For decades, Canada has touted an ambitious plan to install a high-speed railway from Toronto to Quebec City. In February 2025, the federal government formally launched the project, tasking Alto—a Crown corporation and subsidiary of VIA Rail—with developing the network in partnership with a private consortium. Canada is the only G7 country without a high-speed rail network, but the project has already become a source of political tensions over its cost, route, and potential impact on communities along the line.
Almost half of Canada’s population lives along the Toronto–Quebec City corridor today. That population is projected to reach around 24 million by 2041. Alto predicts that the project will create tens of thousands of jobs, increase Canada’s gross domestic product by 1.1 percent (or $24.5 billion today), and generate millions of dollars in tourism revenue.
That’s how fast Alto’s trains will go. It’s 50 percent faster than the top speed of current VIA Rail services—making this Canada’s first true high-speed rail line. Travel times between the major cities would be cut by nearly half; a trip from Toronto to Montreal would take only three hours rather than five-and-a-half, and a trip from Montreal to Ottawa would shrink from two hours to one. The line is also expected to reduce emissions equivalent to removing 100,000 cars from the road each year.
Toronto, Peterborough, Ottawa, Montreal, Laval, Trois-Rivières, and Quebec City are the principal stations so far. Kingston has also been identified as a potential stop, although the route and final station locations are still under study.
Alto promises faster service, more departures, and trains as often as every thirty minutes since it would operate on a largely new track. Currently, freight traffic limits how frequently and reliably passenger trains can operate.
The expected price tag. Several billion dollars will be spent before a single rail is laid, simply to decide how and where to build the network. The government has so far committed $3.9 billion to the first six years of co-development, in addition to the $371.8 million announced in 2024 and $597 million in 2025. This funding covers the Crown corporation’s environmental and social impact assessments, land acquisitions, and ongoing consultations with community members, including Indigenous organizations. Early estimates for the full network range from $60 billion to $90 billion, though this has not yet been finalized.
The consultation phase with tens of thousands of participants. Alto says that Canadians expressed enthusiasm for faster and more convenient travel, an electrified alternative to driving and flying, and the thousands of jobs Alto says the project would create. However, this enthusiasm was concentrated in urban communities. Rural participants were more likely to raise concerns about noise, road access, expropriation, and division of farmland.
The date the government passed the High-Speed Rail Network Act (HSRNA) under Bill C-15. Because Alto needs an almost entirely new path through two provinces it will inevitably cut through privately owned parcels of land. The act gives the project a unique land-acquisition process: Alto does not have to demonstrate that attempts to purchase a property have failed before requesting its expropriation, and it may attempt to acquire or expropriate land while federal impact assessments are still underway (construction cannot begin until the necessary environmental approval has been granted).
Landowners will be compensated and may submit written objections to a proposed expropriation. They are no longer entitled, however, to the hearing that would ordinarily follow an objection under the federal Expropriation Act.
The amount of time it took for the Conservatives to call for the full cancellation of the project after the HSRNA received royal assent. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre called the rail line a “$90-billion boondoggle” and pledged to cancel it if his party forms government, arguing that the project would arrive late, exceed its budget, and leave taxpayers with the bill.
That’s how many properties Alto estimates the Ottawa to Montreal segment alone would cross—this includes at least 500 agricultural holdings. While Alto says it will seek market-value purchases and preserve road access for farms where possible, it has also acknowledged that some expropriations will be necessary. When the CBC asked Alto president and chief executive officer Martin Imbleau whether landowners could refuse to pass over their land, he said, “They will say ‘no thanks,’ and we’ll see [them] later on because at one point in time, we’ll have to have access to this.”
The number of municipal leaders in Eastern Ontario that signed an open letter to the transportation minister opposing the project. These municipalities are concentrated in five federal ridings, most represented by Conservatives.
The number of Progressive Conservative representatives in Eastern Ontario who released a statement on the federal project: “In the case of Alto, too many questions remain unanswered. Too many voices have been ignored.” The timing of the push back is interesting—the release came out July 28, four days after the federal government rejected the PC government’s plan to expand the Billy Bishop Airport in Toronto.
Doug Ford’s government is casting doubt on its support for the federal railway. The shift followed reports that Ford and Prime Minister Mark Carney had reached an informal understanding to support each other’s infrastructure priorities. While Ontario’s leverage over Alto is limited, the province can withhold co-operation on approvals, transit connections, and other areas where provincial jurisdiction overlaps, potentially creating delays and political friction.
The number won by the Parti Québécois in Quebec’s 2022 provincial election, its smallest-ever presence in the National Assembly. Four years later, the party is leading provincial polls ahead of its upcoming October election.
