Via Rail's business case for a multibillion-dollar high-frequency-rail project between Toronto and Quebec City would receive a boost if it ditched the stretch from Montreal to Quebec City, internal federal documents say.
The document, labelled "secret," was obtained by The Canadian Press under access-to-information law.
The memo's release comes as Via looks for financial support to build dedicated rail lines that will increase the frequency of trips, cut travel times and ensure its trains will no longer have to work around freight schedules on borrowed tracks.
An assessment conducted for Transport Canada warned the inclusion of the Montreal-Quebec City section of the proposed rail service would eat into the plan's profitability, according to a briefing document prepared earlier this year for Canada's deputy minister of finance, Paul Rochon.
The study, delivered last fall by the firm EY, recommended the Quebec route undergo further review "given its high capital costs and poor performance on an operational basis," the federal document said.
A key to the project's eventual realization is finding a way to make the plan attractive to private-sector investors, whose support would build on public dollars.
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July 29, 2019 at 12:37AM
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