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The hopes of a intercity train station returning to downtown Ottawa seem to have gone off track, as the corporation behind Canada’s proposed high-speed rail network and the federal transportation minister have each said this week that would be difficult to do.
Crown corporation Alto is planning a 1,000-kilometre electric rail line between Toronto and Quebec City, with a price tag of between $60 and $90 billion.
One of the planned stops will be somewhere in Ottawa, with Alto CEO Martin Imbleau mentioning interest earlier this year in the former Union Station on Rideau Street and the current Via Rail station on Tremblay Road.
Mayor Mark Sutcliffe backed the downtown Rideau option in January.
Although he said no decision has been finalized, Alto CEO Martin Imbleau explained to Radio-Canada’s Première Heure Thursday that a downtown Ottawa station would have to be underground.
That would slow trains and make the project more complicated without growing ridership, he said in French.
An Alto spokesperson told Radio-Canada Friday a downtown station would be very, very difficult to do.
‘Geotechnical challenges’
Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon also spoke out against the option when asked during a news conference on Friday.
“It became clear that [the former train station] posed some geotechnical challenges,” MacKinnon told reporters, noting that a tunnel would have to run underneath the Rideau Canal.
“We saw the Rideau Street cave-in when the light rail was being built, ” he said, referring to the sinkhole that happened a decade ago next month.
“The geology of that area can be quite problematic.”
MacKinnon said the Tremblay Via station’s impressive architecture could make it a worthy alternative to the former Union Station, which is now the temporary Senate of Canada building.
“Ottawa has an architecturally renowned train station,” MacKinnon said. “That is one site that will obviously be assessed, but I would not rule out exploring other sites closer to downtown.”
The federal government plans build the first stretch of the network between Ottawa and Montreal and recently ended the first phase of public consultation.
This autumn, it says it will narrow down the current study area corridor to a “final right-of-way” measuring about 60 metres in width.