Carney government considering high-speed rail stop in Kingston

In a statement, MacKinnon said those comments made it clear there is demand for a stop in the city.

“Today’s report reflects the voices of Canadians and communities across the corridor. I have directed Alto to develop a southern route option that includes a potential stop in Kingston, subject to technical feasibility and project requirements,” he said. “This is an important next step toward building a faster, cleaner and more connected rail network for Canadians.”

The project is designed to have trains running at 300 kilometres per hour or more between Toronto and Quebec City, with stops in Peterborough, Ottawa, Montreal, Laval and Trois-Rivières. If the government gives the green light in 2029, when the project’s engineering and design work is set to be done, it’s estimated to take 12 years to construct and cost between $60 billion and $90 billion.

During consultations this spring, Alto displayed an east-west corridor 10 kilometres wide where the network could go, even though the final alignment will only require a 60-metre right of way. Two alignments were proposed after trains leave Peterborough heading east. One route went north, closely following the Highway 7 corridor, while the second went south, bringing trains closer to communities like Belleville and Kingston.

In its report on the consultations, Alto said many of the people believed leaving Kingston off the route was a mistake.

“Feedback consistently highlighted Kingston as a strategic location between Peterborough and Ottawa, emphasizing the role the city provides in connecting to Toronto and Montreal,” reads the report. “Participants emphasized that the southern corridor, specifically through Kingston and Belleville with a station in Kingston, could serve a larger population than the northern route.”

Earlier this year, Kingston Mayor Bryan Paterson told the Star that not including his city on the route would be wrong.

“If you don’t then you’re basically shutting out not just Kingston but really all the population centres along the (Highway) 401 corridor of eastern Ontario,” he said. “The distance between Peterborough and Ottawa is more than twice the distance of any of the other distances between other stops.”

The lack of a Kingston stop was not the only problem identified in the consultations, with significant concern from rural communities that they would have to sacrifice land for a rail line they would never use.

“Farmland protection and the preservation of agricultural connectivity were raised as concerns on many occasions, as were considerations about impacts on environment, wildlife, and natural habitats,” reads the consultation report.

The report also found a split in people’s views depending on where they lived.

“While urban participants in station cities often shared positive feedback about the travel efficiency and economic development benefits of high-speed rail, rural participants often expressed concern about the potential impacts of the project,” the report says.

An online survey on the project received 24,000 responses and found that 48.4 per cent of people were very much in favour, while 10.4 per cent were somewhat in favour. On the other side, 35 per cent of people were not at all in favour of the project and 5.3 per cent were somewhat not in favour.

The project has been met with opposition from a grassroots group called Alt-No, which argues the project is too expensive, is being rushed and offers little benefit to rural communities. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has also come out in opposition to the project, promising to cancel it if he becomes prime minister.

Alto is now set to offer a more refined alignment for the project, with a new map set to be released this fall for the segment between Montreal and Ottawa, which has already been announced as the first part to be constructed. According to the report, the new map will include a one-kilometre-wide corridor for that central segment with more consultation to follow. Narrower corridors for the rest of the line will follow in short order and are expected to be released no later than early 2027.

Toronto residents who were part of the consultation suggested Union Station, Exhibition Station and the East Harbour Transit Hub — currently under construction — as potential locations for the line’s main Toronto station.