Justin Trudeau has announced that a 1,000km high-speed rail link will be built in the centre of the country, linking Toronto and Quebec City.
The service, to be known as Alto, will have a 300km/h top speed and include stops in Toronto, Peterborough, Ottawa, Montréal, Laval, Trois-Rivières and Quebec City.
The railway is being described as Canada’s largest ever infrastructure project. It has been forecast to increase GDP by up to US$24.6bn a year and to create 51,000 jobs during its 10-year construction period.
The Cadence consortium has been selected to design, build, finance, operate and maintain Alto. The team contains Canadian pension fund CDPQ Infra, Canadian engineer AtkinsRéalis, French transport companies Keolis and Systra, French state company SNCF and Air Canada.
Ottawa will invest US$2.7bn in the project’s co-development phase; US$261m was provided in the 2024 budget.
When operational, Alto will cut the travel time between Montréal to Toronto from six to three hours.
Trudeau said: “Today’s announcement of Alto will transform our economy – drastically shortening commute times for millions of Canadians, turbocharging economic growth, creating thousands of good-paying jobs, improving productivity and reducing emissions.”
Martin Imbleau, Alto’s president, added: “I’m firmly convinced that the way a project is developed is as crucial as the project itself. Which is why we are developing it now, in collaboration with Cadence, relying on the best practices of the industry.
“We have assembled a unique group of talents, combining the know-how of a federal Crown corporation with the experience of a consortium of world-class private partners.”
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