There has been a massive amount of opposition to a proposed high-speed rail line, which would run right through the Quinte region.
The maps shows the proposed route of the high speed rail line. In purple you will see where the train would go through our region, including a newly proposed southern route. (Photo: Screenshot Altotrain.ca)
“Stage one is really the infrastructure build itself. So if you think about the local economy and what that could mean, you’re going to need millions of tons of aggregates sourced locally. We’re going to need thousands of skilled trade workers working on these projects. We’re going to need engineering services building bridges over rivers and waterways. There’s an opportunity even for Loyalist College to support worker development.”
He says it would also be incredibly beneficial to have a stop in the Quinte region.
“So if you look around the world, there’s really good studies out there already on the economic development benefits from that. So in general, the average stop on a high-speed rail system is roughly 50 to 100 kilometres apart. So if you could imagine a stop in Belleville, a stop in Kingston, a stop in Toronto, for our community, it would mean getting to or from Toronto in roughly 50 minutes.”
Pennell added that whether or not Belleville gets a stop, he is still in favour of the Alto project (as proposed).
“You still need those skilled trade workers working on that project. So there’s a direct impact to our labour force locally, but as those skilled trade workers come into the community, they’re staying in hotels, they’re going to restaurants. When you think about the equipment that they need, they can rent a lot of that equipment locally. We can repair it locally. We could have staging and logistics hubs locally. Things like engineering services, surveying services, you’re not outsourcing those outside our community. You’re going to have opportunities for local companies to participate in bridge building and other projects.”
