Hi All,
I couldn't agree with Donypee more regarding this road issue. I am involved in a different kind of planning in the general area (land use instead of healthcare) and so the same information makes its way to me regarding roads. There is certainly no discussion about railroads and just as certainly a very great deal of discussion about vehicular roads.
In my career, I have been very directly involved in the construction of many resource extraction roads that later came to be used for general public access. Such roads are so much cheaper to build than railroads, that no comparison is even worth making between the two.
The specifications required to achieve a railroad are vastly greater than those to achieve a resource road. For example, a railroad has stringent grade and turning radius requirements that do not allow easy avoidance of such things as muskeg crossings. Where a railroad might be faced with millions of dollars to cross muskegs, a road will simply go around them and stick to the high ground. Also, the subgrade for a railroad cannot shift once it is built or the tracks can separate or bend and become dangerous and useless. It doesn't matter too much if a road subgrade experiences a few inches of movement and so we regularly just "float" roads over muskegs on mats of geotextile and well specified aggregates (sorted gravel).
Construction costs are not the only issue. In recent years(about the past 15 or so), trucking (with the many new multiple axle configurations) has become vastly more efficient. In fact, it is so much improved that for short to medium distances, the costs compare favourably with rail hauling. Further to that, the delivery schedules are far easier to manage and control with trucking and they are much more flexible as well. The result is that many resource companies have actually moved from rail to trucking in order to have tighter control over inventory (i.e. just in time delivery). This improved control can actually push trucking into the realm of contributing to ultimately lower costs than hauling on rails.
The upshot of all of this is just that it is doubtful that a railroad is even on anyone's radar screen at this point. With many others also desirous of a road into the area for a variety of other uses, the cost of construction can be spread out among all of them. Therefore, the ultimate cost of a road to Noront in particular may only be a small fraction (1/4 or less) of what it would cost to build it themselves. From other's estimates here, it looks like a railroad can easily exceed 10 times the cost of a road. Remember that Mr. Nemis himself very clearly stated at one point words to the effect that "who the hell ever said anything about a railroad".
I believe him.
RHammer
