Location: National
Summary of Issue/Background
- VIA Rail’s High Frequency Rail project for the Toronto to Quebec City Corridor involves building dedicated passenger rail tracks which will provide many key benefits to travellers, including:
- shorter travel times and faster trains that would reduce average trip times between Toronto and Ottawa by up to 90 minutes;
- more reliable on-time arrival performance up to 95 per cent from a current average of 67 per cent;
- more direct routes with improved connectivity between cities and to other modes of transportation;
- new services to certain communities, such as Peterborough, Trois-Rivières, and Laval, and new stations in targeted locations including near Jean Lesage Airport;
- more frequent departures between cities; and
- a cleaner travel option using electrified technology.
- A dedicated passenger track will allow a travel speed of up to 177-200 kilometers per hour (or 110-124 miles per hour), which could result in reduced travel times of up to 90 minutes on some routes, such as Ottawa to Toronto.
- Budget 2021 allocated $4.4 million in 2021-2022 to Transport Canada and VIA Rail Canada to support their work with the Joint Project Office, which would be used to complete the necessary analysis and assessment of options to reduce possible risks associated with a project of this magnitude.
- In addition, Budget 2021 allocated $491.2 million over six years, starting in 2021-2022, for infrastructure investments that would help VIA Rail take an important step towards High Frequency Rail. These investments would support the project by reducing existing bottlenecks within the Toronto to Quebec City Corridor and improving fluidity and connectivity in the nearer-term.
- The Government of Canada announced its commitment to proceed with the project in July 2021 and its first steps in preparing for the procurement process to build new High Frequency Rail services in the Toronto to Quebec City Corridor. It also announced that efforts will also be undertaken to determine how passenger rail services might be improved to better service markets west of Toronto, including Niagara Falls, Hamilton, Guelph, London, Sarnia and Windsor.
- It is expected that High Frequency Rail, projecting completion as early as 2030, could nearly triple the amount of annual trips taken by rail in the Toronto to Quebec City Corridor, rising from less than 5 million in 2019, to 17 million by 2059.
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Messages
- The Government of Canada is working closely with VIA Rail, the Canada Infrastructure Bank to design develop and procure a much better passenger rail service between Toronto and Quebec City.
- This proposal will deliver faster trains and reduce the average travel time along the corridor, encouraging travellers to shift to rail from other modes of transportation that generate more pollution.
- HFR would be the largest transportation infrastructure project seen by Canada in decades, which is why the Government of Canada is taking a phased and prudent approach to advance this project towards completion as early as 2030.