Highspeed rail is not a leap of faith: Why it matters for Canada’s growth

Martin Imbleau, President and Chief Executive Officer of Alto, added to the ongoing public dialogue about the high-speed rail project by contributing his viewpoints in opinion pieces published in the Toronto Star and La Presse on April 17, 2026. The following is a version of his opinion articles.

Too often we as Canadians hesitate before making a bold decision, often ending in the preservation of the status quo. Over the past three years I’ve heard the Alto high-speed rail project is too bold and, conversely, that we should have built it decades ago. Countries around the world, France, Spain, Italy, Japan and others have already moved forward. Are we truly so different?

High-speed rail is not a leap of faith. It’s a measured response to growing mobility demands and economic pressure. The Toronto-Québec City corridor serves as one of Canada’s key economic engines. In twenty years, its population has grown by 30%, reaching 18 million people and it generates roughly half our national GDP and is expected to reach 22 million people in fifteen years.

Demand for transportation keeps rising. Ninety-five million intercity trips take place each year between the cities Alto will serve. By 2049, that figure is expected to reach 140 million. Yet our intercity transportation system has not kept pace. Highways are congested, productivity is lost in traffic, and delays are routine.

Cutting Montréal-Toronto travel time by 50% to three hours is not an abstract statistic; it reshapes daily reality. It means a worker can consider new opportunities in another city or families can visit relatives more often without traffic or airport lineups. Faster travel strengthens social ties just as much as the economy.

The distance between Toronto and Montréal is comparable to Madrid–Barcelona, with a similar population base. Thirty percent of ridership on the Spanish route came from people who didn’t travel before. Offering speed, frequency, and reliability encouraged ridership growth. Alto’s projected 24 million passengers annually by 2055 is fully consistent with international outcomes, based on the modelling used worldwide.

But before we select a final alignment and construction begins, we have significant listening to do and Indigenous communities, provinces, municipalities, and residents all have a role to play. We have deliberately followed best practices in project development by inviting feedback early, across a broad corridor. In my experience, this approach takes longer but is the only responsible way to deliver a major project successfully. So far, more than 260,000 people have visited our online platform, and over 10,000 participated in 26 in-person open house sessions.

Recent polls show that between 62% and 69% of Canadians support building high-speed rail, and 75% say they would use it. This is encouraging, but support does not override the need to address local impacts carefully and seriously.

In order to finalize project cost, we need to know what is being built and where. We must choose the best alignment through consultation. Then comes detailed engineering for bridges, tunnels and the design; a 320 km/h train requires millimeter level precision. This is how big things get done.

Alto is for and by Canadians. It will support more than 50,000 jobs and generate a permanent 1.1% increase in GDP, about $24 billion annually, largely through productivity gains from shorter travel times. This is what high-speed rail has delivered everywhere else that it’s been built.

High-speed rail is not a leap of faith; it addresses a clear and growing need.  The question is not only the cost of building it, but the cost of standing still. Choosing not to invest does not avoid spending; it will shift that spending to more highways.

As a country, we must decide on the kind of future we want to build for the next generation; one that is cleaner, more connected, and more prosperous or one where we look back and wonder why we didn’t take the opportunity when it was there.