5 Key Questions on High-Speed Rail as Public Consultations Begin

Public consultations start Wednesday on an ambitious project being sold as a nation-building "generational investment." But big questions remain about the planned high-speed rail corridor between Toronto and Quebec City, including where the trains will stop along the way. The Crown corporation tasked with overseeing the project, Alto, says the consultations will aim to address that. In Ottawa, they'll take place at Bayview Yards on Wednesday and Thursday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Open houses will also be held across Quebec and Ontario from January to March, including Gatineau, Que., on March 11. Almost a year ago, Justin Trudeau's Liberals announced a six-year, $3.9-billion design and development plan for the 1,000-kilometre high-speed rail line. It will use all-electric trains reaching speeds of 300 km/h, taking about two hours to travel from Ottawa to Toronto and about one hour to get from Ottawa to Montreal, slashing Via Rail's travel time by about half. In December, Prime Minister Mark Carney's government announced the first leg of the 200-kilometre corridor will go between Montreal and Ottawa, including a stop in Laval, Que. "It's not if, now. It's how and when," Martin Imbleau, Alto's president and CEO, told CBC's Ottawa Morning on Tuesday. "We missed the boat in the 80s, so in 2026, it's even more required than before," he said. "So let's do it for real this time." What's the timeline? Imbleau said construction should begin around 2029-30. At an Ottawa Board of Trade conference last week, he told business leaders they had "better be prepared" because the contract could be awarded as soon as 2029. "The object in the mirror is closer than it appears," Imbleau said. Critics have said things are moving too fast, and warned that could compromise people's property rights and lead to costly mistakes. Construction on the remaining segments, from Quebec City to Montreal and Ottawa to Toronto, will begin at a later, unspecified date. Imbleau said the full project could take 15 to 18 years to complete. How much will it cost? Overall, the project is estimated to cost between $60 billion and $90 billion. Imbleau said it has secured enough financing until the start of construction — about $3 billion to $4 billion for the development phase leading to that first leg. "It's one of the largest public infrastructure projects in the history of the country," he said. In terms of cost to customers who will take the train down the line, Imbleau said the team is considering a "range" of pricing, but said fares will have to be accessible and competitive. Where will it go? According to the current map, the rail corridor crosses two provinces and appears to occupy a "fairly large" swath of land — up to 10 kilometres wide in some places, Imbleau said. "We don't have a very precise alignment to start," he said, accounting for the width and reinforcing the need for public input. "By the end of 2026, we will be in a position to present the very precise alignment," he said. In a memo in December, the City of Ottawa's general manager for planning and development, Marcia Wallace, said she signed a non-disclosure agreement "to gain access to the detailed mapping and route planning options under consideration." On Tuesday, CBC News asked Imbleau if popular trail systems such as the Prescott Russell or Cataraqui trails are in peril. Imbleau didn't answer directly, explaining that a high-speed rail line must be relatively straight with few curves. "So you establish your starting point, you try to follow existing corridors, try to limit the impact on properties — but then again, it has to be as direct as possible," he said. Alto's website specifies that when approaching Ottawa, the options "are limited to reduce impacts on residential neighbourhoods," and said it's looking at integrating the network with existing corridors such as railways, power lines and roads. East of Ottawa, a new rail bridge will be required to cross the Ottawa River at its narrowest point, the website states. Alto is studying two options between Ottawa and Peterborough, Ont.: a more complex northern route across the Canadian Shield, cutting through the counties of Lanark, Frontenac and Hastings; and a southern route through eastern Ontario's agricultural and resort region, which has a denser population but is simpler in terms of construction and operations. Officials in the Kingston, Ont., area are urging residents to speak up now if they favour the southern route, which would bring high-speed rail closer to their communities. Will land be expropriated? Asked if Alto plans to expropriate private property, considering the large swaths of rural land included in its corridor, Imbleau did not directly answer the question. Instead, he suggested it's not just farmland that will be impacted, but also suburbs and possibly even more heavily populated areas. "We'll definitely need a lot of land to do this," he said, adding Alto will seek "the alignment of least impact." He said Alto will consider environmental constraints, cost and social implications, getting feedback from Indigenous communities before presenting a final route. "It's going to be a compromise," he warned. "It will have some local implications for sure." Last fall, Transport Canada told CBC News the expropriation process would depend on the "geometric requirements of high-speed rail," leaving only "a narrow range of technically viable" land for the project. The department promised landowners will be treated fairly and offered "fair compensation." Where will Ottawa's station be located? Imbleau said several location options are being considered for a station in Ottawa. He said Ottawa's former Union Station, temporarily home to Canada's Senate, "is of great interest" among local business partners, but noted it also poses challenges for high-speed rail. "Of course, downtown Ottawa is very important to the culture and the economic success of our entire region," said Sueling Ching, president and CEO of the Ottawa Board of Trade. But Ching said she's aware the train's speed could be a limiting factor. "I think there will be many options," she said. In December, Imbleau told Radio-Canada he was eyeing the Via Rail station on Tremblay Road. "I won't hide from you that it has some interesting features. The main one is that it has expansion capabilities," he said in French. Imbleau said connection to Ottawa's LRT will be a "key consideration" in deciding where Ottawa's train station will go.