High Speed Rail in Canada Now Has a Name
...and for some reason, it's Spanish. Or maybe it's Italian. But it's definitely not VIA, as in VIA Rail, which, since 1977, has been the Crown Corporation that operates Canada's national passenger railway network. The name VIA was chosen because it worked in both French and English—and, thanks to its Latin roots, many other European languages. "Alto" sounds like something rejected by Renfe or Trenitalia years ago for being either too bland, or too obvious, a brand for a high-speed service.
All this to say that, this week, I have—enfin—big news on the high-speed front. At a presser in Montreal on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2025, the current Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, announced that "Canada is getting high-speed rail," which he backed up with this official online announcement.
"Today I'm announcing the launch of Alto," said Trudeau from a very bilingual podium, "the largest infrastructure project in Canadian history...it'll span a thousand kilometers, with one-hundred percent electric trains that will reach speeds of three hundred kilometers an hour. A reliable, efficient high-speed network will be a game-changer for Canadians, slashing travel times by half, getting you from Toronto to Montreal in three hours. It'll strengthen the economy, stimulate the bonds between our two most populous provinces, and reduce costs for businesses, while improving their productivity and competitiveness."
The route would follow the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, from Quebec City, via Trois-Rivières, Laval-Montreal, Ottawa, Peterborough, and Toronto. This is good news for Peterborough, population 88,000, and home to Trent University, but bad news for the traditional end to the "Corridor": Windsor, population 236,000, and just across the river from Detroit, which makes it a natural gateway to the U.S. should we ever get around to (re-)building a truly continental passenger rail network. It's not great news for Kingston, Ontario, population 140,000, which is served by the current VIA Rail route.
