The Alto high-speed rail project increasingly looks like it’ll be cancelled before it even leaves the station.
What happened: Ontario’s provincial government appears to be turning against the proposal for a high-speed rail line linking Toronto to Quebec City.
11 government MPPs, including two cabinet ministers, released a statement criticizing the Alto proposal, saying “too many questions remain unanswered. Too many voices have been ignored.”
Why it’s happening: It’s not coincidental that the criticism began after the federal government nixed the province’s plan to expand the Billy Bishop island airport in Toronto.
A senior Ontario official reportedly told the Toronto Star there was a deal on the table that both projects would be approved: “It’s Billy Bishop for Alto, that was always the understanding.”
Zoom out: As we reported in May, the Alto project is already facing a groundswell of local opposition along its possible route (the final path of the line has not been fixed yet), largely organized through Facebook groups that have ballooned to tens of thousands of members. Local MPPs are facing mounting pressure from these constituents to oppose the plan.
“The consultation was not a consultation. It was basically employees of Alto selling the project,” one opposition organizer told The Peak.
Why it matters: Alto is now on extremely thin ice. The Parti Québécois in Quebec has pledged to pull out of the project if they form government in the province’s October elections, which, according to the polls, is the likeliest outcome right now. If Ontario also backs out, high-speed rail in the Toronto-to-Quebec City corridor may be dead for yet another generation.—TS
