There is a fast(ish) train coming, and it is not so slowly rounding the bend

Jeff Green | Jul 07, 2021

The federal government has just announced the launch of a procurement process for the construction of new passenger rail service in the Quebec City to Windsor Corridor, including a new rail line running between Ottawa and Peterborough through Lanark, Frontenac, and Lennox and Addington Counties. In the recently approved budget, the government committed $491 million towards engineering and other work over 6 years for the same project

Announcing that the procurement process is underway does not guarantee that the project will actually be built, however, and incredibly, a spending commitment of half a billion is no guarantee either - especially in the context of a minority government in pre-election announcement mode.

But it does signal a genuine intent to get this done. This is the most serious indication thus far that if the Liberals get a majority in the next election, it could really happen.

Those of us who thought new train construction in this part of the world was never going to happen are now having to face a new possibility.

The route map that is included in the article on the CBC website is the one that VIA put out last spring. It does not include any stops between Smiths Falls and Peterborough, but at the bottom of the page, almost invisible on the CBC site, there is an asterisk and this wording: “additional stops between Toronto and Quebec City on the new dedicated tracks may be added in consultation with the communities.”

It would appear that now is the time for Sharbot Lake and Tweed, two communities that were on an earlier version of the route map for what was then called the Shining Water Line, to step forward and make their case.

The politics surrounding how that case should be made are complicated, and have been discusses in these pages recently and will be addressed again, soon enough.

But putting aside the train stop issue, if a new rail line comes through our region, whatever route it takes, it will have a serious impact on the lives of whoever lives along its route. There is no way for this to happen without expropriation, without people having to move, or at the very least having a major piece of modern industrial infrastructure running through what had been quiet, rural land in a forgotten corner of Ontario.

There will be losers in this, and they will lose a lot - maybe everything they have built over a lifetime.

One thing that would make the whole thing look more viable would be the release of a convincing study that demonstrates there is enough demand for a high frequency train between Toronto and Ottawa.

The population of Greater Toronto is 6.25 million, the population of Greater Montreal is 4.25 million. A direct route between those centres makes obvious sense. But is there enough traffic between those major centres and Greater Ottawa, with a population of 1.4 million, to justify the northern line?

Hopefully, complete and convincing studies making the business case for the new line will be forthcoming.

It would be terrible for such a devastating impact on people’s lives to be done for no greater benefit.