Why the high-speed rail will first connect Ottawa and Montreal

OTTAWA — The first section of Canada’s proposed high-speed rail project will link the regions of Ottawa to Montreal, a decision that is not only symbolic but practical, said Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon on Friday.

Speaking in Gatineau, Que., with a delegation of local MPs and mayors, MacKinnon said that this segment will represent “a unique opportunity to connect two provinces and quickly generate benefits for travelers, communities and the economy.”

“Why start with this part of the route? Because it is, for several reasons, the most logical option, it is a relatively short and straight portion of the overall route,” he said.

“These high-speed trains, they don’t like curves. They need to go in a straight line. This provides an excellent opportunity for teams in both provinces to begin to develop together the expertise needed to deliver the other segments, both in Ontario and in Quebec.”

Martin Imbleau, the CEO of Alto, the Crown corporation behind the project, said linking those two cities is “just a natural place for us to start.”

“The Ottawa-Montreal segment also gives us a manageable distance to deliver it in a controlled, disciplined way,” he said, adding that the defined scope sequence will help validate assumptions and pave the way to expand the network with “greater agility.”

The project promises to develop roughly 1,000 kilometres of fully electric rail dedicated to high-speed commuter trains that will run between Toronto and Quebec City.

Alto claims the trains will hit speeds of up to 300 km/h and will cut travel between certain cities by half compared to existing Via Rail service. For instance, commuting from Ottawa to Montreal could take only an hour compared to the current two hours on the Via route.

Even though the final route has not been determined, the first part of the high-speed rail will also include Laval — on Montreal’s north shore.

“How we enter Montreal to connect Laval remains to be determined,” said Imbleau.

MacKinnon said that since the first section would be at the centre of the future network, the other segments could be added to the west of Ottawa — to Peterborough and Toronto — as well as to the east of Montreal and Laval — to Trois-Rivières and Quebec City.

The minister also said that while Ottawa has the current train infrastructure, his objective is for the entire National Capital region to be more interconnected with a tramway in the western part of Gatineau and a new crossing to Ottawa in the east of Gatineau.

Alto is set to hold public consultations starting in January 2026 in various cities that are impacted by the project, including Ottawa and Gatineau.

But already, the federal government is laying out the ground for the project — estimated to cost between $60 and $90 billion — to move ahead at high speed.

The budget implementation bill, C-15, proposes not only sweeping new powers to accelerate the acquisition or expropriation of land for the project , but also proposes to exclude it from review by the Canadian Transportation Agency.

Over the summer, the Carney government also designated the high-speed railway as a “transformative project” under its new Major Projects Office and promised to cut the time before construction from eight to five years.

On Friday, MacKinnon said he was hoping for the project to start in four years instead — in 2029. And even less time would be better, he said.

“Believe me, if we could get shovels in the ground in 2028, we’ll do it.”

— With files from Christopher Nardi. 

National Post calevesque@postmedia.com

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