A high-speed rail corridor promising to one day connect Toronto and Quebec City may not actually stop inside Toronto’s iconic Union Station, according to Alto CEO Martin Imbleau, who told a Senate transport committee this week that the crown corporation is considering several alternative sites.
Imbleau said Alto’s “objective” is to build a station somewhere in the vicinity of Union Station, but stopped short of confirming that the country’s busiest transit hub will be the terminus. “We’re looking at options. It needs to be economical and it needs to be reliable,” he said, repeating that the intent was to find a location close to Union “if it’s feasible and we can make it affordable.” He did not explain why Union Station is no longer the presumed favourite.
The uncertainty comes despite Union Station’s central role in Canada’s rail network. The hub connects GO Transit, VIA Rail, the TTC, and the UP Express link to Pearson International Airport — making it the most logical spot for a future high-speed service capable of reaching 300 km/h, twice the speed of existing VIA trains.
A spokesperson for Alto told TorontoToday that the project remains in its development and pre-construction phase and that it is “too early to speculate” on specific station locations. She noted that arriving trains directly into downtown areas, whether Toronto, Montreal, or Quebec City, presents “technical challenges.”
At the committee meeting, Imbleau confirmed Alto is collaborating with Metrolinx — the joint owner of Union Station — on possible Toronto station sites. Metrolinx said it is working closely with Alto to examine “various ways in which High Speed Rail can connect meaningfully to the network,” including other major transit hubs.
Some senators pressed Alto on whether the Toronto station might end up in the suburbs. Vincent Robitaille, assistant deputy minister at Transport Canada, suggested that would be unlikely, saying Ottawa instructed Alto to place stations in downtown cores. “We’re not talking about the station being very far in the suburbs,” he said, adding that experts and public consultations must guide the final decision.
The high-speed corridor involves building roughly 1,000 kilometres of dedicated passenger track, allowing the trains to avoid the freight-priority CN and CP rail lines that routinely delay VIA Rail. Still, Imbleau said the high-speed trains may need to share tracks in certain areas, including downtown Toronto. He acknowledged there are reliability concerns with using the existing rail approaches into Union Station — tracks owned by Metrolinx and jointly operated with CN and CP — but said no option has been completely ruled out.
Alto expects to finalize the exact Toronto station site and full rail corridor alignment in 2026 following consultations. The $3.9-billion project, announced by former prime minister Justin Trudeau in February, is described as one of the largest infrastructure undertakings in Canadian history. Stations are planned for Peterborough, Ottawa, Montreal, Laval and Trois-Rivières, with estimated travel times of just over three hours between Toronto and Montreal.
Alto is working with Cadence, a consortium of major transportation and engineering firms, to design the network, with Cadence set to oversee construction and long-term operations.