High-speed electric rail along the Toronto-Quebec City corridor has chugged a bit closer to climate-friendly reality as the federal government launches a C$3.9-billion design and development plan for the new rail network with promises of a major boost to national GDP.
Unveiled by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Montreal last week, Alto, the high-speed rail (HSR) network, will run all-electric trains along 1,000 kilometres of mostly brand-new, dedicated tracks, with stops confirmed for Toronto, Peterborough, Ottawa, Montreal, Laval, Trois-Rivières, and Quebec City, reports CBC News.
Billed by Trudeau as “the largest infrastructure project in Canadian history,” the network could see trains reaching speeds of up to 300 kilometres per hour, taking passengers from Toronto to Montreal in about three hours. This is roughly “half the time it takes to drive and double the speed of Via Rail’s current trains,” notes CBC.
Comparing HSR in the Toronto-Quebec City corridor to the St. Lawrence Seaway, the rail project “is required for the country’s future,” says the federal government’s business case summary.
“HSR is anticipated to generate annual benefits equivalent to 1.1% of the country’s GDP— an impact that is nearly unprecedented for infrastructure projects in Canada—driven by productivity gains that could reach up to $35 billion annually,” the summary reads.
Speaking in Montreal, Trudeau said the project will “support the country’s steel, aluminum, and copper industries at a time when Canadian resource sectors are facing tariff threats from the United States,” reports the Globe and Mail.
Informed of its successful bid just hours before Trudeau’s announcement, the Cadence consortium—made up of CDPQ Infra, AtkinsRéalis (formerly SNC-Lavalin), Keolis, SYSTRA, SNCF Voyageurs, and Air Canada—will sign a contract with Crown-owned Alto “in the coming weeks,” said Transport Minister Anita Anand, speaking alongside the PM.
The contract will outline the first phase of design work. Expected to take between four and five years, but with funding for six, it will determine track routes and station locations and include consultation with local communities along the route. The $3.9 billion is additional to $371.8 million in funding announced in the April 2024 budget.
Ottawa has yet to publicly cost the full HSR line.
“It is too early and imprudent to provide a cost estimate,” Anand told the Globe and Mail.
In a separate interview with the Globe, Alto CEO Martin Imbleau pegged a “working assumption” of the final cost of the project at between $60 and $90 billion, with the split between public funds and private equity still to be determined.
Alongside much speedier commutes, Alto is being promoted as a meaningful response to the housing affordability crisis, with construction of some “63,000 diverse residential units” cited as a benefit that will come along with HSR.
And there will be climate benefits, as well, says Ottawa, with life cycle GHG emissions reductions pegged at up to 39 million tonnes, in part by significantly reducing short-haul flight travel as well as car commutes.
“The official estimate of the project office is that the rail mode share between Toronto and Montreal will quadruple from 10% to 40%, removing 90 billion vehicle kilometres traveled from the roads over the project’s life cycle,” Nate Wallace, sustainable transportation manager at Environmental Defence Canada, told The Energy Mix.
Asked to comment on Quebec pension fund CDPQ’s decision to invest in Alto, Adam Scott, director of Canadian pension watchdog Shift Action for Pension Wealth and Planetary Health, gave it a strong, albeit preliminary, thumbs up.
“New investment in public, electrified transportation infrastructure is absolutely in line with credible, science-based climate transition plans,” Scott told The Mix.
He added: “We don’t have much detail on the structure or finances of this project, so it’s hard to assess the financial risks at this stage, but it’s certainly a smart, climate-safe investment at first glance.”
