The Trudeau government will announce plans for a high-speed train linking Quebec City and Toronto in the coming weeks, Radio-Canada has learned.
Proponents of the project hope the train will take passengers from Montreal to Toronto in three hours. By car, it takes about five-and-a-half hours to travel between the two cities.
Sources told Radio-Canada the train will travel 300 kilometres per hour — double the speed of Via Rail’s current trains.
Ottawa announced plans back in 2021 to build what it called a “high-frequency” (HFR) rail corridor with stops in Toronto, Peterborough, Ottawa, Montreal, Trois-Rivières, Laval and Quebec City. Sources told Radio-Canada the federal government has now decided the Toronto-Quebec City link will be high-speed.
The train would use a newly built, separate electrified track and run frequently. In addition to Quebec City, Montreal and Toronto, it would serve Trois-Rivières, Laval, Ottawa and Peterborough.
This is exactly what we need. I hope they can follow through. For it to be effective, it will need to connect to local transit in each city. Currently, the Via rail stations in Ottawa are not connected to the LRT.
Maybe it will even happen before California HSR!