HighSpeed Rail: The Land, The Cost, and The Truth Rural Ontario and Quebec Deserve
By: Jeff Bogaerts, President, Ontario Landowners Association
The federal government continues to promote the ALTO HighSpeed Rail project as a visionary “nationbuilding” initiative — a sleek, modern transportation corridor linking Quebec City, TroisRivières, Laval, Montreal, Ottawa, Peterborough, and Toronto. The glossy renderings promise speed, convenience, and progress.
But behind the marketing lies a megaproject whose true costs — financial, agricultural, environmental, and social — remain largely unspoken.
In Part One of this series, we asked the foundational questions:
Who pays? Who benefits? And what happens to the rural communities caught in the middle?
In this second installment, we go deeper. Much deeper.
Because new information from ALTO — the VIA Rail subsidiary created to deliver this project — reveals a picture far more complex, far more expensive, and far more disruptive than anything Canadians have been told.
And rural Ontario and rural Quebec deserve the truth.
1. The Land Footprint: 6,000–12,000 Hectares Removed From Production
ALTO proposes to build 1,000 kilometres of new, electrified, passengeronly track, separated entirely from freight trains. Their own materials suggest a minimum corridor width of 60 metres.
Let’s calculate the landtake:
- 1,000 km × 60 m = 6,000 hectares
- That is 14,826 acres
- Equivalent to 60 square kilometres
- Or 10,000 football fields
But 60 metres is the absolute minimum.
International highspeed rail systems often require 80–120 metres in rural areas to accommodate:
- fencing
- safety buffers
- electrical infrastructure
- maintenance access
- drainage systems
- snowmanagement zones
Using realistic global standards, the corridor could require:
8,000–12,000 hectares of land.
And this does not include:
- staging areas
- access roads
- electrical substations
- stormwater ponds
- maintenance yards
- detours
- temporary expropriation zones
This is one of the largest landuse interventions in Canadian history — and it will be divided between rural Quebec and rural Ontario, affecting farms, woodlots, wetlands, maple operations, and small towns across two provinces.
2. The Route: Quebec → TroisRivières → Laval → Montreal → Ottawa → Peterborough → Toronto
This is not a straight line. It bends and detours through:
- farmland
- wetlands
- floodplains
- small towns
- Indigenous territories
- environmentally sensitive areas
Every curve increases:
- landtake
- construction cost
- environmental impact
- farm severance
- emergency access challenges
And the route includes a major engineering challenge that has barely been acknowledged.
3. The Ottawa River Crossing: A BillionDollar Blind Spot
To reach Ottawa from Quebec, the train must cross the Ottawa River.
There are only two options:
A. A new dedicated rail bridge
Estimated cost: $1–$3 billion
Challenges include:
- iceload engineering
- floodplain stability
- environmental approvals
- Indigenous consultation
- navigation clearance
- seismic requirements
B. A tunnel under the Ottawa River
Estimated cost: $3–$6 billion
Challenges include:
- bedrock
- water pressure
- ventilation
- emergency egress
- extreme cost overruns
This is a megaproject inside a megaproject — and it has not been publicly costed.
4. Freight Separation: The Truth Behind the Talking Point
ALTO claims that highspeed rail will “free up capacity” for freight by separating passenger and freight traffic. Here’s the truth:
Highspeed trains cannot share track with freight.
Not because of policy — because of physics.
Freight trains:
- are slow
- are heavy
- damage rails
- require different signaling
- cannot clear the line fast enough
So ALTO is not announcing a benefit.
They are announcing a requirement.
And here is the part they don’t say:
Once passenger trains are removed from CN/CP lines, freight traffic will increase.
Expect:
- more freight trains
- longer freight trains
- heavier freight trains
- more night trains
Which means:
- more noise
- more vibration
- more diesel emissions
- more blocked crossings
- more safety risks in small towns
So rural communities get:
- a new 1,000 km barrier, AND
- more freight traffic on the old line
This is a double burden — and ALTO never mentions it.
5. Electricity Demand: The Hidden Infrastructure Nobody Is Talking About
A 1,000 km electrified highspeed rail corridor requires:
- highvoltage overhead lines
- substations every 40–60 km
- dedicated grid connections
- redundant power feeds
- winter heating for switches and overhead lines
Let’s quantify the power demand.
