Environmental Considerations in Planning High-Speed Rail
The Alto High-Speed Rail Citizen Research Initiative (ACRI) is made up of community organizers and scientists with backgrounds in medicine, biology, geology, education and public policy. The organization is looking at proposed routes for the Carney government's Alto high-speed rail project to provide "freely available analysis for affected residents, advocates and decision makers." ACRI states that "communities deserve access to rigorous research before major infrastructure is decided." The ACRI website provides information about Alto on the following areas: community impacts, economics, engineering and the environment. It also aggregates notable opinions and analysis, government documents and other resources about the project.
In March, ACRI submitted 33 questions to Alto as part of the formal public consultation on Eastern Ontario route selection. Of these, ACRI informed that "one was reasonably answered, four were partially answered, five were acknowledged but deferred, nine received only generic language that did not address the specific question asked, and 14 were completely ignored." ACRI's work is providing valuable information about potential consequences of Alto's construction that official sources are not providing to those affected.
Environmental considerations related to Alto are one of the aspects highlighted by ACRI. For example, one of the missing pieces of information that ACRI pinpointed was that "Alto has not released any lifecycle carbon assessment for the proposed Toronto–Québec City high-speed rail corridor." ACRI thus had to provide this information on high speed rail (HSR) itself, with an "independent research note [which] fills that gap using international HSR data, engineering first principles and published academic sources. It models three ridership levels and three electricity grid scenarios across a 50-year operating life."[1]
Issues of Cold Climate Construction
Under the heading "Three Cost Categories Alto Has Never Mentioned," ACRI addresses first the issue of cold-climate engineering whereby "Alto has made no mention of cold-climate subgrade requirements in any public document." "The only precedent for 300 km/h rail in cold climates is the Harbin–Dalian HSR in northeast China, which required a 3.1-metre reinforced subgrade, XPS foam insulation layers, cement-stabilized surface courses, and heated drainage across its full length," added ACRI, noting that Harbin–Dalian HSR "came in 25 per cent over its construction budget."[2]
Approximately 200 kilometres of the Ottawa–Montréal segment runs through Leda clay -- sensitive marine clay deposited when the Ottawa and St. Lawrence valleys were submerged by the ancient Champlain Sea. Under stress such as flooding it can liquefy instantly, causing some of Canada's most destructive landslides. This is the second issue that Alto made no mention of. ACRI states that "Building a 300 km/h railway over it [the Leda clay] requires deep pile foundations, a fully elevated viaduct, or extensive ground improvement -- all carbon-intensive options. No Alto document has acknowledged that the corridor passes through quick-clay terrain. The pessimistic estimate reaches 4.50 Mt, reflecting genuine uncertainty about the engineering solution required."
"A megatonne (Mt) is one million tonnes of CO2. Canada's total annual emissions are around 700 Mt. Construction of this railway alone could emit 7 to 30 Mt."
Effects of De-Icing Chemicals in Winter Conditions
Keeping a high speed train moving in Canada's extreme winter conditions in the Quebec City-Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto corridor is a technological feat in itself. This is a train powered by electricity facing temperatures that can easily range over a year from –30 to +30 degrees Celsius, along with heavy snow accumulation and freezing rain that would affect the southern and northern proposed corridors in Ontario.
As the ACRI study states "High-speed rail needs its tracks, switches and overhead wires kept clear of ice all winter. Unlike roads, where a light sprinkle of salt is temporary, a high-speed rail line operates every day -- which means chemical de-icing is continuous, systematic, and large-scale across the entire length of the corridor from November through April."
"There are two main types of de-icing chemicals used on railways: glycols (similar to antifreeze) and chloride salts (similar to road salt, but applied in larger quantities and more concentrated forms). Both end up in the surrounding environment. Both cause serious harm to aquatic ecosystems. And on the southern Alto corridor, the geography makes that harm exceptionally difficult to prevent or contain." (see Figure 1)
Figure 1: Location of Alto's proposed Southern Corridor (red lines)
between the Frontenac and Carleton Lake Provincial Parks, part of the
UNESCO Frontenac Arch Biosphere Region
(area bordered by green lines).
As reported by ACRI:
"Glycols (propylene glycol and ethylene glycol) are organic compounds -- essentially antifreeze. When they drain into water, bacteria start breaking them down. That breakdown process consumes oxygen. In large enough quantities, glycol runoff can strip all the dissolved oxygen from a receiving stream or pond, creating a dead zone where fish, invertebrates, amphibian eggs, and overwintering turtles suffocate."
"Winter Makes it Worse
"The de-icing season -- November to April -- is exactly when this is most dangerous. Cold water holds less oxygen to begin with. Under ice cover, ponds and wetlands have no contact with the atmosphere to replenish what the bacteria consume. Research shows ethylene glycol can persist in cold water for up to 60 days, causing prolonged stress to fish populations long after the original application."
