Transport committee  At present, we are looking at high speed trains. We are investing in a higher speed system with VIA Rail, but there are limits. A higher speed system always involves cost sharing. That is the problem. I think we will see great improvements with the investments VIA Rail is startin

Transport committee  It will take three to five years.

Transport committee  Like you, we've read a lot of the material and we've had a couple of discussions with officials at the Department of Transportation. Our understanding is that they will be doing a call for proposals. So the proposals are on three levels. There are projects that are ready to roll

Transport committee  Yes, the President is planning to put it in his budget bill, but that isn't approved funding yet and probably won't be until the fall, if it is.

Transport committee  I cannot say right now. We do not know where the new train will go, whether it will have a direct impact on the current VIA Rail service, whether the route will be the same or whether we will need conventional service and high speed rail service.

Transport committee  Yes, we will have to make that decision later and assess how many passengers use the service already, whether there is significant ridership. It is too early to say.

Transport committee  It is too early to say. I cannot answer.

Transport committee  Yes.

Transport committee  It is too early to say.

Transport committee  In 1995, there were two national airlines: Air Canada and Canadian Airlines. There were also a number of other carriers, such as Nordair and Air Atlantic. People had more choice than they do today. Today, there is Air Canada and, on a few routes, there is WestJet. Other airlines

Transport committee  We have not. Amtrak has talked to us in the past. It's Amtrak that actually operates that service. VIA Rail does not. They are going to, or are planning to, introduce a couple or at least one more train for the Olympics, possibly two more trains in that corridor. They've done

Transport committee  What we think will be the impact...and we don't know for sure, but given that there is a much broader range of technologies available today than there was in 1992 or 1995, we'll have better choices, say, that are suited to the Canadian environment. Also, we're hoping that because

Transport committee  We keep a very close eye on what happens in the U.S., just as they do on us. I'm even pleased to tell you that two years ago, when Amtrak was looking at expanding its service and changing its network, the model they were looking at was VIA Rail. They came and talked to us, and w

Transport committee  We believe in competition; we believe in choice. The fundamental difference between Canada and Europe is the population density. We are a very sparsely populated country, even in urban areas, compared with Europe. And we have huge corridors to cover. None of the U.S. corridors is

Transport committee  So it's huge, and the population is not very big. That's where they have the advantage that you can get people to take the train, and the train is used heavily for many purposes, right? They have also been a bit creative in looking at other policies, that where certain flights,