Globe & Mail Opposes
Taxpayer Financed High Speed Rail
Project Called "High Speed Folly"
In an 8 June 1996 editorial entitled "HIGH SPEED FOLLY," Canada's leading newspaper,
The Globe and Mail
expressed opposition to a proposed publicly subsidized high speed rail line from Quebec, through Montreal and Toronto
to Windsor (Ontario). The editorial noted that the most recent study estimated capital costs of $18 billion (US$14
billion), and that the project would be "unsustainable without a large public subsidy."
The Globe further noted that:
Spare us one more debate over this silly idea. Mr. Bouchard (Quebec premier) and Mr. Chretien can shake
hands and exchange all the pleasantries they want, as long as they bury the proposal the moment it arrives.
This is one train they shouldn't catch.
By any measure ... a high speed train doesn't make sense ... If the private sector wants to proceed let it proceed
alone.
The editorial concluded:
Indeed, it would be the last nail in our financial coffin, less a national dream than a political scheme.
