Commonwealth_ With just over two weeks remaining before he officially steps down from his role, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is scheduled for a mid-morning appearance in Montreal. He will be joined by Transport Minister Anita Anand to make a significant announcement, unveiling a six-year, $3.9-billion design and development plan for a high-speed rail line connecting Quebec City and Toronto. According to the Toronto Star, the unveiling marks the largest infrastructure project in Canadian history.
The new rail network will feature all-electric trains running along 1,000 kilometers of track, reaching speeds of up to 300 km/hour. The line will include stops in major cities such as Toronto, Peterborough, Ottawa, Montreal, Laval, Trois-Rivières, and Quebec City. Trudeau emphasized that once completed, the high-speed rail will cut travel time between Montreal and Toronto to just three hours, roughly half the time it takes to drive and twice as fast as Via Rail’s current trains.
The federal government expects the project to deliver substantial economic benefits. According to a government statement, the high-speed rail network could boost GDP by up to $35 billion annually and create over 51,000 well-paying jobs during the construction phase. The journey to this point has involved months of deliberation, with the government carefully reviewing bids from three private consortiums vying to partner with the newly created Crown corporation, Alto, which will oversee the project. Ultimately, the government selected Cadence, a consortium comprising CDPQ Infra, AtkinsRéalis, Keolis, SYSTRA, SNCF Voyageurs, and Air Canada, to build the line. Trudeau stated that Cadence received the news of their successful bid just 24 hours before the announcement.
Transport Minister Anita Anand confirmed that Alto and Cadence are set to sign a contract “in the coming weeks,” outlining the first-phase design work. This phase will determine key project details, such as track placement and station locations. Although construction will not commence until the design phase is completed, an estimated four to five years of funding for the initial development stage will be spread over six years starting in 2025.
The high-speed rail project has a long and complex history. The Liberal government first proposed enhancing rail travel along the Toronto-Quebec City corridor in 2019 with a “high-frequency rail” plan aimed at avoiding delays caused by passenger trains sharing tracks with freight carriers. Over time, this vision evolved into the more ambitious goal of high-speed rail.
Historically, the concept of high-speed rail in Canada has faced numerous obstacles. A joint study by the Ontario, Quebec, and federal governments in 1995 found the idea feasible if trains reached at least 300 km/h and the private sector absorbed half the cost and all the risk. However, a subsequent study in 2008 suggested the project could cost over $21 billion, causing enthusiasm to wane. In 2017, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne announced plans for a high-speed rail network between Toronto and London by 2025, but the project was canceled when Doug Ford took office.
Despite past setbacks, Trudeau remains optimistic about the current plan, acknowledging that the project will span multiple governments at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels. “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,” he said. “Obviously, future governments will make their determinations about how they invest. But this investment in Canadians, which starts right now, will be very difficult to turn back on.”
As Trudeau prepares to step down, with a new Liberal leader set to be chosen by March 9 and a federal election expected in the spring, the high-speed rail project represents a bold step forward in modernizing Canada’s transportation infrastructure. The collaboration between the federal government and private partners through the Crown corporation model underscores a strategic effort to balance public interest with private sector innovation and investment. While the design phase may take years to complete, the announcement marks a pivotal moment in Canada’s long-standing quest for high-speed rail. For now, the plan to connect Quebec City and Toronto with cutting-edge rail technology is firmly on track.
