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Yesterday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that a new high-speed rail service named Alto will span the approximately 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) between Toronto and Quebec City, hitting speeds of up to 186 miles per hour when not busy making its scheduled stops in Peterborough, Ottawa, Montréal, Laval and Trois-Rivières between its two terminal points. The network will operate on its own dedicated tracks, and cut travel time in half. Canada’s investment in the co-development phase of the project represents C$3.9 billion over six years, starting in 2024-25, in addition to $371.8 million that was provided in Budget 2024.
“A country that believes in itself invests in its people and infrastructure,” the prime minister’s office stated in a press release. “As Canada’s largest ever infrastructure project, high-speed rail will turbocharge the Canadian economy — boosting GDP by up to [C]$35 billion annually, creating over 51,000 good-paying jobs during construction and unlocking enhanced productivity for decades to come.”
The government noted the Toronto-Quebec City corridor is home to 18 million people, 40% of Canada’s GDP, over 700,000 students and more than 30 colleges and universities. Plenty of people already make the trip by train on Via Rail. In 2015, Editor in Chief Adam Bruns had an on-train “Corridor Conversation” with then-Via Rail President and CEO Yves Desjardins-Siciliano, who since 2019 has served as CEO of Siemens Mobility Canada.
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