Alto chief executive Martin Imbleau at a luncheon in Montreal on Tuesday. Imbleau says construction on a high-speed rail line linking Toronto and Quebec City is expected to begin by 2032.Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press
The chief executive officer of a planned high-speed rail project between Toronto and Quebec City says construction on the eastern and western parts of the line is expected to begin by 2032.
After a speech in Montreal on Tuesday, Martin Imbleau told reporters that the portions connecting the two provincial capitals will likely start to be built two years after shovels hit the ground on an earlier segment.
Construction of that first phase, set to kick off in 2029 or 2030, would link Montreal and Ottawa and act as a test case for a multibillion-dollar infrastructure project intended to transform rail travel in Canada’s most densely populated region.
“Construction of the western part and eastern part will start probably a couple of years after the initial construction period,” Mr. Imbleau said.
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He declined to specify which of the two stretches – Toronto-Ottawa and Montreal-Quebec City – might begin first. Engineering work on them is slated to start during construction of the 200-kilometre Montreal-Ottawa track, he said.
The Crown corporation, dubbed Alto, aims to have stations near the heart of downtown in both Toronto and Montreal, with Union Station and Central Station under consideration, respectively, Mr. Imbleau said.
“The mandate is very specific and the intent is to go downtown,” he said. But the precise locations remain “tricky to envisage,” he added in a sit-down interview.
The proposed 1,000-kilometre network would see trains running on dedicated tracks at speeds of up to 300 kilometres an hour, slashing current travel times. It would make for a three-hour trip between the country’s two largest cities and less than one hour between Montreal and Ottawa.
A three-month public consultation is set to kick off later this month.
The high-speed rail project was first announced by then-prime minister Justin Trudeau in February. In September, his successor Mark Carney announced the government’s new Major Projects Office would speed up engineering and regulatory work on the railway to get construction under way within four years.
Mr. Imbleau’s mention of 2030 as a possible start date, rather than 2029, marks a slight adjustment to the initial timeline for construction.
He stressed that “conviction” was his biggest challenge.
“Let’s stay laser-focused on making this happen. Focus on the first segment, start construction, learn and deploy with more agility going east and going west,” he told reporters.