High-speed rail line with 300 km/h trains will run between Toronto and Quebec City, Trudeau announces
Construction won't start until end of $3.9B design phase that could last 5 years
The Liberal government launched a six-year, $3.9-billion design and development plan Wednesday that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says will eventually connect Quebec City and Toronto with a high-speed rail line.
"Today I'm announcing the launch of Alto, the largest infrastructure project in Canadian history," Trudeau said from Montreal. "A reliable, efficient, high-speed rail network will be a game-changer for Canadians."
Trudeau said the new rail network will run all-electric trains along 1,000 kilometres of track, reaching speeds of up to 300 km/hour, with stops in Toronto, Peterborough, Ottawa, Montreal, Laval, Trois-Rivières and Quebec City.
A government statement said the project will stimulate the economy, "boosting GDP by up to $35 billion annually, creating over 51,000 good-paying jobs during construction."
Trudeau said that once built, the new high-speed rail network will take passengers from Montreal to Toronto in three hours — about half the time it takes to drive and at double the speed of Via Rail's current trains.
Construction on the new line will not begin until the design phase is done, which could take four to five years. Funds are to be allocated at the end of that time period, so it's possible a future government could modify or cancel the project.
Last month, Trudeau announced he would be stepping down as prime minister. The race to succeed him is in full swing, with a new Liberal leader and prime minister set to be selected by March 9. An election is expected in the spring.
"High-speed rail in this country was always going to be a project that would take long enough to build that it would cover multiple governments … from municipal to provincial to federal," Trudeau said.
"Obviously, future governments will make their determinations about how they invest. But this investment in Canadians, which starts right now, is going to be very difficult to turn back on," he added.
Contract with consortium yet to be signed
Trudeau said the consortium Cadence — made up of CDPQ Infra, AtkinsRéalis, Keolis, SYSTRA, SNCF Voyageurs and Air Canada — was selected to build the line. The group was only informed in the last 24 hours that their bid was the best of the three submitted, according to sources that spoke to Radio-Canada.
Transport Minister Anita Anand said that Alto, the Crown corporation created to oversee the project, and Cadence will be signing a contract "in the coming weeks" that will outline the first-phase design work, such as where track will be laid and where stations will be built.
A government statement said the initial development stage funding will be spread over six years starting this year, but Anand and Trudeau said in Montreal Wednesday that the design stage of the project might only last four to five years.
Martin Imbleau, Alto's president and CEO, said the long lead time is necessary to ensure the project will not encounter problems when construction begins.
"We're going to take our time, properly develop the project, look at the different phases and in four or five years, we'll know what we're building," Imbleau said.
As Radio-Canada first reported in October, the Liberal government had opted for a high-speed train rather than a slower high-frequency train project to transport passengers between Quebec City and Toronto.
A government statement said "Canada's investment in the co-development phase of the project represents $3.9 billion over six years, starting in 2024-25," in addition to the $371.8 million announced in the budget.
Transport Canada initially estimated that the cost of a high-speed rail link between the two cities could be as high as $80 billion.
Conservatives, Carney, Freeland react
CBC News asked the Conservatives if they would support the project's completion should they form the next government, but they did not provide a direct answer.
Conservative MP Philip Lawrence, the party's transport critic, dismissed the announcement as little more than a photo-op.
"The prime minister will be gone in two weeks. The minister of transport will not be seeking re-election. Today's announcement is a lame duck statement from a lame duck government," Lawrence said in a statement.
"Today's announcement is yet another promise with no details that will take years and $3.9 billion on planning and bureaucracy, without laying a single piece of track," he said.
Liberal leadership candidate Mark Carney welcomed the news on Wednesday, saying a new high-speed rail network could bring large economic benefits.
"This has all the potential to be the type of project, a public-private partnership, that the country needs," Carney said at a news conference in Scarborough, Ont.
He added that if he becomes the Liberal leader, he would "ensure that the project going ahead benefits all Canadians."
Former finance minister Chrystia Freeland, another candidate for the Liberal leadership, also backed the project.
"I think it's a great project. I think we need to be building more infrastructure. We need to have more connections between the cities in our country. This is a great investment in Canada's economy, in Canadian people," she said.
A history of toying with high-speed rail
Canada is the only G7 country without some form of high-speed rail, although the idea has been studied for decades.
A joint Ontario, Quebec and federal government study completed in 1995 found that the idea of running trains between Quebec City and Windsor was feasible if they were at least 300 km/h and the private sector assumed half the cost and all the risk.
In 2008, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Quebec Premier Jean Charest agreed to conduct another study of the project. When that study suggested it could cost more than $21 billion, however, enthusiasm waned.
In 2017, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne announced plans to build a high-speed rail network between Toronto and London by 2025, but that was axed when Doug Ford took office.
