Almost 700 people attended Alto’s final in-person open house to learn more information about the proposed high-speed rail line that will cut through the Quinte region.
The event was held Wednesday at the Lions Club in Stirling.
The project that would see trains travelling 300 km/hr between Quebec City and Toronto is still in the early phases of planning but has received much opposition, especially in this region with residents worried about the rail line’s impact on both agricultural and residential lands and the environment.
There are two proposed corridors under consideration for this region, a northern corridor that would mainly follow Highway 7 and a southern corridor that would make its way south travelling though parts of Lennox and Addington and Hastings Counties and then veering north to Peterborough.
Peter Paz, an Alto Senior Director for Public and Government Relations in Ontario, says this first wave of consultations is about listening.
“We have been overwhelmed by the feedback we’re getting, good, bad. We’ve had over 10,000 people come to our consultations across both provinces, which is huge. Let alone the numbers that we’ve been seeing online.”
He adds the purpose of the open houses was not to change the minds of people who are against the project but to correct misinformation that is circulating via word of mouth and the internet.
He says despite what you may read, Alto has not yet chosen a route.
They’re also trying to clear up what he calls misinformation about other topics like land acquisition and compensation.
Another local concern is that there are no scheduled stops for the region.
The line would feature only seven stops, with three in Ontario – Ottawa, Peterborough and Toronto.
Paz says Alto is committed to providing community benefits to all areas impacted by the rail line even if they don’t have a stop.
“To articulate how important the feedback is, when you hear things at an open house, I go and talk to an engineer and say, ‘hey, did we think about this? This was a really good point.’ So that’s anecdotally but then when you package it all together, it’s important information to help and to help inform decision making.”
Members of the Tyendinaga Township Landowners Coalition were among those voicing their displeasure with the plan at the open house.
The coalition’s Allison Howie says it was hard to get answers from the Alto representatives on hand.
“But in their defence, I don’t think there is a lot of answers. So a lot of the studies haven’t been done. A lot of, you know, impact assessments haven’t been done. So I think they’re at the point where they have to pick a route and then start there. So there hasn’t really been the opportunity to get answers for the questions that are being asked yet.”
When asked if it appears the rail line is coming down to an urban versus rural mindset, Howie adds they feel like urban residents, those who will use the train the most, aren’t being told how the rail line will affect the lands it runs across.
“They’re being told that the train’s going, ‘oh, we’re going to run through green space and it’ll all be fine.’ But they don’t know that we even live there. They don’t know what exists in the township. So even with all those interactive maps, we really encourage people to get involved, do your pins, pin everything you can think of because this is how we’re gonna show Alto who we are and what is in the way, what stands in the way of this train, because they really don’t know.”
Paz says the online consultation period has been extended to April 24 and he encourages people to engage.
He notes this is the first of many waves of consultation.
The first route from Ottawa to Montreal is nearing finalization.
There will be more engagement regarding other segments before decisions are made, likely in 2027.
As the process continues, Paz says they’ll be reaching out to property owners and municipalities asking to voluntarily access land as part of the field study process.
Click here to go to Alto’s online consultation.
