Why has it taken so long for Canada to get high-speed rail?

Angela Amato,
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

High-speed rail has yet to come to Canada, despite dozens of projects being talked about for decades. One transit expert gives a simple reason why it’s taken so long for us to get up to speed with other places in the world.

“When you see projects that have been delayed, a lot of times, it’s due to lack of proper governance,” said Derrick Toigo, executive director of the City of Toronto’s transit expansion office.

Toigo has worked on several major transit and highway infrastructure projects in Ontario, including the Union Pearson Express rail link that connects Pearson International Airport to downtown Toronto as well as the Regional Express Rail.

In February, the federal government announced $3.9 billion in addition to the $371.8 million that was provided in the 2024 budget to plan the Alto project, a high-speed rail line spanning 1,151 kilometres between Toronto and Quebec City, something that’s been discussed on and off for over 50 years.

The line will travel through the Quebec City–Windsor corridor, where nearly half of Canadians reside.

Discussions of establishing a train system through the corridor began in 1970s, with a preliminary evaluation done by the Canadian Transport Commission Research Branch.

Throughout the years, several studies have been done on potential routes within the corridor, including a $2 million feasibility study proposed in 2008 in partnership with the Ontario and Quebec governments that was completed in 2011.

In 2021, the Trudeau government announced a high-frequency rail corridor that would transport people from Toronto to Quebec City with stops in Peterborough, Ottawa, Montreal, Trois-Rivières and Laval. The project was later announced as a high-speed rail network in October 2024.

Even though Trudeau has promised funding for the design of a high-speed rail line within the corridor, the fate of the project remains uncertain. Trudeau announced he will step down on March 9 after his party chooses a new leader and, and a federal election is expected soon afterwards.

Toigo said there are a lot of barriers before shovels are put in the ground, including permits, licenses and approval from municipalities and Indigenous communities that span the proposed line.

Each municipality has statutes that enforce requirements on developers for large infrastructure projects. While a statute ensures certain steps are taken to protect land use, it can also serve as a roadblock for developers to build transit quickly.

“There needs to be consideration with the right balance of what legislation needs to be put in place to effectively allow for these projects to be built,” said Toigo. “Not disregarding municipalities necessarily, but also not allowing them to get into a spin cycle.”

Transit projects can also be delayed and cost more due to blowback by constituents, resulting in councillors demanding changes from the developer in the planning and construction stages.

“A 1000 kilometre-long high-speed rail across two provinces, numerous regions and even more municipalities, will result in all sorts of local politicians wanting to put their stamp on it,” said Toigo. “Some for the good, some for the bad.”

Europe is often held up as an example of efficiently-built rail transit. Unlike Canada, Toigo said European countries have a clear mandate that the development of transit is better for the environment and cities.

“The governments and local communities in Europe don’t get into the same level of detail that we get in Canada. I think we over-analyze everything to death,” said Toigo. “This is a significant problem and it doesn’t matter whether it’s in Alberta or Ontario or Quebec. There are all these hoops and hurdles you have to go through.”

While European countries are attractive to transit experts, Canada is left with less experienced developers and planners.

“We have not built transit in a meaningful way in Canada,” said Toigo. “People that actually have the knowledge of building, planning and developing these systems are few and far between, and they don’t necessarily want to work in an environment that doesn’t give them the ability to actually develop transit in a quick and efficient manner.”

Despite his concerns, Toigo said the Alto project has significant support.

“I am positive … (but) the issue goes back to government, which has ultimate control over this project, and what steps they will take to ensure that the ability to plan and to implement the project is done in an efficient manner,” said Toigo.

Although there is finally movement on the line connecting Toronto to Quebec City, the IJF breaks down a few other Canadian rail projects that have been in the planning stage for decades.

Vancouver–Portland

The Pacific Northwest Corridor is one of 11 federally designated high-speed rail corridors in the U.S., linking Vancouver to Seattle and Portland.

Distances between the three cities are less than 322 kilometres each. The Washington State Department of Transportation says a high-speed rail system could offer speeds up to 400 kilometres per hour, meaning travel times could be less than an hour between each city.

The high-speed line, known as the Cascadia corridor, is spearheaded by Washington state with support from B.C. and other partners, said the B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Transit.

A US$49.7 million grant was awarded to the project from the Federal Railroad Administration in December 2024. Another US$5.5 million in funding from Washington state is also slated to go towards the project.

Since 2018, the B.C. government has contributed $900,000 towards the project.

With recent funding, the community and partner engagement is set to go forward as well as planning and environmental considerations.

Calgary–Edmonton

Dreams of connecting Calgary and Edmonton through a high-speed rail line have been floating in the heads of Albertans for over 20 years.

But studies in 2004, 2011 and 2014 didn’t spur action until a private partnership put forward a proposal in 2021.

Ontario-based construction company EllisDon partnered with AECOM to form Prairie High Link, a private initiative aimed at providing high-speed travel to Albertans through a Calgary–Edmonton line. A memorandum of understanding between the province and Prairie High Link was signed the same year to advance project development. The cost of the project was estimated at $9 billion in 2021.

The project is still in a proposal stage with design work ongoing. An update from the province said the project would allow passengers and freight to travel between Calgary and Edmonton at speeds up to 400 kilometres per hour, potentially cutting the three-hour drive to under one hour on train. The update also said an advisory committee has been established and Indigenous engagement has commenced.

Prairie High Link declined to comment on the status of the project but a statement from Alberta Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen said the province is developing a broader rail master plan that includes high-speed rail within the province.

“We are continuing this work and when completed, the Passenger Rail Master Plan will look forward decades, identify concrete actions that can be taken now and future actions to build the optimal passenger rail system for the province,” said Dreeshen.

The minister added that it is “encouraging to see the Liberal government being supportive of mega infrastructure projects between provinces,” but said the federal government hasn’t done its “homework” for the Alto rail plan, which he says would cost $80 billion.

“We should learn to properly plan for large infrastructure projects. The initial Green Line in Calgary back in 2015 was proposed for $4.5 billion for 46 kilometres of rail,” said Dreeshen. “Unfortunately, the total project was drastically cut two years later and cost drastically increased. Properly planning first and building quickly after is key to building these types of projects.”

Montreal–Boston/New York City

Talks of turning the current Adirondack service from Montreal to New York City to a high-speed rail line have been going on for decades.

One major reason why the service hasn’t been modernized since its first trip in 1974 is because it travels through the Adirondack mountains in the U.S., making it not possible to travel at high speeds. The route currently takes 10 hours to travel 613 kilometers from Montreal to New York City.

A 2003 pre-feasibility study done in partnership with the New York State Department of Transportation and the Quebec Ministry of Transportation found that a full 240 kilometre per hour service could shorten the 10-hour journey by six hours but would cost over $4 billion and have “far-ranging environmental impacts” on the Adirondack mountains.

Since the 2003 study, no significant movement has been made on the project.

Angela Amato,
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Investigative Journalism Foundation