Outside of the major commuter routes between large cities, the demand isn't really there.
There's a new CBC Radio article that OP may have forgotten to link to.
It does seem like there's not much of a use case if you don't have the requirement to cover a large change in elevation in a relatively short distance - mountains, or to get up and over a shipping lane, or something like that. The article argues for them to be inexpensive, which...I'm sure they are, but they seem to be relatively low-capacity, and pretty limited in terms of the number of stops you could include on a route. But I'm not an expert, and maybe I'd be surprised.
A really nice episode that improves on the already-quite-good first installment in pretty much every way.
Jack works a lot better once he's integrated into the main plot - he actually fits in quite seamlessly. He's still not quite as charming as he's clearly meant to be, but I think it's a big step up from last episode.
The "go to your room" bit is a lousy way to solve a cliffhanger that I nonetheless find very amusing. I'd also completely forgotten about the banana gag. Good stuff.
Jack suggests Pompeii on volcano day as a good place to visit if you're running a con. Hmm...
Nancy continues to be an outstanding character, balancing vulnerability with authority and toughness. Her confrontation with the owner of the house works really well, though it bumps up against problematic-yet-appropriate-for-the-era topics.
We get our first mention of Villengard, the weapons manufacturer that gets occasional shout-outs to this day.
The two-parter as a whole manages to seed its major plot developments - the nanogenes and Nancy secretly being Jamie's mother - without making it glaringly obvious - no small feat.
And, of course, we get the "everybody lives" monologue. It's iconic for a reason.
I was told to go talk to Garrett Wang. I went to his both and introduced my costume. He loved it. He asked for a photo and a video of me explaining it.
Amazing!
“I learned so much. I learned so many canon things that even I had no clue about, from one of our wonderful writers, Kirsten Beyer, who’s just the godmother of Trek. She’s the Trek Wiki. Her brain is Star Trek. And I got to co-write my episode with her. That was such a dream, because I could just text her in the middle of the night and ask her just deep cut, nerdy questions that I won’t allude to right now, because it’ll spoil things. Just just imagine having a little Trek Wiki that you can text who’s a human being, who’s your friend. And that’s what it was like working with her. So it’s great.”
Upon further consideration...
"Federation political drama" is a popular dream show for a lot of people. I've never been one of those people - the Federation is built on decades of contradictory nonsense, and anything they came up with would be under immense pressure to be a perfect political system - something that's never been designed IRL, and probably never will.
But...setting it in the very early days of the UFP, as the characters themselves are trying to figure it out? There might actually be something there...
I'm under no illusions that this will actually happen - it's just nice to know he's interested.
No room for "Star Trek Year One"?
It seems like something along those lines. I wonder if it's something they plan to circle back to, or if they're going to leave those toys on the shelf for someone to play with in the future.
I caught the very end of this one, which is great because I love CFL overtime. Kind of a tragic way for things to play out, though...
La’an saying “fascinating” makes me wonder if Spock is rubbing off on her.
Considering the extreme side-eye Chapel gave her, I don't think you're the only one.
It is, and maybe it will change some day, but there's a reason intercity rail is concentrated almost entirely in the Toronto - Quebec City corridor - nowhere else in the country has the population density to justify it (though maybe the Calgary-Edmonton route will get to that point one day).