I like how the article states that high speed rail is nearly impossible on the basis that the company doesn’t own the tracks. High speed rail should be built on its own dedicated track, which is expensive but so are the massive highways we have built.
Once the rail is built, minimum density and mixed zoning could be enforced near the stations, which would promote ridership and create transit oriented neighbourhoods instead of the standard car centric neighbourhood.
Municipalities that are skipped by the rail could be serviced by good quality bus rapid transit to get people to their nearest stations. The stations themseleves and the overall process of boarding trains in Canada should be streamlined as well to make ticketing, boarding, and baggage more effecient and faster than the current airline style treatment.