{"id":641960,"date":"2026-05-02T01:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T01:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/641960\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T01:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T01:00:08","slug":"ottawa-train-station-isnt-ideal-location-for-high-speed-rail-terminal-transport-minister-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/641960\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa train station isn\u2019t ideal location for high-speed rail terminal, Transport Minister says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon at a press conference at the Ottawa International Airport on Friday.PATRICK DOYLE\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The historic columned train station in downtown Ottawa<\/a>, currently home to the Senate, is not an ideal location for a high-speed rail terminal, Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon says. <\/p>\n

Speaking with reporters on Friday, the minister pointed out that the building is too close to the Rideau Canal and is just steps away from the site of a massive sinkhole that opened 10 years ago during construction of the city\u2019s light-rail train tunnel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw on the Rideau street cave-in, when the light rail was being built, that the geology of that area can be very problematic,\u201d he said during an unrelated announcement at the Ottawa airport on Friday. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Boom concrete pumps fill a large sinkhole that formed on Rideau Street in Ottawa in June, 2016.The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

\u201cOttawa has a train station. In fact, an architecturally renowned train station. That is one site that will obviously be assessed. But I would not rule out exploring other sites closer to downtown.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ottawa\u2019s original Union Station opened in 1912, but hasn\u2019t been used as a train station in 60 years. Business leaders in the capital, including the Ottawa Board of Trade, Invest Ottawa and Ottawa Tourism have urged the government to bring high-speed trains to a downtown train station. <\/p>\n

Ottawa\u2019s current Via Rail train station is on Tremblay Road, east of downtown, and is along the city\u2019s light rail line. It was built in the 1960s. <\/p>\n

John Rapley: High-speed rail is the right idea, done wrong<\/a><\/p>\n

Crown corporation Alto recently wrapped up initial consultations on a proposed route for a dedicated high-speed passenger rail line that would link Toronto and Quebec City, with stops in Peterborough, Ottawa, Montreal, Laval and Trois-Rivi\u00e8res.<\/p>\n

Alto chief executive Martin Imbleau was in Quebec City this week, where he largely ruled out using the city\u2019s Via Rail station, Gare Du Palais, in the city\u2019s historic district. In media interviews, he said that location would be too challenging and would lead to slower travel times. <\/p>\n

Alto has promised to release an updated plan in the fall with a more precise route between Ottawa and Montreal, including decisions on station locations.<\/p>\n

The government has set 2029 as the date for a final decision on whether it will go ahead with the project and begin construction that same year. The plan is for the construction on the Ottawa-Montreal link to begin first.<\/p>\n

The Sunday Editorial: The costly fantasy of high-speed rail<\/a><\/p>\n

Alto has not yet released a detailed cost estimate for the project, but Mr. Imbleau has said it could be in the range of $60-billion to $90-billion.<\/p>\n

It would see high-speed electric trains travelling at speeds of about 320 kilometres an hour, promising to cut current travel times in half. <\/p>\n

In recent months since the launch of the public consultations, the project has faced strong opposition from some residents in rural communities whose land may be affected or expropriated. <\/p>\n

Twelve Eastern Ontario municipal leaders released an open letter<\/a> to Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday, urging him to halt further development of the project and engage in a \u201ccomprehensive\u201d consultation process with rural municipalities. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not opposed to high-speed rail in principle, but we demand that it be designed in a way that benefits all Canadians equitably\u2014without sacrificing the livelihoods and way of life of our rural communities. As Mayors\/Reeves, we speak on behalf of 215,000 residents in our region,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

Andrew Coyne: On Canada\u2019s high-speed rail plan, the numbers just don\u2019t add up<\/a><\/p>\n

Alto responded to rural concerns<\/a> this week on its website. The Crown corporation said it plans to offer \u201cfair long-term compensation\u201d to affected landowners, include underpass and overpass connections, and allow landowners to use the access roads that will run outside the fenced tracks.<\/p>\n

Phil Mount, vice-president of policy for the National Farmers Union, said the new information from Alto has not addressed members\u2019 concerns. <\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the lack of transparency demonstrated by the Alto team throughout their \u2018consultation\u2019 phase, it does not surprise me that they are delivering empty reassurances to rural communities and farmers,\u201d he said in an e-mail. <\/p>\n

\u201cTheir reassurances are actually aimed at their urban constituents, who are mostly on board and just want to know that any impacted farmers will be treated right.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon at a press conference at the Ottawa International Airport…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739,714],"class_list":["post-641960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}