A just-announced high speed rail network will span 1,000 kilometres and reach speeds of up to 300 km/h.
The train will stop in Toronto, Peterborough, Ottawa, Montréal, Laval, Trois-Rivières, and Quebec City.
According to the prime ministers office, once operational, current travel times will be cut in half – getting passenger from Montréal to Toronto in three hours.
The official name of the high-speed rail service will be Alto.
“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. Montréal to Toronto in three hours – you can’t beat that,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
It will be Canada’s largest ever infrastructure project, and is expected to ‘turbocharge’ GDP by up to $35 billion annually, creating more than 51,000 jobs during construction.
A news release from the prime minister’s office said ‘Cadence’ has been ‘carefully selected to not only co-design and build, but also to finance, operate, and maintain the project.’
Cadence is a consortium of ‘world-renowned’ companies with expertise in design, development, and operation of large-scale transportation infrastructure.
Canada’s investment in the co-development phase of the project represents $3.9 billion over six years, starting in 2024-25.
This is in addition to the $371.8 million that was provided in Budget 2024.
