As we plan for Kingston’s future, a key issue we face is ensuring reliable, convenient and affordable transportation to and from our community. Over the past eight years, I’ve been advocating VIA Rail to improve train service to major cities like Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal. However, I’m incredibly disappointed and frustrated by last week’s announcement of a high-speed rail line from Toronto to Quebec City that entirely bypasses Kingston and offers no benefits or service improvements to our community.
Back in 2017, VIA Rail originally presented us with a proposal for the High Frequency Rail (HFR), a construction project for a new dedicated line for passenger trains that would run north of Kingston from Peterborough to Ottawa. This new train line would bring an expansion of the conventional rail service and allow for a redesign of train travel so that Kingston would become a hub for rail service in Eastern Ontario, with better service, timings and frequencies. The promise of becoming a hub for VIA Rail service led myself and the Council at the time to formally endorse VIA’s HFR project.
Now, everything has changed. Instead of the original proposal for High Frequency Rail, VIA is moving forward with a High-Speed Rail project. Not only is this new High Speed Rail project far more expensive, it also completely ignores any service improvements for Kingston, and it breaks the commitment that was made to us years ago for a rail hub in Kingston. Under the current proposal, the new high speed rail line will completely bypass Kingston – one of the busiest VIA rail stations in the country – and it offers nothing to our community in terms of better rail service. This is unacceptable, and I’m bringing a motion to Council next week to formally withdraw our support for VIA’s new High Speed Rail project. It’s time for VIA Rail to come back to the table and honour the promise they made to Kingstonians eight years ago.