High speed rail. Sounds great, but at what cost?
We support effective, sustainable transportation solutions.
However, with an estimated price tag of 90 billion dollars, the rushed ALTO proposal raises serious concerns while placing an unfair burden on rural and regional communities in the rail corridor.
The OTTAWA to MONTREAL section that is supposed to be built first is the section that needs it the least.
The ALTO high-speed rail route poses significant risks to prime agricultural land, generational farms, and rural ecosystems in the Eastern Corridor.
These lands are irreplaceable, yet the project is advancing without completed, transparent environmental and agricultural impact studies.
Fragmentation of farmland, disruption to drainage and wildlife movement, and long-term effects on farm viability have not been adequately assessed, raising serious concerns about irreversible damage to the rural landscape.
Agricultural & Environmental Impact
Key information needed to evaluate this project has not been made public. There is no clear disclosure of total costs, expected public subsidies, fare affordability, or ridership demand.
Without transparent data and a credible business case, the project appears to be moving forward on assumptions rather than evidence, leaving taxpayers and affected communities unable to assess whether the investment is justified.
Where's the Data?
Communities in the Eastern Corridor would bear the environmental, financial, and land-use impacts of the ALTO project without receiving meaningful transportation benefits.
Residents will have little use for the service, yet will pay through public subsidies, expropriation risk, and permanent changes to farmland and rural infrastructure.
A project that delivers high costs and minimal local benefit fails to meet the basic test of fairness or public value.
High Costs
Zero benefit
The ALTO project is being advanced prematurely in the Eastern Corridor, despite unresolved concerns around land use, cost, demand, and community impact. Launching the Ottawa–Montréal segment as a “test corridor” is particularly risky given low public confidence in major transit projects following issues with Ottawa’s LRT and OC Transpo. Communities are being asked to absorb permanent impacts without clear evidence the project is viable or necessary.
The proposed route threatens prime agricultural land, generational farms, and family-owned businesses that are irreplaceable to the region’s economy and identity. Comprehensive, transparent studies assessing environmental, agricultural, and long-term economic impacts have not yet been completed. Proceeding without this due diligence risks irreversible harm to farmland, ecosystems, and rural livelihoods.
There is currently no clear or public information on:
-
Total project costs
-
Expected public subsidies
-
Ticket pricing and affordability
-
Ridership projections and demand analysis
Without this data, the business case for ALTO remains weak. Residents are concerned the project will rely heavily on public funding while serving a limited, higher-income ridership, resulting in taxpayers paying twice—once through subsidies and again through local environmental and land-use impacts.
-
Consultation to date has been one-sided. Many residents in the Eastern Corridor will have no access to the service, yet will bear its costs. Major infrastructure decisions should not be rushed forward before proper consultation, impact assessments, and financial analysis are completed.
An established rail corridor already exists and is currently operated by VIA Rail. The project has not demonstrated why upgrading or optimizing existing infrastructure would be insufficient. Improving current rail service could deliver benefits sooner, at lower cost, and with far fewer environmental and agricultural impacts.
If ALTO is to be tested, it should be done in a corridor where transit demand is already proven and ridership is high—rather than imposing risk on rural communities that receive no direct benefit. Additionally, the proposed one-hour travel time reduction does not provide true door-to-door convenience compared to driving, further weakening the justification for entirely new infrastructure.
Bill C-15 gives the federal government exceptional powers to fast-track the high-speed rail project by overriding normal approval, land-use, and expropriation processes.
Responsible infrastructure requires evidence, transparency, and public trust.
The rushed ALTO project does NOT yet meet those standards, especially in light of the alarming extraordinary powers Bill C-15 grants the government to accelerate this project.
Bill C-15 allows:
1
Faster approvals: Cabinet can designate the rail corridor early, limiting later challenges or changes.
2
Land access & expropriation: The government can more easily enter, acquire, or expropriate land needed for the project.
3
Reduced oversight: Some usual environmental, planning, and regulatory steps can be streamlined or bypassed.
4
Less local control: Municipalities, conservation authorities, landowners, and communities have fewer formal levers once the corridor is approved.
Provide Feedback on the ALTO interactive map
It is crucial that community assets that are not included in heritage registers or other official records are identified early so that the Alto engineering team can take them into account, avoiding costly changes later. Information including—but not limited to—school bus routes, historic burial sites, heritage buildings, lands and waters inhabited by protected species, wildlife migration routes, agricultural drainage networks, or farmland certified organic should all be brought forward at this stage.
Impact
The rail corridor will be 60 metres wide and will have a fence of a minimum of 10 feet that will bisect our community, our farmland, our recreation and our wildlife habitat.
It will directly affect our entire community, cutting farmers' lands in half, diverting school buses and transportation, inhibiting wildlife migration and adversely affecting habitat and sensitive ecological areas.
60-90
Billion Dollars
Estimated cost for the ALTO high speed rail project which is expected to pay for itself in year 47 of its operation. An additional proposal is currently in circulation that would bring the initial cost to 150 BILLION
0
Number of residents in the area who will benefit from the project. There is only lasting harm to our land, our wildlife and our community.
