Rendering of Canada’s future high-speed rail.Supplied
Across Canada, there’s growing recognition that better mobility between major cities is essential. The country’s first high-speed rail (HSR) project, overseen by Crown corporation Alto, aims to do so by connecting the nearly 1,000 km corridor between Toronto and Québec City.
This stretch accounts for roughly 44 per cent of the country’s population. As Alto states, an HSR network will drive economic growth by significantly reducing travel times, enhancing connectivity between people and communities, and creating job and business opportunities.
“The project is essentially the largest infrastructure program in Canada since the railroads built in the 1800s or the St. Lawrence Seaway in the 1950s,” says Marc-Olivier Ranger, chief strategic policy and partnerships officer at Alto.
Alto’s development and pre-construction phase is underway. In early December, the federal government announced that construction on the first segment of the dedicated electric rail network, linking Ottawa to Montreal, could begin as early as 2029-2030.
According to Alto, the new service could generate $24.5-billion in annual economic impact – equivalent to 1.1 per cent of Canada’s GDP – while creating more than 50,000 jobs during construction and requiring thousands of staff in long-term operations.
Beyond that growth, the HSR network is designed to reshape how millions of Canadians live and work by cutting travel times in half. Given rising car costs and the high price of flights, HSR will be an affordable, sustainable and accessible alternative.
The system will be designed for direct service. With trains that could travel at 300 km or more per hour, trips between Ottawa and Toronto could drop from about five hours by car to roughly two hours by HSR. And Ottawa-Montreal trips could be cut down to around an hour.
“Those journey times will change how people get around. It will be faster to take the train than to take the car and be stuck in traffic and it will offer an additional alternative to flying,” Mr. Ranger says.
The future high-speed rail service will cut travel times dramatically along the 1,000 km Toronto-Québec City corridor.Supplied
Car and bus trips can be unpredictable considering the packed highways. Rail users want more predictable schedules and frequent departures – “and we can provide that,” says Mr. Ranger.
Unlike the current passenger rail service, which operates mostly on freight tracks, Alto’s network will have its own infrastructure. “With frequent departures throughout the day, missing one train doesn’t derail the trip. Another leaves shortly after, still getting travellers to their meeting on time and home for dinner.”
Alto projects that the new service will have an impact equivalent to taking approximately 100,000 cars off the road each year, drastically reducing traffic congestion and greenhouse gas emissions in Canada’s busiest corridor.
HSR is poised to unlock economic ripple effects, by positively impacting Canadians’ mobility and participation in the labour market, and increasing the business opportunities in the corridor and beyond.
“Since people can now commute faster in a more comfortable way, that means essentially the employers and workers are closer,” says Tasnim Fariha, senior policy analyst at the C.D. Howe Institute. “So now employers can hire a better match from a bigger market.”
For decades, the debate over HSR in Canada centred on whether population density could support it. Mr. Ranger notes that our population has grown to the point where we’re comparable to many city pairs in Europe that already have HSR, making such a system economically viable here.
Marc-Olivier Ranger, chief strategic policy and partnerships officer, AltoSupplied
Without new investment, Alto data suggests that intercity rail demand along the Toronto- Québec City corridor could stagnate at around 6 million users. However, Mr. Ranger says a HSR network could unlock new demand, and accommodate upwards of 24 million passengers by 2055 and 43 million by 2084.
“In Spain they discovered that 30 per cent of their current users [of HSR] weren’t travelling between cities before. If you have all these new people travelling between cities, you’re inducing new demand and economic activity that didn’t exist before.
The project is expected to create one of the largest infrastructure-driven demands for materials like steel, aluminium, and lumber. That will strengthen domestic supply chains and give Canadian manufacturers new opportunities.
Alto has already begun technical design work on tracks, stations and support infrastructure. Field studies are presently establishing baseline data on water quality, wildlife populations, and ambient noise levels.
To develop the project, Alto has teamed up with Cadence, a private-sector development partner. Their task is to improve design efficiency and accelerate innovation by integrating global rail expertise and Canadian expertise. The Cadence consortium includes CDPQ Infra, AtkinsRéalis, SYSTRA Canada, Keolis Canada, SNCF Voyageurs and Air Canada.
The first phase of public consultations is set to take place from January to March along the corridor. The process will invite residents, businesses, municipalities and regional Indigenous communities to help shape the final route and design.
For Mr. Ranger, HSR goes well beyond transportation. “This will inherently be a Canadian train. It will be built out by Canadians and it will help Canadians in their daily lives. So from that perspective, we believe it’s truly a nation-building project.”
To find out how to attend open house and virtual information sessions, and take part in an online consultation, visit altotrain.ca/en/public-consultation. This is a chance to learn about the Alto project, ask questions and provide the feedback that will influence project decisions.
Advertising feature produced by Globe Content Studio with Alto. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved.