Could Toronto-Montreal route be Canada's first high-speed rail?

TGV in France (olrat/Shutterstock)

In 2021, the Government of Canada confirmed its plans to significantly upgrade VIA Rail’s passenger rail service between the Windsor and Quebec City corridor into a high-frequency rail service.

As the name suggests, this new high-frequency rail service would offer significantly higher frequencies and reduce travel times on the route linking Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal by 25%.

With dedicated passenger rail tracks separate from freight operations, which greatly contribute to current service delays, this new train service would more consistently operate at increased speeds of up to 177 km/h to 200 km/h, and reliability would improve to an on-time performance by over 95%.

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This high-frequency rail service would use VIA Rail’s new and growing fleet of modern Siemens Venture trains operating on the Windsor-Quebec City corridor.

But as it turns out, the federal government is also contemplating a new service that is even better than high-frequency rail — the potential for a high-speed rail service, which would be the first of its kind in Canada.

Currently, the federal government is engaged in the Request For Proposal (RFP) process for the project. In July 2023, it shortlisted three private consortiums to participate in the RFP’s detailed bidding process, attracting international interest from major investors and some of the world’s largest passenger rail service operators.

2021 high-frequency rail concept for the Toronto-Quebec City corridor. (VIA Rail)

Siemens Venture train for VIA Rail. (VIA Rail)

This includes the consortium named Cadence, entailing CDPQ Infrastructure, AtkinsRealis (formerly known as SNC-Lavalin), Systra Canada, Keolis Canada, SNCF Voyageurs, and national flag carrier Air Canada.

CDPQ Infrastructure, a branch of CDPQ, the institutional investor of the Quebec pension plan and a provincial Crown corporation of Quebec, is also known for its ownership and operation of Montreal’s new REM automated metro rail network and its investment in the public-private partnership for Vancouver’s Canada Line.

SNCF Voyageur, owned by the Government of France, operates France’s extensive passenger rail services, including the TGV high-speed rail service.

Another bidding consortium, Intercity Rail Developers, includes companies such as Kilmer Transportation, First Rail Holdings, Intercity Development Partners, Jacobs, Hatch, CIMA+, DF Canada Infrastructure, RATP Dev Canada, First Group, Renfe Operadora, and Meridiam.

Renfe Operadora is owned by the Government of Spain and operates the country’s extensive passenger and freight rail networks, including various high-speed rail lines that sprout out from Madrid. Meridiam is a major French investor in public infrastructure.

The third bidding consortium is named Partenaires Ferroviaires QCONNEXION Rail Partners, entailing Fengate, British investment firm John Laing Group, Bechtel, WSP, and Deutsche Bahn, which is the national railway company of the Government of Germany and also has extensive experience with operating passenger rail services including high-speed rail.

TGV train in Lille, France. (Christian Mueller/Shutterstock)

According to a report in Toronto Star last week, each of the three consortiums was directed to create two detailed proposals, including one concept with trains that travel under 200 km/h and another concept with trains that travel faster than 200 km/h.

High-speed rail is generally defined as a train service that operates at speeds of at least 200 km/h.

It was further stated in the report that the new service could result in travel times of only three hours between Toronto and Montreal, as opposed to the current travel times of over five hours on existing VIA Rail services.

For further comparison, the travel time between Toronto and Montreal on flight services such as Air Canada is about 1.5 hours, which does not include the time spent at airports, while the driving time over this distance of over 1,000 km is about 5.5 hours — similar to VIA Rail’s existing services.

The potential holds for VIA Rail’s new service to operate at speeds over 200 km/h along select segments of the corridor. This is achieved by the new Brightline intercity rail service in Florida, which operates at speeds of up to 130 km/h in the West Palm Beach and Miami area (where the service uses existing tracks with at-grade road crossings) and up to 201 km/h for a purpose-built, fully grade separated railway segment between Florida’s east coast and Orlando. The September 2024-opened segment extending Brightline’s Florida route by 274 km from West Palm Beach to Orlando cost US$6 billion (C$8.1 billion).

Between downtown Miami and Orlando International Airport, with a total of six stations, the end-to-end travel time is about 3.5 hours, which is achieved using the same Siemens Venture train model.

brightline orlando international airport station mco

Inside the Orlando International Airport (MCO) station for Brightline. (Brightline)

Brightline train in Florida. (Brightline)

But building a more superior VIA Rail service than the originally proposed high-frequency rail service would come at a greater cost. High-frequency rail service is estimated to cost between $6 billion and $12 billion in 2021. The cost range for high-speed rail could be double these figures, as it involves building railway infrastructure that enables trains to operate safely at higher speeds, such as grade separation.

The federal government is expected to select the winning consortium and concept later in Fall 2024.

When the project was first announced in 2021, the federal government indicated it would like to see the service completed and running by 2030.

Daily Hive Urbanized has reached out to VIA Rail for further comment.

While this could potentially be Canada’s first high-speed rail line, it will not be North America’s first.

In April 2024, Brightline began construction on a new high-speed rail service between Las Vegas and the outskirts of the Los Angeles region. The 351-km route runs along the median of a freeway with four stations. End-to-end travel time will be just over two hours — roughly half the typical driving time — and the train will reach speeds of up to 322 km/h. The private sector-led project carries a total cost of US$12 billion (C$16.4 billion), and it is projected to open in 2028.

Also, after extensive delays and cost overruns, the first segment of California’s state-led high-speed rail service could open in the early 2030s.

Artistic rendering of Brightline West’s high-speed railway. (Brightline)

brightline west high speed rail siemens train

Artistic rendering of the Siemens high-speed rail train for Brightline West between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. (Brightline)

There is also a proposal to build a high-speed rail service linking Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland. It is supported by the governments of British Columbia and Oregon, with the government of Washington state showing the most enthusiasm.

Additionally, in April 2024, the Government of Alberta announced its plans to conduct a comprehensive study to seriously contemplate a new passenger rail network across Alberta, including the possibility of high-speed rail that could link Banff, Calgary, and Edmonton.

Beyond the Windsor City-Quebec City corridor, major improvements are also slated for VIA Rail’s network across Canada, as the Crown corporation has plans to buy over 300 new modern passenger cars to replace aging fleets introduced right after the Second World War.

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