(Quebec) The mayor of Quebec City on Tuesday launched a plea in favor of a high-speed train (TGV), according to him more attractive than the high-frequency train project (TGF) announced with great fanfare by Ottawa. Montreal believes that the TGV “deserves to be studied”.
“I have had discussions with several ministers of the Trudeau government for months,” revealed Bruno Marchand on the sidelines of a press conference on a completely different subject on Tuesday.
“My position is a TGV, obviously for reasons of the ability to transport people with a much shorter duration and which promotes a modal shift for people traveling in a Quebec-Kingston corridor,” added the mayor. , who says he intends to “talk about it with Justin Trudeau” at the first opportunity.
When Ottawa launched the TGF project with great fanfare in July 2021, the federal government seemed to enjoy the enthusiastic support of the mayors of Quebec, then Régis Labeaume, and Montreal.
The federal TGF project plans to connect Quebec to Montreal and Toronto, via Trois-Rivières. The speeds provided are however lower than by TGV.
The federal government estimated, for example, that the distance of nearly 550 km between Montreal and Toronto, which currently takes some 5 hours by train, could take between 4:20 and 4 hours by TGF.
By way of comparison, the 775 km that separate Paris from Marseille can be done by TGV in less than 3 h 30.
The administration of Valérie Plante, invited to react to the exit of the mayor of Quebec, also expressed interest in the TGV.
“Public transit projects will always be welcomed in Montreal and the TGV project deserves to be studied,” wrote Catherine Cadotte, press officer in the office of the mayor of Montreal, in an email.
“The financing needs of transport companies are glaring and require an immediate response, but we must also plan now for the future of mobility, which also requires an effective inter-regional offer,” she adds. The planning, maintenance and development of public transport must be done at the same time. »
The French company Alstom relaunched the debate around the TGF by stating in an interview with Montreal Journal that the TGV represented a much better project.
The office of the Federal Minister of Transport told The Press that the TGF project was well on track. But Ottawa recalls that it modified its “request for expressions of interest” last fall. It previously spoke of trains at a maximum speed of 200 km/h. The federal government is now open to faster trains.