OTTAWA — The federal government is set to announce plans on Wednesday for a high-speed rail line from Toronto to Quebec City, the Star has learned.
Two sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the anticipated project will be unveiled in Montreal, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Transport Minister Anita Anand were slated to make an announcement Wednesday.
Both sources confirmed the project — which the government expects to build with a group of private-sector partners — will be to build high-speed rail from Toronto to Quebec City.
Neither of them shared details of the plan Tuesday evening, including how much it would cost, how long it could take to construct, or how much it could cut current train-travel times through Canada’s most populous region.
The Star granted the sources anonymity because they weren’t authorized to share news ahead of the announcement. Anand’s office did not respond to requests for comment from the Star on Tuesday evening.
The federal government has deliberated for months about the new rail project, after it received bids from three private groups that applied to partner with a new Crown corporation to build the line.
The private groups — which include national rail corporations from France, Spain and Germany, along with companies like Air Canada — were asked to submit plans for two types of rail between Toronto and Quebec City: less than 200 km/h and more than 200 km/h.
Last fall, ahead of an expected decision on the scope of the rail project, Anand — the transport minister — said all options are on the table.
She told the Star in late January that the Liberal government was “working to revolutionize passenger rail with a vision for faster, more reliable service that could connect Montreal and Toronto in under four hours.”
Martin Imbleau, the chief executive of the Crown corporation charged with overseeing the project, has said high-speed rail could reduce train travel from Toronto to Montreal to little more than three hours, down from the more than five that it takes now.
The Liberals first proposed the idea of building a new rail line to improve travel times now available on Via Rail in 2019. Originally the plan was for a dedicated line of “high frequency rail” to avoid delays caused by passenger trains sharing lines owned by freight carriers.
But in the years since the project has shifted toward the vision of high speed, which Anand and the Liberal government suggested was under consideration in recent months.
In 2021, then-transport minister Omar Alghabra floated a rough cost estimate for the project at between $6 billion and $12 billion.
But the real cost might actually be more than double that, a government source told the Star last fall, depending on how much of the project is built for high speed, where the tracks end up getting built, and because of factors like inflation that have driven up construction costs in recent years.
A 2017 assessment of a possible “ultra-high speed” rail project from Portland, Oregon to Vancouver, B.C. estimated such a project — with up to 800 kilometres of track — could cost between $32 billion and $57 billion.
A rail line from Toronto to Quebec City would be about 1,000 kilometres.
With Trudeau in the last weeks of his prime ministership, Liberal leadership contenders vying to replace him would take over the commitment from his government. Opposition parties are also jostling for an early election, something Liberal leadership contender Mark Carney — who is leading in fundraising and endorsements from the party establishment — has not ruled out triggering himself if he wins the contest on March 9.
Karina Gould, another Liberal leadership candidate, has said she would back construction of a high-speed line from Toronto to Quebec City. Liberal Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos has also called on leadership contenders to support high-speed rail through the corridor.
The opposition Conservatives have not said whether they would proceed with the project if they replace the Liberals in the next election.
The Bloc Québécois, meanwhile, have signalled their support, and the New Democrats have said they want to see high-speed rail built, but that they want the project to exclude the private corporations whose involvement, they argue, will make the project more expensive and less reliable.