Highspeed trains consume:
- 20–30 MW at speed
- 40–50 MW during acceleration
If ALTO runs 4–5 trains per hour:
Total corridor demand: 100–150 MW continuous load
Equivalent to:
- a small city
- or 100,000 homes
- or a midsized industrial complex
Ontario and Quebec would need:
- new transmission lines
- new substations
- possibly new generation capacity
This is a massive hidden cost — and a major landuse impact.
6. Ridership: The 17–18 Million Claim in Context
ALTO now claims that by 2059, the corridor will carry over 17 million passengers per year.
Let’s be clear:
- This is not current demand.
- This is not a forecast.
- This is an aspirational target.
Current ridership (2019): 4.8 million
Target ridership (2059): 17–18 million
Increase required: 260–280%
Breaking it down:
- 49,315 riders per day
- 2,055 riders per hour (24hour average)
- 3,500–4,000 riders per hour during peak
This is the ridership of a major metropolitan commuter system, not a longdistance corridor.
And if ridership falls short — even by 20–30% — taxpayers will cover the shortfall.
7. How Many Trains Are Required?
Assume each train carries 500 passengers.
[ 46,575 \div 500 = 93.15 \text{ trains/day} ]
Round up:
95–100 trains per day, every day, yearround.
That means:
- 4–5 trains per hour
- 24 hours a day
- 365 days a year
Backup fleet: 10–15 trains
Snowplow/iceclearing units: 6–10
Maintenance rotation: continuous
This is a massive operational commitment — and none of it is included in the public cost estimates.
8. Winter Reliability: The Canadian Problem No One Mentions
Highspeed rail systems struggle with:
- ice storms
- freezing rain
- snow accumulation
- overhead line icing
- switch freezing
- winddriven snow drifts
Canada’s climate is harsher than:
- France
- Spain
- Japan
- the UK
- California
This means:
- more maintenance
- more downtime
- more cost
- more land for snowmanagement infrastructure
This is a uniquely Canadian challenge — and it has not been addressed.
9. The Agricultural Impact: Permanent, Irreversible, and Underestimated
Highspeed rail does not simply “take land.”
It fragments land.
It severs:
- fields
- drainage systems
- livestock routes
- equipment access
- emergency access
- farm operational efficiency
Even if only 10% of a farm is physically taken, the functional loss can be 30–40%.
And once farmland is taken, it never comes back.
10. Who Benefits — And Who Pays?
Urban commuters benefit. Rural landowners pay.
Urban centres get:
- stations
- economic development
- transit connections
Rural communities get:
- land loss
- severed farms
- increased freight traffic
- construction disruption
- no stations
- no economic benefit
This is not a national project.
This is an urban commuter project built through rural land.
11. Consultation: Informative or Influential?
Meaningful consultation requires:
- early engagement
- transparent route planning
- genuine accommodation of landowner concerns
So far, landowners have been informed — not consulted.
There is a difference.
Conclusion: Before We Give Up 6,000–12,000 Hectares, We Deserve Answers
Highspeed rail may offer benefits for urban centres, but it represents one of the largest landuse interventions in Canadian history.
Before a single hectare is taken, rural and agricultural communities deserve:
- honest numbers
- transparent planning
- realistic ridership projections
- full costing of the Ottawa River crossing
- full costing of electrical infrastructure
- full costing of land acquisition
- full costing of farm severance
- full costing of environmental mitigation
And above all:
A clear explanation of who benefits — and who pays.
The Ontario Landowners Association will continue to ask the questions others won’t.
We will continue to defend rural Ontario and rural Quebec.
And we will continue to insist that no megaproject should proceed without the full truth on the table.
Because once the land is gone, it is gone forever.
Ongoing Investigation
The Ontario Landowners Association will continue to investigate this project in detail.
What we have today is not the full story — not on cost, not on expropriation, and not on the longterm interference in the daily lives of rural Canadians in Ontario and Quebec. This article is not the end of our work. It is the beginning. As more information emerges, we will continue to analyze it, question it, and report it to the public. Rural communities deserve nothing less than the full truth before billions of dollars are committed and thousands of hectares are taken.
Jeff Bogaerts
President, Ontario Landowners Association
“… if you do not know what your property rights are … you don’t have any …”