kitchener and Toronto will be released in May. What the study will actually say is of interest to many? Just recently Liberal Deb Matthews seemed to state the high speed rail plan  was just being studied with no commitment to implmentation. High Speed Rail Canada will be watching closely and analyzing the study. We also wonder what the definition of "high speed" will be? At the very least the trains should travel over 200km/h. Which would have been the definition over a decade ago. Now it is routine for high speed trains to travel 300km/h. Unfortunately in the United States of America the definition of "high speed" has been severely modified to basically mean any train running on newer tracks! In Canada, the term for "high speed...

David Collenette Only twice have Canada’s passenger trains caught half a break from any government.   To find the reasons why, you have to examine the high-level personalities involved on those two occasions. The most recent opportunity was created when Finance Minister Jim Flaherty – an admitted rail passenger buff and regular user – swung nearly $1 billion to VIA.  Sadly, VIA frittered this away – with the uniformed consent of the government that awarded the capital infusion – and let CN hoover up most of those public funds, souring any chance of fuller funding by the Harper government. However, the first time VIA was given a fair shake was under Transport Minister David Collenette.  He was born in London and spent his first 10 years near Marylebone Station, where he befriended the railroaders and was rewarded with “footplate rides” on the steam engines shuttling back and forth to the loco shed.  When he arrived in Toronto in 1957, his family lived n...

BY ALAN CORMIER re: Toronto Star Editorial Pickering: Remember Mirabel? Letter June 22 We are told that Toronto will be short of airport capacity in the near future and that a second major airport is needed in Pickering. Not that many years ago, major airport renovations and expansions were carried out in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal at the cost of billions of dollars. Analysts with a broad vision said at the time that nearly one-third of all flights at these three airports were indeed travelling between these three cities only and that a high-speed rail corridor serving these three cities would cancel the need for the airport expansions and the dollars needed for expansion would be sufficient to pay for the high-speed rail. Alas, this was not to be, and the airport expansions went ahead. Looking at the arrivals/departure boards at the three airports these days suggests still that a high-speed rail service would significantly reduce the airport capacity needs. It is time for Transp...