OTTAWA, Ontario — The Canadian government is seriously considering making the proposed High-Frequency Rail project linking Toronto and Quebec City a true high-speed line, according to a government official.
The CBC reports that Jean-Yves Duclos, public services and procurement minister, said Monday that the models for the high-frequency project, which would build a separate, passenger-only rail line for much of the Toronto-Quebec City corridor, “are quite close to a high-speed train … you can achieve quite fast trains even with high frequency trains. The next step is to go to a high-speed train, and that’s an option which is being seriously considered.”
Three companies have been selected to bid for the project, and they were asked to develop proposals for both a conventional rail network with top speeds of 200 kilometers per hour, and a “high speed” option [see “Canada’s High Frequency Rail project begins Request for Proposal phase,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 14, 2023]. While that term was not defined, the European Union defines “high speed rail” as operating at 250 kph (155 mph) or above; the fastest trains in Europe can reach 300 to 330 kph (186 to 205 mph).
VIA HFR’s CEO, Martin Imbleau, said the project has “evolved considerably” since VIA first proposed it, the CBC reports. The project was first proposed by VIA in 2015; the government eventually took planning. In 2021, the cost of the project was estimated at Ca$6 billion to $12 billion; the government has shied away from a cost estimate since.
“We are now focusing on speed and frequency,” Imbleau said. “And speed means kilometers per hour and total travel time.”
Duclos said the government expects to select the winning bidder soon and release more details on how the project will work.
This route has been studied to death with at least 5 different studies. They all say that the service should be built. In other countries where there is HSR, there was lots of doubt until the service was built and it turned out to a great success. You don’t have to look too far, in Florida Bright line is expanding is service offering.
In France HSR put airlines out of business between city pairs like Paris – Lyon, Paris – Brussels, even Amsterdam to different points via HSR are now listed when planning travel options from the airport to other city pairs.
In Canada what do we do we study things to death and do nothing. Our airlines have a very large lobby group which has an excellent record of stopping any HSR project. Just imagine the loss of revenue between Toronto and Montreal if a regularly scheduled HSR between Toronto downtown and Montreal downtown with travel times of 3 hour. Boom, airline service would be reduced as HSR takes over.
I’m not sure there is sufficient population density between Toronto and Ottawa to merit high frequency or high speed rail.
How will this suddenly support itself?! ViaRail survives on 300M$ a year from the feds – hasn’t been self supporting since Pearson.
No right of ways, eco assessments for how long, crossings, bridges, and then construction?! Canada can’t build basic light rail over small cross city stretches. Ottawa estimated 700M for its first stage of light rail – now 4B$ and still doesn’t function.
This is special interest nonsense. SNC, bombardier?
Is there RoW along CN route for this, or will it be bogged down in acquisition?
What about the former CASO / WAB route?
Let’s start with this inconvenient fact: Look at a log of my route-miles in Canada in the 1970’s and 1980’s, Off the top of my head, I’d posit that about 60% to 75% percent of those route-miles no longer have passenger trains.
While we’re waiting for several decades for HSR, fix what you now have.