Alto high-speed rail project is a gain for Canadian infrastructure

Editor’s note: This article has been updated for accuracy. 

Ontario and Québec, respectively, are the first-and second-most populous Canadian provinces with official data, as of 2022, showing that central Canada is home to more than half of the national population. 

Within this region is the Québec City-Windsor Corridor, a 1,150 km-long strip that is home to 18 million people — thereby making it the most densely populated region in all of Canada. This is why a high-speed railway would be the perfect form of transportation for the corridor. 

Fortunately, earlier this year, the federal government greenlit a project to build just that, which is expected to cost between $60 to $90 billion. The six-year-long design phase of the project was announced by former prime minister Justin Trudeau and will connect Toronto to Québec City. 

Trudeau said the new rail network will run all-electric trains along 1,000 kilometres of track, reaching speeds of up to 300 kilometres/hour, with stops in Toronto, Peterborough, Ottawa, Montreal, Laval, Trois-Rivières, and Quebec City.

The “Alto” line will be a high-frequency/speed train co-designed and built by Cadence and is being pitched as the “alternative rail experience.” Alto, it is purported, will be able to transport passengers from Toronto to Montreal in three hours, less time than the current VIA Rail line. 

There is a chance the government that will form after next week’s election will either modify or cancel the rail project before ground-breaking ever takes place. Let it be known that a high-speed passenger rail line is something that is long overdue for that corridor — and Canada at large.

The benefits of a functioning high-speed passenger rail are very much the same as for a metropolitan transit system but on a larger scale. Positives include less congestion, exhaust emissions, and accidents with fewer cars on the road — which also equates to less personal income being budgeted towards gas. 

Spreading people further out from their homes would also increase economic activity across communities, opening up mid- to long-term career prospects outside of one’s hometown, jobs the construction itself will create in the short term, and an expanded range of leisure activities to enjoy. 

Like with any properly budgeted public works project, the finished service will pay for itself. Not right away, of course, but rewards cannot be gained without taking the risk first.

Despite being the world’s second-largest country by landmass, Canada does not have a high-speed rail system — giving it the dubious honour of being the only G7 state without one. It does not make sense that a country this large does not have a reliable nationwide high-speed train. 

Unfortunately, when it comes to public transportation, speed is not of the essence as demonstrated locally by the SkyTrain expansion project. 

From 1970 to 2025, there have been 28 separate reports pertaining to a Québec City-Windsor Corridor high-speed train. Yet it is only now, and at the behest of a then-outgoing prime minister, that the planning stage is even beginning. 

To say nothing of other prospective lines such as the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor or from Chilliwack to Whistler, the fact that central Canada is being promised a high-cost public project over the West Coast definitely is a point of contention, and a tale as old as Canada.

Nevertheless, Canada needs national connection as much as it does internationally. Dependency on automobiles only increases environmental degradation, and airliners want your money above all else. 

Perhaps it is too late now, but comprehensive economic and social planning such as Alto are early phases in improving Canada in uncertain and troubling times.