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Stryxnine Amity Pulsatrix
(30/🇨🇦/Saskatchewan)
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This is news to me, but there seems to be a pretty strong effort to push for a high speed rail system in Saskatchewan. This is my home province, and I live in one of the hundreds of rural communities across the province that has no public transportation options for access to metropolitan areas like Regina and Saskatoon.

bit of a long post, so more under the break.


Saskatchewan used to have an intercity transportation service called the STC - Saskatchewan Transportation Company. It was a bus company that could be used for travel as well as parcel shipment. If you wanted a parcel transported within the province, the STC was basically your Amazon Same-Day Delivery method. It was also vital for personal transportation, as the STC served many poor and aging rural communities. Those communities, through the STC, could access essential medical and government services among other necessities that were offered in metro areas which weren't available in rural communities.

The STC started in 1946 through Tommy Douglas. Douglas, for context, is responsible for leading the first socialist government in North America, and his most famous policy is a provincial public health insurance plan which was eventually implemented at the national level. That public health insurance plan was also the first public health insurance policy in North America. Tommy Douglas is incredibly pivotal to ensuring a high quality of life in Saskatchewan during the mid- to late 20th century.

In 2017, the Saskatchewan Party - a political party formed out of provincial Conservative and Liberal Party members who couldn't win an election against the strong showings from Douglas' New Democratic Party - dismantled the STC, citing concerns about profitability. You know, because Liberals and Conservatives think governments should be run like fucking businesses.

The STC closure destroyed any ability for rural communities to connect to metropolitan centers affordably and reliably, which disproportionately affected the poorest in already vulnerable rural communities. Sask Party promised that the private sector would pick up where the STC left, but it never happened. In fact, Greyhound straight up left Saskatchewan because a majority of their passengers were connected to their Greyhound bus routes through the STC, and with the STC closure those passengers were no longer able to reach the Greyhound stations. At first, a couple private businesses attempted to serve rural communities in the same manner the STC did, but those businesses eventually closed up shop or ceased operation in Saskatchewan because nobody could pay the price of their fares.

It was considered a massive mistake for the Sask Party to make, but the Sask Party basically just posted through it and lived to tell the tale. because like, you know, libs and cons are just fucking snake oil salespeople. but that's beside the point of this post.

Sask Reconnect seeks to reconnect rural communities to metropolitan centers through High Speed Rail systems. It plans to start in Saskatoon using existing rail infrastructure to offer intracity rail service, and eventually open up service to Prince Albert. From there, plans are to implement high speed rail access to as many rural communities as possible.

This is an incredibly smart, slam dunk plan. Reconnecting rural communities to metro areas would "reinvigorate our economy" which is a stupid buzzword economists like to use, but it would also give poor rural citizens access to services that are available in metro areas that aren't available in their own communities. For example, there are no practicing therapists in my rural city. Furthermore, there are no psychologists or psychiatrists here either. My endocrinologist is a doctor in Regina because not a single doctor in my rural city had enough knowledge (nor enough willpower to learn) to administer my HRT. Having high speed rail access to Regina would open up so many treatments for so many of my issues. On top of that, I'd be able to visit friends in Regina regularly without having to spend all day traveling by car - and I don't own a car, my ability to drive to Regina relies 100% on my parents' willingness to lend me their vehicles. Often, they don't want to.

Beyond my own personal experience - which is that i would benefit massively from this service - a high speed rail system would help so many others get access to the things they need.

This is a no-brainer. so obviously, this means the marble-skulled Sask Party are gonna try and shoot it down somehow. but maybe, just maybe they keep their heads screwed on straight and take this proposal seriously. This could genuinely be the start of a number of investments in Saskatchewan infrastructure that could revitalize our province and bring it back into the 21st century.


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