I'd agree in terms of distance and traffic between the two cities. However, the long, relatively severe winters would probably add some complications to high speed rail.
[0] https://www.globalrailwayreview.com/article/74614/norway-rai...
I also looked up Amtrak's speeds and found a report from 2016 saying that over half of their trains had a top speed of 160 km/h or greater.
This sentence can be interpreted in multiple ways. Maybe they mean that half of their trains could theoretically ride at 160 kph, but that doesn’t mean that they ever actually reach such speeds on their routes. Or, maybe, that half of their trains reach 160 kph on some fraction of their route, maybe very small one.
What I would be more interested in is their average speed according to schedule, weighted by the frequency of trains on a given segment, and same average but for actual ride times, including delays etc.
This under pressure sucks up the snow and plasters it to the train.
In Germany at least ICE train speed is reduced (despite their name ;-) if there is snow on the track.
Snow isn't an obstacle to trains (unless you don't want trains to be a reality).
[0] https://www.railway-technology.com/features/moscow-kazan-hig....
(Edited to fix an autocorrect correction from my phone)
>edmonton to calgary
I think think there's a slight difference between the things we're comparing