The Coalition for Better Rail and the Tyendinaga Township Landowners Coalition held a town hall Sunday at the St Charles Borromeo Catholic Church hall in Read regarding the Alto High-Speed Rail project.
It comes on the heels of the federal government’s announcement in Kingston last week, proposing a new rail stop in the Limestone City.
The project, which is expected to cost between $60 and $90 billion would move commuters on stops between Toronto and Quebec City.
Mayor of Tyendinaga Township Claire Kennelly spoke at the event.
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“The announcement made by Minister MacKinnon (Transport Minister in Kingston) left us with more doubt than the previous five months. We are not embracing this new enthusiasm. Some of the highlights of his speech was a strong preference for shifting focus away from a purely northern corridor toward a southern corridor plan, which is not good for us.”
Ted Darby is part of the Coalition for Better Rail and a former Ontario Liberal Party candidate in the area.
He spoke about time savings, which are not as advertised, especially when you add stops and new station locations.
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“That’s why we say it’s a deeply flawed proposal. High risk, high cost, and low benefit. who does it benefit? Not anybody in this room. But it does benefit people in Montreal, and does the benefit in Toronto, they can save a little time, a little time on their journey.”
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Alto proposed southern route
Darby also says he doesn’t believe the time savings is as advertised.
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“Let’s say you’re doing 500 kilometres and you go from 100 km/h and you go to 200 km/h, you now have a two-and-a-half-hour trip. That’s a big savings. But you go to 300 kilometres, you definitely save time, but on that two-and-a-half-hour journey at 200 kilometres, you might save an additional 40 minutes.”
The amount of usage of the train, the corridors, the price tag, and other issues were discussed.
