(Canwest News Service circulated the following story by Mike De Souza on August 5, 2009.)
WINDSOR — A train trip from downtown Montreal to downtown Toronto, with a stop in the nation’s capital, in two hours and 18 minutes is a far cry from the options travellers currently have.
Passengers in the country’s most heavily populated markets don’t have an electrified high-speed train, able to coast at speeds of up to 300 km/h. And consider the possibility of a trip from downtown Quebec City to downtown Montreal in one hour and 12 minutes; or a trip between Toronto and Windsor, Ont. , in one hour and 24 minutes.
All of these scenarios are within reach and could provide an alternative to the stress of a highway drive or the hassles of getting to an airport and through its security, according to a 1995 report sponsored by Quebec, Ontario and the federal government on the feasibility of a high-speed passenger rail line between Quebec City and Windsor, Ont.
The 1,200-kilometre route was estimated in 1995 to take up to 10 years to design and build at a cost of about $20 billion in combined investments from the governments and the private sector. It’s one of many reports in recent decades that highlighted the benefits and the price tag of improving passenger- rail service in Central Canada – only to wind up dead on arrival in government.
“There’s always been a debate as to whether or not we have the critical mass of passengers here in Canada, even in the (Quebec City-Windsor) corridor, to justify the expense that would be required to build a TGV-type train,” said former Liberal transport minister David Collenette, referring to France’s high- speed model.
The 1995 report concluded that a new system could attract up to 12 million passengers per year and recover its costs through operating profits after about 30 years. Approximately 40 per cent of the ridership come from motorists now using the highways, while another 18 per cent of high-speed rail passengers would be diverted from the airlines, the report projected.
But federal and provincial governments fighting to eliminate deficits in the 1990s were not convinced the plan was worth the risk of investing billions of dollars of taxpayer money for a new high-speed train.
Key stakeholders, politicians and business leaders throughout the Quebec City-Windsor corridor are now organizing a public-relations campaign to place the issue back on the agenda for a region that is home to 18 million people – or nearly 60 per cent of the Canadian population. They want to build momentum for a project they believe will improve mobility of the workforce by bringing their cities closer together and boosting the economy in an environmentally friendly way.
“When France launched its first TGV line between Paris and Lyon, all the studies were negative,” said Talal Zouaoui, a spokesman for Bombardier Transport Canada. “They said that nobody would ride between Paris and Lyon and the line created its own momentum. It’s (now) one of the most successful high- speed lines in the world.”
Led by Quebec City Mayor Regis Labeaume, a coalition of cities has awarded a contract for their own study on the local economic, social and environmental benefits of a high-speed rail system for communities along the route. The Quebec City chamber of commerce has also hired a communications firm, HKDP, to help promote the coalition and force the issue on to the agenda of a potential federal election campaign in the fall.
Meantime, the governments of Quebec and Ontario, along with the federal government, are spending about $3 million for an engineering consortium to update the 1995 study and make new recommendations – including new ridership estimates and potential financing options – in a report that is expected in early 2010.
Collenette, who served as transport minister from 1997 to 2003, said he believes support from the public and the business community is growing because of factors such as rising oil prices, traffic congestion and airport security delays.
“A lot of Canadians have actually taken the Eurostar, (a high-speed train) between Paris and London or Brussels and London, and they know that this is an incredible way to travel,” said Collenette. “There’s none of the old clickety- clack, no bumps, no going over switches and rocking back and forth. It’s almost like flying on a non-turbulent flight. You’re gliding; but you’re gliding at top speeds of 300 km/h.”
Julien Pley, who lives in France, says the TGV allows him to make a 250- kilometre trip from the northern city of Lille, to Paris on a regular basis for his job at a telecommunications company. The trip takes him about an hour in each direction at a cost of $31 per ticket, along with an annual pass he buys for $585.
“It’s very easy (to take the TGV),” Pley said. “As soon as you arrive (at your destination), you are always near where you want to go.”
Chad Leddy, a Toronto lawyer who has travelled both on high-speed trains in Europe and on Canada’s existing Via Rail service, said there is no comparison between the two networks.
“It changes your whole travel experience to be able to do a day trip to a city that’s 400 kilometres away,” said Leddy. “I would say we are right now 50 years behind the rest of the developed world when it comes to that component of our transportation system.”
Judy Bryant, a city councillor in London, Ont., said a high-speed link would make it easier for young families to settle in her own community.
“It’s hard some times to get a job for two people in any city, let alone (in) one of the smaller to medium cities,” she said. “So for someone to able to live in London, and one partner or both partners to commute – to Toronto or Kitchener or Hamilton or Waterloo – is just a grand opportunity for the economic growth of our city.”
Although Canada’s climate of extreme temperatures in both the winter and summer months presents a unique challenge for high-speed train technology, railway vehicle suppliers such as Bombardier, Alstom in France and Siemens in Germany say they can adapt existing trains to run in regions such as the Quebec City-Windsor corridor or between Edmonton and Calgary.
In fact, Siemens says it has modified its new Velaro trains, which run in Spain, for a 250 km/h high-speed route in Russia, between St. Petersburg and Moscow, making it the only train in the world that can run at extremes of -50 C or 40 C.
The modified trains have extra insulation, a more powerful heating system, and air intakes on the roof instead of under the body of the train to avoid pulling or sucking snow into the motors, said Mario Peloquin, the director of Siemens Mobility in Canada.
“That Russian model is a perfect fit for Canada,” said Peloquin.
Collenette, who admits it was difficult in government to promote massive infrastructure projects such as high-speed rail, said the key will be finding an integrated approach with participation from airlines and bus companies that now have concerns about losing customers to a new subsidized passenger-train system.