what else could be done?

I would love to build a cross Canada high speed rail network. Forget the HFR plan that Transport Canada has envisioned to increase the frequency in the main corridor that includes Montreal and Toronto.

Instead, create a passenger only high speed line that goes from Union Station to Gare Centrale, and also have branches that go from Toronto to Ottawa, and Montreal to Ottawa, and in Ottawa put a station closer than the existing Via station there. If we need new tunnels to get the new high speed tracks into a city, let's get the TBMs going.

Next would be to pick as straight a line as possible from Ottawa to Sault Ste Marie to Thunder Bay to Winnipeg. From Winnipeg straight to Regina, however, a separate branch up to Saskatoon. From Regina to Calgary, again with a separate branch up to Edmonton. From Calgary through the Rockies in new tunnels so as to have as straight a line as possible for high speed all the way to Vancouver.

Of course the train would head east with stops in Fredericton and Moncton, with a branch from Moncton that goes down to Halifax and a branch from Moncton that goes on a new rail bridge across to PEI. Somehow I would also want to connect Newfoundland; but I am less certain how this could happen.

I understand that certain stretches of this high speed rail network will not be economically feasible, however, for the purposes of Climate Change and getting cars and airplanes off the road and out of the skies, an electric high speed rail becomes an important element. Have the profitable portions of the network help to offset the losses in the other parts, and have government subsidy for the remainder of the unprofitable part.

Alberta is already planning a big rail network; one branch of which would go up to Fort Mac. I would add to this to have the rails go much further north, into the Canadian north. Of course I would need to work with whatever indigenous groups this rail network may cover, but for the melting Arctic ice, we (Canada) need to maintain our sovereignty of our north, so over time I would have the rails go all the way up. How rails can be built on melting permafrost is of course a problem, but it is one that there must be a solution.

Instead of having three trains a week like Via Rail has presently, I would have six trains a day for the cross Canada part and 12 trains a day for that Windsor to Quebec City corridor. Every train on the network will stop at every major stop, however, there will also be minor stops. For example, trains 1,3 and 5 would stop at the A group of minor stops along the cross Canada network, and trains 2,4 & 6 would stop at the B group of minor stations. Similarly for the Windsor-Quebec City, have odd trains also stop at the A group of minor stops and even trains stop at the B group of minor stops.

Anyhow, this, among many other Canada-wide things, is what I have in mind these days.