/ 2026 / … TORONTO Canada wants to build Alto Train: a high-speed rail project, worth $90B, connecting Toronto and Quebec City with trains traveling at 300 km/h.
Canada is the only G7 country without high-speed rail. Toronto to Montreal takes more than 5 hours with VIA Rail, slower than the same trip in 1965. Now Ottawa is betting $90 billion on Alto, the most expensive infrastructure project in Canadian history with 1,000 km of dedicated, all-electric passenger track from Toronto to Quebec City, with trains running at 300 km/h. But why are trains in Canada so slow in the first place? It’s a 60-year story… The jet-powered TurboTrain that still holds Canada’s rail speed record (226 km/h, set in 1976), the birth of VIA Rail in 1977 as a tenant on CN and CP’s freight tracks, the 1989 budget cuts, CN’s privatization in 1995, more than 20 high-speed rail studies that went nowhere, and the High Frequency Rail project that quietly grew into Alto, now backed by the Cadence consortium with CDPQ Infra, AtkinsRéalis, SYSTRA, Keolis, SNCF and Air Canada. WHAT IS ALTO?
- Canada’s high-speed rail project: from Toronto to Quebec City with 7 stations on a brand-new, 1,000 km all-electric track
- Cost: $60 to $90 billion or roughly $60 to $90 million per 1 km of track
- Timeline: construction starts around 2029, Ottawa to Montreal opens around 2037, full line by the mid-2040s
- Why is VIA Rail always delayed? It doesn’t own its tracks because CN and CP’s freight trains get priority
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