The Senate of Canada building, and former train station, in Ottawa on Friday.Blair Gable/The Globe and Mail
Ottawa’s historic former downtown train station, now the Senate’s temporary home, is under consideration to be an urban hub as officials plan for Canada’s first high-speed rail line.
Alto, the government body leading the proposed megaproject, launched consultations this week that include a map of the proposed route from Toronto through Ottawa and Montreal and ending in Quebec City.
Ottawa’s original downtown Union Station, which opened in 1912, and the current Via Rail station, located southeast of the downtown, are both included as possible locations for the capital’s high-speed terminus.
Alto CEO Martin Imbleau is on a speaking tour to promote the project, which, if it proceeds, would begin with construction of the Montreal-Ottawa link.
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After a Jan. 12 presentation at the Ottawa Board of Trade, he told The Globe and Mail that both buildings are under consideration, along with other downtown locations, and will be evaluated according to multiple criteria.
“It needs to be feasible, it needs to be fast,” he said. “Your journey time has to be reduced significantly. So, you don’t position your station because it’s a tourist attraction. The one key location factor is ensuring that your journey time is as short as possible to reach your destination.”
Many civic boosters have complained for years about the relative inconvenience of the current train station, which is four stops from downtown on the city’s light-rail public-transportation system. The prospect of intercity train service returning to downtown Ottawa is seen as a way to help revitalize a core that has been hard-hit by a slow return to the office by government workers after the height of the pandemic.
“We would love it to be downtown,” said Sueling Ching, chief executive officer of the Ottawa Board of Trade, in an interview. “It would create a whole new sense of vibrancy” and “catalyze the downtown.”
Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe called Alto an exciting project with potential to “make this part of the country smaller in a good way, and more connected.”
While he said in an interview that he was open to where the station could be located, he said a downtown location would be very appealing.
“Absolutely, the opportunity for that building, right in the heart of downtown Ottawa, to be a hub of some kind is huge,” he said, recalling how his own father arrived in Ottawa 70 years ago at Union Station, travelling from New York City after emigrating from England.
The columned Grand Beaux-Arts-style Union Station is located alongside the Rideau Canal and within easy walking distance to the National Arts Centre, the Parliament buildings and Byward Market. It’s across the street from the city’s Chateau Laurier hotel, the city’s main conference centre and the Rideau Centre shopping mall.
But 60 years have passed since the last train left the station. Passenger service was relocated to the present, open glass and steel station in 1966.
That move was part of a mid-century project from French urban planner and architect Jacques Gréber that transformed the city’s look and layout. The plan, commissioned by the government of then-prime minister Mackenzie King, was meant to beautify the Capital. It replaced rail lines with urban arteries, highways, parkways and green spaces.
While Ottawa lost its downtown train service it allowed for the transformation of the eastern flank of the Rideau Canal from a gritty railbed into the scenic Colonel By Drive and accompanying pathway.
For decades, the old station was underused but served as a government conference centre for key gatherings. It was the site of 1981 meetings that led to the repatriation of the Constitution and, in 1990, failed talks to save the Meech Lake Accord.
It played host to the first G20 conference after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S., and has recently been renovated to house the Senate Chamber while Parliament’s Centre Block is being renovated.
“The building is stunning and it has some architectural integrity that would give it an enormous amount of cachet,” said Ross Meredith, general manager of the Westin Ottawa hotel facing the station, adding that he doesn’t know if the building meets what would be required.
The prospect of intercity train service returning to downtown Ottawa could help revitalize a core that has been hard-hit in recent years.Blair Gable
“But logically there is some history there that suggests it could be a stunningly beautiful place.”
Valérie Dufour, a spokesperson for the National Capital Commission, which manages the Rideau Canal and the areas around it, said in an e-mail that the agency is “excited by the ambition” of the project and is open to collaborating with Alto, but did not comment directly on the potential use of the downtown station.
The consultation and design process will lead to a final decision by the government, expected in 2029, on whether to fund the project. Ottawa has already approved billions in funding for planning work. If approved, construction could begin that year and the first segment would open around 2037.
Alto has said that the total project may cost $60-billion to $90-billion and could be partly funded by private investors.
The new map of the proposed line is similar to past versions, except for the Peterborough-to-Ottawa segment, which shows two options: one that follows a more northern route across the Canadian Shield, and another further south.
Alto spokesman Benoit Bourdeau said the northern option would cut through harder rock formations that could affect construction and cost. The southern option avoids some of that terrain but would be longer and add to travel times.
Mr. Imbleau has also declined to say whether the line would stop at Toronto’s Union Station. “The objective would be to have a station in the vicinity of Union Station,” he recently told a Senate committee.
The latest map suggests there will be stations in suburban Laval, north of the Island of Montreal, as well as downtown Montreal, but the precise locations are not indicated.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe's father arrived in the city 60 years ago. Mr. Sutcliffe's father arrived in Ottawa 70 years ago.