Rail vision vulnerable to distractions

Premier Kathleen Wynne had barely begun her speech about high-speed rail in a parking lot next to CP’s rail yards in London last Friday, when a hi-rail maintenance truck — one of those pickups adapted for use on roads or rails — screeched down the nearest track, forcing a temporary pause in the proceedings.

The assembled politicians, business leaders and media all shifted their gaze southward toward the peculiar sight. Once the truck disappeared, the premier continued her remarks.

But a superstitious person might have been forgiven for wondering whether the sudden appearance of a little pickup truck, against the background of graffiti-adorned freight cars, during a speech about high-speed passenger rail might have been something of an omen.

If the premier’s speech could be interrupted that easily, so perhaps could the dream she was espousing.

Wynne offered up a variation on the ancient Chinese proverb about planting trees. The best time to have built high-speed rail in Ontario, she said, would have been 40 years ago; the second-best time is now.

The vision, at least, is alluring. A sleek, modern, high-speed rail line between London and Toronto by 2025. Speeds of up to 250 km/h, permitting travel from London to Waterloo Region in 25 minutes and to Toronto in 72 minutes. A stop at Pearson International Airport.

The province’s special adviser on high-speed rail service, former federal cabinet minister David Collenette, foresees deeper impacts on London, too. This side of Waterloo Region, Collenette says, “HSR trains would travel on newly built, dedicated tracks to London,” running adjacent to an existing hydro corridor. Downtown London’s existing Via Rail station would be transformed into a new multi-modal hub, with two new HSR platforms alongside three Via Rail platforms and connections to the city ’s bus rapid transit service, as well as inter-city bus services.

Finally, Collenette wrote, London’s geographic position at the midway point between what would eventually become a Toronto-toWindsor high-speed-rail system would make it a logical location as a hub for HSR rollingstock maintenance and operations.

The cost of all this is, of course, blanch-worthy. In very round and tentative figures, it’s $21 billion, with the London-Windsor portion of the system not complete until 2031. But Collenette sees the economic benefits to the province as being greater than that.

Some of the assumptions and statements in the report are questionable, such as the need for an HSR stop in Guelph, which lies just 32 kilometres east of Kitchener. The point of highspeed rail being high speed, it’s important not to gum up the system with too many stops.

Such hiccups aside, many of London’s city councillors and business leaders say the plan, provided it survives the next study phase, would be a game-changer for the city. London Chamber of Commerce CEO Gerry Macartney was right last week in saying that, yes, the cost of high-speed rail is daunting. But there are times, he said, when a nation invests in the future, whether it be the St. Lawrence Seaway, the Welland Canal or high-speed rail. It’s as much a statement of optimism in the future as it is an expensive infrastructure project.

Political distraction, like a screeching hi-rail pickup truck, could still so easily make this an “itinere intermisso” — an interrupted journey.