(The Montreal Gazette posted the following Canadian Press article on its website on February 2.)
MONTREAL — Rail passengers may soon be rocketing between Montreal and Toronto in under three hours aboard new Via trains flying along the tracks at over 200 kilometres an hour, the Ottawa Sun reported yesterday.
The newspaper said the federal government is set to announce construction of new high-speed service that will cut the Ottawa-Montreal trip to only 75 minutes, while the express run between Toronto and Ottawa will take only two hours and 15 minutes.
In addition to dramatically cutting travel times, new tracks and other improvements will also allow more frequent service between the three cities.
The massive project is expected to cost taxpayers almost $3 billion just for new track and other infrastructure improvements, not including the new high-speed trains.
The government is hoping the faster travel times and more frequent service will persuade travellers to park their cars and ride the rails, reducing pollution and highway congestion.
Transport Minister David Collenette – a driving force behind the high-speed project – said in an interview he hopes the work will be completed within five years.
In the meantime, he said, travellers should start to notice gradually faster travel times as improvements are made to the track and other equipment.
The minister also opened the door for a similar high-speed rail service between Edmonton and Calgary, sometime after the service is under way in the Toronto-Montreal-Ottawa corridor.
“It wouldn’t be in this (initial) phase … but that wouldn’t come too far after,” Collenette said.
“There’s really compelling grounds for having a high-speed rail between Calgary and Edmonton.”
Collenette said the ultimate funding decision will come from Finance Minister John Manley.
But senior government sources say Manley is planning to announce initial funding for the rail project in his federal budget this month.
Meanwhile, officials at Bombardier Inc. have said they plan to put its new jet-powered locomotive, JetTrain, through its maiden trials in co-operation with Via Rail.