Wynne tries to reignite unrequited love affair with high-speed rail
If Kathleen Wynne’s promise to build a Toronto to Windsor high-speed rail line sounds familiar that’s because it is.
The Ontario premier’s announcement Friday marks at least the fourth time her Liberal government has pledged to deliver this particular goody.
It was announced with considerable fanfare before the 2014 provincial election, after the government hired a British consultant to do a “pre-feasibility” study on the idea.
Only later was it revealed that the consultant did such a rush job in order to meet the government’s political deadline that it was forced to use out-of-date maps
The project was announced again in the fall of 2015 when Wynne hired David Collenette, a former federal Liberal minister, to build a business case for the line.
Then it was re-announced in the last budget.
Collenette’s report was made public Friday. That gave Wynne the chance to announce her proposed high-speed rail line again. High-speed rail was a key promise in the Liberals’ last election campaign. It seems it will be equally key in the next one.
There is something soothingly predictable about government promises to improve passenger rail service in Canada. They are made with great regularity. But more often than not, they give rise to nothing.
In 1968, Canadian National, then a federal crown corporation, introduced a sleek new high-speed train known as the Turbo on its Toronto to Montreal line. The Turbo was supposed to slash travel time between the two cities and sometimes it did.
But its brakes tended to seize in the cold weather — a problem in Canada. More important, the sleek design didn’t solve the real problem of the Quebec City to Windsor corridor, which is that freight takes precedence over passengers.
Turbo passengers, like those in more conventionally designed trains, would find themselves shunted to sidings in order to let the freights lumber slowly by. The Turbo quietly went out of service in 1982.
In the 1970s, Ontario’s then Conservative government toyed with an even bolder idea — a train powered by magnets that would levitate above the track. Unfortunately, the so-called MagLev train couldn’t go around corners. It too came to naught.
But governments kept on studying and promising. In 2009, Ottawa, Quebec and Ontario funded a $3-million feasibility study to look at establishing high-speed trains in the Quebec City to Windsor corridor.
“This has been talked about for quite some time,” then premier Dalton McGuinty said. “But every once in a while, there’s an idea whose time actually comes.”
Alas, this was not one of them. The study concluded that the project would cost $20 billion and the idea was shelved.
Will Wynne’s project be any different? The signs are not encouraging. The price tag is even higher.
The government estimates it will cost $21 billion to build the Toronto-Windsor portion.
Construction won’t begin on the first phase of the project, from Toronto to London, for at least four to six years. And the entire scheme is expected to take until 2031to complete.
As Collenette’s report points out, all of this is contingent on the government being able to run the new high-speed trains on lines solely dedicated to passengers.
This in turn means the government must strike a deal with CN, which owns a key portion of the track near Kitchener. One solution would see the provincial government build a new dedicated freight line for CN in exchange for assuming ownership of the existing dualpurpose line.
Collenette’s report also points out that the government will have to sort out its sometimes competing rail promises, including its pledge to link cities in the Toronto area with an electrified Regional Express Rail.
It will also have to take into account the fact that federally owned Via Rail already operates trains between Toronto and Windsor.
But these are detail for later. Right now, we are in the joyful period of announcement where the sky’s the limit and all is good.
Much was talked about Friday. But the only real money committed was $15 million for an environmental assessment of the project. If Wynne is lucky, this will carry the Liberals through to next year’s election.
Government promises to improve passenger rail service are made with great regularity, but more often than not they give rise to nothing