EDITORIAL: High-speed rail is Canada’s unicorn

Previous versions of the project have been derailed for various reasons over the years

Published Aug 31, 2026  •  Last updated 12 hours ago  •  2 minute read

Canadian Transportation Minister Steve MacKinnon speaks about the Alto high-speed rail project on June 22, 2026, in Kingston, Ont. Photo by Elliot Ferguson /Postmedia Network

Building a high-speed rail service between Ontario and Quebec is the unicorn of federal politics — often imagined, never seen.

Article content

Over the past 50 years, the federal government has been involved in at least half a dozen attempts to create a high-speed or high-frequency rail network in the Ontario-Quebec corridor.

Article content

Recommended Videos

Article content

None succeeded. Either politics got in the way, or the plan was impractical, or costs became prohibitive, or there was too much local opposition, or governments changed hands or lost interest over time.

Some announcements were timed to coincide with elections, as was the case with the latest proposal known as Alto, a publicly owned federal mega-project partnering with a private sector conglomerate called the Cadence Consortium.

It was proposed by Justin Trudeau in February 2025, a month before Mark Carney became prime minister and called the election.

In the 1974 election, PM Pierre Trudeau, as his son would 50 years later, promised to revitalize Canada’s rail network, leading to the creation of Via Rail, a crown corporation that was to manage the roll-out of Bombardier’s “Light, Rapid, Comfortable” trains.

Article content

Subsequent government attempts to create high speed and/or high frequency rail corridors in 1981, 1984, 1998, 2002 and 2008 came and went.

A 2016 proposal eventually morphed into Alto, envisioning a 1,000-km passenger rail network with trains travelling at 300 km/h along a dual-track corridor, cutting existing travel times between Toronto and Quebec City in half.

The advertised cost according to the feds is up to $90 billion, although the Globe and Mail reported Monday based on sources that this is just the capital cost of building the infrastructure.

It doesn’t include operating and maintenance costs, estimated at over $60 billion over 40 years, raising the total price tag to about $150 billion, with projected revenue of $105 billion.

Citing capital costs for building large-scale transportation infrastructure without including operational costs until later has been standard operating procedure at all levels of government for years, a reason to take all early projections with a grain of salt.

The feds say Alto will boost Canada’s GDP by up to $35 billion annually, creating over 50,000 well-paying jobs during construction.

In other words, this time, the Carney government insists, things will be different.

Our advice? Don’t hold your breath.

Read More

1. 

   Alto expands on the economic case for high-speed rail

2. 

   GOLDSTEIN: Canada’s history of high-speed rail projects littered with political train wrecks
3. 

   JARVIS: Kingston high-speed rail stop will cost taxpayers dearly

Article content