NIMBYkiller wrote:The existing route may have plenty of freight traffic, but if there's space to add a track or two why couldn't VIA just do that rather than trying to build an entirely new ROW previously unused lands?
The first and most obvious reason is that it wasn't a VIA project, it was a Province of Ontario project.
And while it was never spelled out, given that it was going to be Ontario track, stations, and trains it was obvious that it would have meant the end of VIA all/part of southwestern Ontario eventually.
As for the other issues, you again run up to the fact that the freight railways aren't likely to allow electrification on their right of way - it causes lots of additional issues they simply don't want to deal with.
But I suspect the main issue is that it simply wouldn't achieve the goal in terms of London-Toronto time.
My interpretation is that this was an attempt to ease the pressure off of Toronto/GTA by creating an outlet for the growth Toronto is experiencing by connecting London to Toronto with a very short transit time (in the past this would have been viewed as Nation building/Province building, and somewhat similar to what the British government is attempting with HS2 to link LondonUK with some of the other large cities in England).