Dear Editor,
To be honest, I have always liked the idea of a high-speed rail line between our major cities. True, I wouldn’t use it much myself, but still. It would be great for moving loads of tourists around, and businesspeople would probably make some use of it. Plus, it just looks kind of cool. It might make us feel like a modern, techno switched on country.
But when I consider the realities of the thing, I have to come down on the nope side. We ourselves will get zero benefits whatsoever from a train blazing through our townships and county at 300 km/h. I mean, nobody is going to stop and do any shopping. Much worse though is the cost and disruption to us. Unless it very closely follows, at ground level, the existing route of the 417, or unless the whole thing is elevated, we are very suddenly going to have hundreds of township and county roads (not to mention farming and recreational trails) becoming dead ends. Traffic arrangements we now enjoy (agricultural, commuting, shopping and tourism, even provision of emergency services) will all have to change. The cost in both time and money (especially money) is going to be enormous. Who is going to pay for that? Last time I checked, we who live here don’t have hundreds of millions of dollars sitting gathering dust somewhere.
Now, as an aside, if they were to elevate the whole thing, it might not be that big an issue. Still no big benefits to us but no disruption of our lands and roads, and the farmers and landowners might actually make some compensation money for the placement of the pylons on their property. Nice idea but probably not going to happen.
So, with some regret, I am going to give this whole Alto thing a big nope. Cool it may well be, and convenient for the big city dwellers, but while the costs to us will be enormous, the benefits to us will be zero.
Respectfully,
Colin Affleck
Champlain Township
