When, in February of 2025, former prime minister Justin Trudeau announced “Alto, the largest infrastructure project in Canadian history,” many were excited that finally our G7 country would be catching up to the likes of Japan and Europe, where cheap and frequent trains are everywhere (as are cheap and frequent regional airlines). Finally, Ontarians could be whisked away to enjoy a Blue Jays game in Toronto in half the time without worrying about the traffic or parking. Businesspeople could make those meetings on time. We have Via, of course — still pretty lacklustre after 50 years. Along with the clunky bureaucratic service, the trains do not run on time. Via has suffered from having to rent the track from CN, which wants to protect and even increase the number of its own trains. Though the present Via trains could run much faster, CN prohibits increasing the speed over apparent concerns that faster trains don't trigger crossing warnings. Now we thought this lacklustre passenger system would be fixed. No. No new work will be done with the existing infrastructure. In this time of apparent plenty, the most expensive project in Canadian history will break entirely new ground both in terms of land and budgets, and be completed by, its backers hope, 2050. And that Blue Jays game? Visits to relatives in Oshawa? No. Over 1000 km track between Quebec City and Toronto, there will be only three stops in Ontario and four in Quebec, presumably because more stops mean longer travel time. This train is for a very specific passenger: the urban regional airline flyer — the passenger accustomed to paying $200-300 for a ticket. At least “The ticket prices will be less than airfare,” we are told. In 2015, Via Rail presented a study to Parliament explaining that a high-speed rail would not be worth the money and would be 30 times more expensive than high-frequency rail. “Most, if not all, scenarios involving the adoption of high-speed rail,” it said, “would require continued government financial commitment, particularly in underwriting the significant costs of the capital project.” In 2021, the Trudeau government released plans for a rail corridor that would cost between $6 and $12 billion — the 'VIA HFR' (High Frequency Rail) — and would be within the existing corridor. In its call for “Expressions of Interest,” it said the train must “connect our communities” and was to provide more frequent services. It said nothing about connecting airports or mitigating the need for regional flights. .In 2023, three competing consortia were announced. One was the Cadence consortium of five companies: The first two, Systra and Keolis, are based in France with offices in Quebec (Keolis is owned largely by the French National Railway); CDPQ-Infra, the third, is based in Quebec and finances and operates infrastructure projects. Then there is SNC-Lavalin (its preferred name “AtkinsRealis” since 2023). The Quebec-based company is a partner behind the Light Rail Transit project in Ottawa, which, after opening in 2019, has yet to be fully functional and is the bane of Ottawa commuters. SNC is still steeped in related legal claims. Of course, many will remember that in 2019, Justin Trudeau was found to be in conflict of interest when he attempted to pressure Jody Wilson-Raybould into not investigating SNC-Lavalin on bribery charges. The fifth company in the Cadence Consortium is Air Canada, which recently joined forces with the TGV in France and has been developing an “intermodal strategy” to integrate rail and air systems. Air Canada says the Alto Train helps it meet its carbon emissions targets by allowing it to cut regional flights, while also freeing up room at airports for more international flights (though how the CO2 from a Boeing 767 is less harmful than that of a regional jet is unclear). The government presently holds 1.6 billion in shares and loans in the company, after bailouts in 2009 and 2021. Air Canada declared bankruptcy in 2003.Publicly, the alarm bells have not started ringing yet around the composition of this team, while significant questions prevail: Why is a company that had to drop its name due to suspicions of corruption, and that has faltered at building a much smaller railway than Alto, back at the table? Why is an air carrier involved in high-speed rail service? What happened to Via? The more cynical might even ask, why are all these companies based in the hotbed of the Laurentian elite? In a turnabout, after announcing the three consortia, the government then changed the competition's parameters in its ensuing RFP, offering the three teams two options: Solution 1 must meet a maximum speed of 200 km per hour within existing infrastructure; Solution 2 would offer higher speeds and a new track. It is no wonder that groups like Transport Action Canada have questioned the transparency of the procurement process and the private ownership of this new system. .Finally, on February 19, 2025, at a press conference in Montreal, Trudeau announced that the now “Alto Train” project was “a game-changer.” It would “reduce costs for businesses,” and it would be “a truly pan-Canadian endeavour coast to coast to coast.” Importantly, it would “cut travel times from Toronto to Montreal to three hours.” Trudeau said that the government had “a responsibility to move forward in a significant and big way” and that they had “landed on a serious group that can do the work and that has the funding to begin.” Trudeau later said the planning for this had spanned his career.He said nothing about the price tag: between $90 and $120 billion in early estimates. He did, however, explain that $4 billion of public money was set aside for the development process: finding the right corridor. That is, $4 billion without a shovel in the ground, while the previous Via plans for construction of high-frequency rail aimed at $6 to $12 billion, from beginning to end. There was nothing here about “connecting our communities.” Indeed, Alto resembled nothing like the efficient and accessible train for everyone that we have been expecting for decades. This is not a commuter train to link taxpayers all along the route to the larger cities and to make movement for everyone in this part of Ontario and Quebec easier, to really make leaving the car at home an option. Alto is centred on urban hubs. Air Canada said that being part of Cadence would “enable the airline to contribute to the harmonious integration of a future inter-city rail network with existing airport hubs in the Quebec-Windsor corridor.” It also mitigates Air Canada's problem of a challenging regional market and limited space at the airports. No doubt Porter and WestJet are concerned. Alto has been met with significant backlash from landowners who, along the route, will be forced to sacrifice their land, or at least be paid the lowest possible price due to the personal cost of any legal fight. The “Alto Wall” will bisect the province, cutting in half more communities than connecting them, offering relatively few rail crossings. All this for a $90 billion train we may never use so that the business class can sip a latte in comfort on the way to a meeting in a province away, while the rest go without doctors and struggle to pay for groceries. We have every right to expect better.
