I just came back from Beijing, Shanghai, and Tokyo, where the high-speed train system is phenomenal. Even four or five years ago, when I was in Hong Kong, my girlfriend was driving me to the airport and as we were driving on the highway I saw this high-speed train going to the airport from downtown, and I asked why I was on the road. I should have been on that train.
In Canada, we are so far behind it is phenomenal. Asian and European countries see rail transportation as the fastest-growing mode. We're just behind.
I'm from Toronto. Every holiday weekend I see a lot of reports about the carnage on the roads from accidents. I often wonder if there were a high-speed train how many of those drivers coming back from cottages or visiting would be taking trains and then perhaps a friend could drive them or they could leave the car near the cottage or something like that, and how much safer that would be. What kinds of reductions would we have in the traffic jams and the congestion on the highway? What kind of convenience and improved mobility would we have if there were a high-speed train from Quebec City to Windsor, including from Toronto to Ottawa? I go back and forth every week.
I do have a very specific question. I see that transport involves greenhouse gas emissions. In terms of percentage of greenhouse gas emissions in this country, about one-third of it comes from transportation. The rest is from industry. Of that, about 77% is generated by drivers, by road. The rest is made up of 9% by air, 6% by marine, and 4% by rail. Has anyone done a study to show that maximum ridership--assuming it is not too expensive to travel in this corridor, assuming it is very affordable, assuming that the federal government sees the light and has the vision to build high-speed rail, and does it soon and forgets about the 17 studies that have been done in the past and just goes ahead because we know it is good for Canada and good for the environment...? How many passengers are we looking at in terms of greenhouse gas emissions reduction? What are we looking at? If we are to meet some of the greenhouse gas reduction quotas that we are supposed to meet, surely this would be good for the environment, good for people's pocketbooks, and good for our safety. Do those of you who are experts have some of those figures?