Skip to content

Public Notice – Brief Submitted to ALTO

April 16, 2026

The Township of Addington Highlands is opposed to the ALTO High Speed Rail Project.  The project’s intent of creating economic growth, improving track availability for freight trains and improving passenger train service likely have some logic in most of the public’s eyes, however the project as planned is not a rail travel concept that our Township can support, particularly because it has changed dramatically from the vision originally communicated to the public. Originally, municipalities and communities were approached about a High Frequency Train that would travel at much lower speeds on many existing railbeds and was not fenced on both sides.

The project as planned is negative or deficient in many aspects including:

Impacts of corridor

  • Will physically split our community into two sections, similar to every other community it crosses through. A tall continuous chain link fence on both sides will completely block off the travel of ground-based wildlife that travel natural corridors and natural habit and feeding areas; 
  • Devastation of natural beauty of rural Ontario. This natural beauty needs to be protected and is one of the main reasons residents from urban areas flock to the rural areas for outdoor activities, leisure, and relaxation;
  • Rural road continuity will be cut off with dead ends, farms sliced in two, longer detoured routes etc. creating a lot of frustration people using those roads as well as increased emergency response times.

  • Location
    • Not feasible to expand service with additional stations at major urban areas along the route, as the proposed route is not near many major urban areas;
    • Increased delivery service delays to rural homes and businesses;
    • Extensive expropriation of people’s homes, rural properties and farms which are the food source to all urban and rural people.

  • Cost
    • Is there really a need for this specific train, and does it have to be high speed?   Are projected benefits worth the currently estimated $90B+ in costs?; 
    • No benefit Addington Highlands or all other areas that are not and likely never will be served by this train; 
    • Increased financial impacts on residents and visitors including increased travel costs due to extended and inconvenient travel routes;
    • Acknowledgement that there may be a vibrancy fund, however the details of it are currently not know to us, and it could never outweigh the overall negative aspects of the project on our community.

  • Expropriation of Property
    • Bill C-15, Part 5, Division 1, High Speed Rail Network Act, would enable disastrous changes to the Expropriations Act by allowing the project to be fast tracked, including the option of ALTO to register a ‘right of first refusal’ and the option of ALTO to register a notice of prohibition of work on any property;
  • Expropriation of property should not occur until a route is finalized.

Township Recommendations:

  • Take a step back and rethink the proposal and whether it is really going to create the long-term benefits that are the basis for its justification. 

  • Improve Passenger Train Service through a new approach, we do not believe that a high-speed train is the solution to the problem with the current passenger train service.   People complain of the unreliability of the current passenger rail service, the delays while travelling on it, and its scheduling and frequency.
    • Invest in and expand this current infrastructure and create dedicated lines for the passenger rail service.
    • Locate these new lines generally along the current main east/west travel corridors in southern Ontario, where the majority of our population is, and where the addition of future stops or additional rail lines are feasible and logical.   Consider a secondary route from Kingston NE to Ottawa and then East.  This routing will greatly improve the service to urban commuters, which is the main objective of the project.
    • Design this expansion as an efficient and faster rail service, however not a high-speed rail service.

  • Improve Freight Train Service:
    • Getting the passenger train service off the same lines as freight service will have create a much-improved access to freight lines.

The Benefits of a New Approach

  • A reliable passenger train service with room for expansion in the populated areas that need it and will benefit from it; 
  • Improved freight train service;
  • Significantly less permanent destruction and negative impact to all the rural areas, its environment and important ecological lands and natural beauty;
  • Significantly less expropriation of farmland and rural properties;
  • A project that makes much more sense to the people of Ontario (and Quebec?), that the public will support;
  • A project with more benefits per dollar spent, and that would cost a lot less;
  • A project that has less risk of becoming a financial and physical burden on the Country (particularly Ontario and Quebec) and would have a much lower operating cost per passenger per kilometer travelled.