Is a Via Rail high-speed train between Toronto and Montreal inching closer to reality?

A high-speed train between Montreal and Toronto is being billed as the most important transit project of our lifetime.

The vision for the mass transit project was presented at a lunch for Montreal’s business community.

But without a budget and no timeline, will vision be enough to convince those who have been hearing about a similar project for decades?

According to Martin Imbleau, the CEO of Via Rail’s High Frequency Rail project, the dream looks something like the high-speed train between Paris and Amsterdam, but in Canada.

A high-speed train could cut travel between Montreal and Toronto by nearly half the time.

“Maybe we can do it in three hours 45 minutes, three hours 30 minutes, three hours 15 minutes, maybe less,” Imbleau told reporters.

The vision for the mass-transit project was presented to Montreal’s business community.

“Because the economic burden is there, population is growing. The needs — well, look at the congestion on the highway that we just recently built,” Imbleau said.

But after decades of talks, Imbleau has to pardon the skeptics. When asked if he will see the project during his lifetime, he laughed.

“I would not be here if I didn’t think I would see it in my lifetime. I will be the first passenger on this train,” he said.

However, there is no budget or timeline involved in the project.

Three consortiums are in the running to develop the project.

The train will roll on 1,000 kilometres of dedicated tracks.

It will make stops in Trois-Rivières, Ottawa and Peterborough.

Imbleau says he has asked for two scenarios: a train that can travel 200 km/h at minimum and another where speed is not a concern.

But a train of speeds higher than 300 km/h, Imbleau admitted, could imply a high number of expropriations, hence greater difficulty to access the dense downtown cores of Montreal and Toronto.

Connecting the downtowns of Montreal and Toronto is a priority for the business community.

“From the business community it’s always from downtown to downtown, it’s how long will it take, how frequent will we have a train every day,” said Michel Leblanc, CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal.

Installing a new train system in two dense cities is a difficult feat. But Montreal’s mayor is on board.

“We know how it is complex to dig whatever is downtown Montreal or downtown Toronto but I’m confident that if other cities in Europe were able to do it, we can do it,” said Valérie Plante.

The biggest hurdle of all?

“The government must not fall before the contract is signed,” said Prof. Pierre Barrieau, a lecturer in transportation and planning at the Université de Montreal.

The project is led by the Trudeau federal government, and an election is expected in the next year.

But Imbleau is hopeful the high-speed train has already left the station and is on its way to success.

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