Trudeau announces $3.9B high-speed rail between Quebec City and Toronto
CBC
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday revealed his government's $3.9 billion, six-year plan to 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 in Montréal. "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, Montréal, 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.
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.
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.
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