High Speed Rail Project Will Feature “A Limited Number of Stops”

Jeff Green | Oct 30, 2024

Just under a year ago, the federal government established a new corporation to explore, once again, the possibility of a new rail corridor liking Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto. The corporation is called VIA HFR (High Frequency Rail) but at the corporations inaugural Annual General Meeting (AGM), which was held in July, the newly appointed President of the Corporation, Martin Imbleau, indicated that the name of the corporation will likely change.

Imbleau said that in the interim between the founding of the corporation and the AGM, the project had already changed, and in addition to high frequency, high speed rail, is now part of the planning.

Imbleau said that high speed rail has two elements, “kilometres per hour and total travel time. This includes having a limited number of stops.”

Earlier incarnations of the rail projects, which has been in the early planning stages for 10 years, included stops in Eastern Ontario, in Smiths Falls, Sharbot Lake, Tweed, and Peterborough, which would have had an impact on economic development in the region.

At this time however, in statements by VIA HFR and media reports on CBC platforms, aside from the major urban centres that the service intends to link, only Peterborough is mentioned as a potential stop in Eastern Ontario, along with Trois Rivieres between Quebec and Montreal. The clear intention of the project is to link urban centres, and promoting rural economic development is no longer a priority, at least as indicated by the recent statements by VIA HFR.

The next phase of the project will be an announcement, anticipated within a few weeks, that one of the three consortia who were approved to answer an rfp for the design, development, and operation of what could be a $120 billion project, will be chosen by the federal government.

The original planning for what was then called the Shining Waters Railway, proposed that the Tran Canada Trail which dips south of Highway 7 between Peterborough and the Addington Highlands border, runs next to the highway until Arden before dipping a bit south and then north to the Highway in Sharbot Lake, would be a good corridor to explore for the Shining Waters Project.

It is unclear what route the new consortium will pursue, how wide the corridor will need to be to make room for high speed trains, and lakes and roads in its path will be crossed.

For residents Lanark, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington, Hastings, and Peterborough Counties', the ultimate route will certainly be closely monitered.

Frances Smith, the Mayor of Central Frontenac, has not heard from the new VIA HFR corporation, and there was no reference to the municipal level in the statements by Martin Imbleau, or the Chair and Vice Chair of VIA HFR at their AGM, although they pointed out that they were consulting with indigenous communities along the route.

The other unknown is the disposition of the Conservative Party of Canada towards the project. Although hundreds of millions of dollars are already being spent on it, and the engineering phase alone will run into the billions, the Liberal government will not be able to bring this project to fruition before the next federal election, which could take place at any time.

The Conservative Party is welll ahead in the polls, and their support will likely be make or break for the project.

An example from Ontario demonstrates how multi-party support is the only to complete large passenger rail projects,

After years of planning, including an environmental assessment and project design process that was well underway, The 2018 Ontario budget included an $11 billion commitment, which was slated to see construction of passenger rail line betweein London and Toronto, with stops in Guelph and Kitchener. The commute from London to Toronto was to take 73 minutes, and the new service was to open in 2025.

Wynne lost the election 2 months later to the Ontario Conservative Party led by Doug Ford, and they promptly canceled the project.

In terms of timeframe, according to the CBC, the naming of the consortium will trigger a 5 year planning and design process, and only then would the scope, scale, and timing of a construction phase become clear.

And, of course, it will likely never happen at all. The Qubec City to Windsor train has been talked about for decades, and nothing material has happened yet.

So we have a little time to enjoy our peace and quiet, before that ghost train comes whizzing round the bend.