Lame-duck Trudeau announces high-speed rail

With less than a month to go before he gives up his job,Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday launched a six-year, $3.9-billion plan to design a high-speed rail line to (one day) connect Quebec City and Toronto, with speeds of up to 300 kmh (roughly 185 mph) and stops along the way in Montreal, Ottawa, and other cities.

The Liberals say the 1,000-kilometre (620-mile) project would produce 51,000 jobs, boost GDP by up to $35 billion, and shorten the travel time from Montreal to Toronto to three hours, about half the time it takes to drive.

Canadians have often studied a high-speed link in the Quebec-Toronto corridor, the most densely populated part of the country, but have been dissuaded from actually building because of the price tag, which is estimated at being at least $65 billion.

It is too early to answer many specific questions, said Martin Imbleau, the president of the consortium that won the design contract. “We’re going to take our time, properly develop the project, look at the different phases, and in four or five years, we’ll know what we’re building.”

There are reasons to be skeptical, but it is not out of the realm of the possible. “This investment in Canadians, which starts right now, is going to be very difficult to turn back on,” Trudeau said.

The Conservatives, who are generally keener on private cars, would likely not find it hard to cancel the project if they win an election this spring, but a Liberal government might have good political reasons to proceed since the tracks would run through the most reliably Liberal-voting parts of the country.