Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canadians across the country are showing “strong interest” in Ottawa’s proposed high-speed rail project despite federal research showing concerns about the potential $90 billion price tag.“There is strong interest in getting Alto done,” Carney told reporters Thursday. “That would be one of the biggest elements here.”Blacklock's Reporter said the proposed Alto railway would connect major cities in Ontario and Québec with an electrified passenger line capable of reaching speeds of 300 km/h.Carney said the project would have benefits beyond the communities directly served by the railway because Alto would connect with regional VIA Rail routes.“I’m speaking to all Canadians,” said Carney. “Part of the value of Alto is it creates significant additional capacity.”“The integration of regional routes with that high speed rail will increase competition in all forms of transport and improve reliability and service. We are really going to the heart of it.”Federal records, however, indicate passenger rail has long required substantial taxpayer support.VIA Rail ridership peaked in 1981, with reductions to daily service between Vancouver and Halifax beginning in 1985.“Under prevailing market conditions passenger rail services are uneconomical and without continued and substantial government support will continue to decline,” said a 2011 Library of Parliament report titled VIA Rail Canada Incorporated And The Future Of Passenger Rail In Canada.Ottawa proposes building the Alto line from Toronto through Peterborough, Ottawa, Laval, Montréal and Trois-Rivières before reaching Québec City.Construction of the first section between Ottawa and Montréal is expected to take about seven years.The Department of Transport estimated construction could cost between $60 billion and $90 billion in a 2025 briefing note. Cabinet has already budgeted $4.3 billion for planning and administration.Federal focus groups have also identified concerns about the project's cost..“A number were concerned about what they viewed as the high financial costs associated with the construction of a major transportation project such as this,” said a March 3 Privy Council report titled Continuous Qualitative Data Collection Of Canadians’ Views.Alto Corporation CEO Martin Imbleau acknowledged during testimony before the Senate national finance committee on Feb. 24 that officials do not yet have a firm cost estimate.“I don’t want to be picky, but to have a cost estimate you need to have a proper level of engineering which we still don’t have,” said Imbleau. “So I prefer to use ‘working assumption.’”Sen. Clément Gignac asked Imbleau how confident he was in the projected cost range.“It’s very difficult,” replied Imbleau.“If you have got one hand in the fridge and the other in the oven, you don’t get zero degrees in the middle,” he said. “Once I have a route planned and the engineering information, then I can come up with a cost estimate.”Conservative MP Scott Reid has questioned whether the government has adequately calculated the project's potential costs.“I do not think we grasp just how badly costed out this really is,” Reid told the Commons on Feb. 26.Reid pointed to previous rail projects that exceeded their original budgets, including Japan's Shinkansen Joetsu high-speed rail line, which he said had a 100% cost overrun.He also cited a 130% overrun for the Boston-New York-Washington railway, 150% for the Copenhagen Metro, 160% for the Montréal Metro Laval extension and 190% for the Minneapolis Hiawatha light rail line.Reid dismissed the government's projected cost range for Alto as unreliable.“These were stabs in the dark, frankly,” he said.
