Coderre eyes Olympics, FIFA World Cup
Is Denis Coderre betting that the post-Covid world will echo the Roaring Twenties that followed the Spanish flu? He’s tweeting about getting the Olympics for a Montreal-Toronto consortium – with a TGV linking the cities – as well as militating to get some FIFA games in 2026.
Mark Côté 11:22 on 2021-02-02 Permalink
Something that seems to be missed when this Roaring Twenties thing comes up is that the 1920s didn’t just follow a big pandemic; they also followed a horrific 4-year war, the likes of which the world had never seen. I don’t understand the cause & effect here but seems like a notable omission.
Kate 11:28 on 2021-02-02 Permalink
I agree, but it’s the closest thing we have to a historical forerunner and, like you, I keep seeing it mentioned.
Spi 12:12 on 2021-02-02 Permalink
I’m not saying holding the olympics is a good idea, but sharing the olympics between 2 cities and having a lasting green transport infrastructure instead of excess massive sports stadia is much better than what’s been going on in recent Olympic times.
Kate 12:20 on 2021-02-02 Permalink
I was just thinking about earlier discussions here about the technical obstacles to creating a TGV between the cities.
Coderre is probably counting on the simple effect it will have on the populace to announce some future bread and circuses, whether or not he has the ability to make them materialize. He was always about the flashy event, but he was voted out for a party who made it clear they were more about day-to-day quality of life. Could Coderre grab enough votes with flashy promises, though?
Blork 12:37 on 2021-02-02 Permalink
FWIW, we are just coming out of a four year war on science, reason, and social progress, the likes of which most living people haven’t seen before. (OTOH, I’m not convinced that war is over…)
Kevin 13:17 on 2021-02-02 Permalink
Oh fuck the fuck off. The Olympics is a grift and a con.
Into the fucking sea with this idea.
Kate 13:22 on 2021-02-02 Permalink
It smells of money pit, especially since Quebec just said they wouldn’t be paying to bring any FIFA matches here. But Coderre is calculating that he could get votes simply by making flashy promises.
The argument against this is that, during his term as mayor, Coderre never managed to get anything special out of Quebec for the city. Why should we believe he’d be capable of it now?
DeWolf 13:58 on 2021-02-02 Permalink
Big Daddy Mayor is coming home with gifts for everyone!
dwgs 15:05 on 2021-02-02 Permalink
If he replaces the TGV idea with a monorail I think he might gain some traction.
dhomas 17:07 on 2021-02-02 Permalink
Isn’t the idea of a downtown MTL to downtown T.O. TGV pretty much dead in the water since the REM is monopolizing the Mount-Royal tunnel?
Daniel D 17:48 on 2021-02-02 Permalink
> TGV pretty much dead in the water since the REM is monopolizing the Mount-Royal tunnel?
My understanding was this mainly affected planned routes to Quebec City along the north shore. I’d be amazed if Coderre of all people could single-handedly align Montreal, Toronto, Ontario, Quebec and the federal government to make this happen. As we can see from the UK’s HS2 project, the costs of high speed rail can be astronomical, so there really has to be buy-in from everybody to make it happen. Is Coderre really such a kingmaker?
ant6n 20:18 on 2021-02-02 Permalink
VIA Rail has been talking about TGF – purchasing some older line and running services frequently, but not necessarily quickly. VIA already ordered a bunch of 200km/h rolling stock from Siemens (I would`ve preferred they had purchased 230km/h-capable vehicles, but oh well).
TGV could probably be built in the Montreal-Toronto corridor for much cheaper than HS2 in Britain – the area is much less developed and much less populated than England. I´d say a better comparison would be the LGV lines in France, like the LGV Est: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGV_Est
Btw, isn´t Coderre an expert on high speed rail now, given that he´s on the board of Eurostar (where the CDPQ is a major shareholder)? =P
PO 22:37 on 2021-02-02 Permalink
With the huge influx of work-from-home, wireless meetings and the increased ability to do ones job entirely on a laptop, I wonder if train speed isn’t THAT big of an issue anymore. Sure, crank up the kmph a bit and maybe throw in some more (and maybe some express) departures, but if they can provide guaranteed high speed wifi and adequate tray table space, maybe the business traveler would see the VIARail as a better alternative. I know I would. Avoid the security lines. Work hours aren’t interrupted by boarding/taxi/takeoff/landing where you can’t have laptops out. Reliable internet and cell service the entire way. Way more comfortable and roomier. Dining car instead of pretzels. Downtown to downtown instead of relying on cabs/public transit to get to the airport (especially if the REM station isn’t built…). Far less expensive. Less chance of delays, weather related or otherwise.
Uatu 11:37 on 2021-02-03 Permalink
The Olympics is a con run by eurotrash royalty who demand ridiculous infrastructure projects to appease their neo bourgeois sense of entitlement. And after the city runs an enormous deficit and is left with a useless velodrome in the middle of nowhere, leaves and Pat’s themselves on the back for a job well done
Orr 14:45 on 2021-02-03 Permalink
A while ago I looked at the Canadian TGV studies to get an idea of the total system costs for Montreal-Toronto/Quebec City-Windsor and the cost then was around $10,000 per metre of track distance. Yes, per metre.