Subhead:The Liberals proposed plan for a high-speed rail connection linking Toronto to Quebec City is fraught with potentially disastrous financial, environmental and personal costs.#
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Ottawa has a costly plan for the country’s future: a 300-kilometre-per-hour bullet train linking Toronto to Quebec City in just two hours. Branded as ALTO, the high-speed rail line promises 18 million riders annually, thousands of jobs and a greener commute.
But the fine print tells a far different story, one that includes land expropriation, fractured farmland and a price tag that could soar tens of billions more than the $90 billion currently projected.
The Liberal government’s plan would carve out a new, dedicated corridor stretching roughly 1,000 kilometres through some of Ontario and Quebec’s most productive agricultural regions. The corridor is set to span up to 60 metres in width, fenced off and cutting through private property, including land that has been in families for generations.
For many rural residents, the concern isn’t faster travel between major cities; it’s losing their livelihoods with little to no benefit in return. There are currently no rural stations planned along significant stretches of the route despite the massive implications for those regions.
One only has to look to cautionary tales both abroad and at home to see the disaster this project could wind up being.
In 2008, California approved a high-speed rail project with an estimated $33 billion price tag and a targeted completion date of 2020. Today, the cost of the California High-Speed Rail has ballooned to more than $135 billion, with portions still under construction, and full operation still years away.