"The Sweet Taste Problem
"Ethylene glycol smells and tastes sweet, which is why it attracts pets and wildlife. In the Frontenac Arch, this is a direct hazard to Gray Ratsnakes, Blanding's Turtles, and small mammals emerging from hibernation in spring -- just as meltwater pools collect near track infrastructure."
It can't collect on landscape underlain by limestone which has been eroded by dissolution, producing fissures and sinkholes.
"At airports, glycol-laden runoff is collected by engineered drainage systems. On an open track corridor over the Napanee limestone plain, this doesn't work: the glycol infiltrates through sinkholes and fissures into the karst conduit system before it reaches any collection point. It then travels underground -- unpredictably -- to springs, river baseflow, and wetlands far from where it was applied."
Frontenac's UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Compromised on
Alto's Southern Corridor
In the case of the southern corridor, Alto's HSR would run through the heart of a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, at its most vulnerable point. The Frontenac Arch Biosphere Region (FABR) is situated on the homelands of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabeg Indigenous peoples. The FABR is Canada's most ecologically significant wildlife corridor -- a UNESCO-designated land bridge connecting Algonquin Park in Ontario to the Adirondack Mountains in New York State, a land bridge for wildlife moving across eastern North America. (see figure 2)
Figure 2: Map showing the location and extent of the Frontenac Arch Biosphere Region (FABR)
As the ACRI study showed, Alto's HSR crosses at the worst possible point: the "Frontenac Neck" -- "where Sydenham Lake, Opinicon Lake, and the Rideau Canal compress every bear, wolf, turtle and songbird moving between Algonquin and the Adirondacks into a thin strip of Shield 26.5 kilometre long. There is no way around this geography. Any southern alignment creates the same absolute barrier at the same bottleneck.[...] there is no technically credible mitigation strategy capable of restoring the Frontenac Neck's wildlife corridor function once HSR infrastructure is built. The constraint is geographic, not engineering. The bottleneck is the landscape itself." An HSR corridor through the Frontenac Neck would introduce a sealed, fenced, 300 km/h barrier directly through the one place in the FABR where no bypass exists.[3]
Surface and Groundwater Contamination in Napanee Limestone Plain
Southwest of the Canadian Shield, Alto's HSR southern corridor crosses the Napanee Limestone Plain -- a karst landscape unlike anything else in the route. Karst is formed when rainwater slowly dissolves limestone over millions of years, creating underground rivers, sinkholes, caves, and fissures. In the Napanee Plain:
- 60 to 70 per cent of all stream flow comes from underground -- groundwater flowing through these caves and fissures emerges as springs and river baseflow.
- The soil cover is often less than one metre thick, sometimes absent entirely.
- A chemical spilled on the surface can reach the aquifer within hours to days -- not filtered, not diluted, just carried underground.
- Once contaminated, karst aquifers are essentially impossible to clean up.
Municipal drinking water for communities including Napanee and Deseronto comes from this aquifer system.
These are a few of the most known examples of contamination resulting from glycol de-icers Alto plans to use along their HSR corridors between Quebec City and Toronto. One can imagine the extent of the contamination on forests and farmlands the Alto HSR will cut through along its 1,000 kilometre stretch. From the irreparable damage it will cause to the natural and social environment, the Alto HSR has all the looks of a boondogle project.
Notes
1. "Consultation Accountability -- 33 Questions. Few Answers," Alto HSR Citizen Research Initiative, March 2026.
2. "When it comes to cold-weather innovations in passenger trains, China leads the way. The recently constructed high-speed line, capable of running at 217 mph [347 km/h], traverses some of the most uninhabitable climes on the planet. The corridor, running between Harbin and Dalian in northeastern China, sees temperatures ranging from +40 to -40 degrees Celsius. To meet this challenge China commissioned 22 reports and thousands of tests to guarantee the safety of the "ice-train" -- the only-high-speed train of its kind. Some of the distinct features of this line are special snow and ice removing facilities to keep the power supply and signaling systems safe. Furthermore, China has introduced specially designed train sets for this corridor capable of withstanding the extreme temperatures. The CRH5A trains are based on Alstom's Italian Pendolino trains, which can handle temperatures below -40 degrees Celsius."
See "Cold Weather Passenger Trains", High Speed Rail Alliance, January 7, 2014
The issue of HSR design speed vs operating speed :
"Northeast China: The Harbin--Dalian line is specifically engineered for extreme cold (down to around -- 40 degree celsius) and has a design speed of 350 km/h; in practice it runs a winter timetable capped around 250 km/h and a higher speed summer timetable with trains up to 300-350 km/h depending on service pattern." (source: China Daily )
Scandinavia vs "classic" HSR: In Sweden, Norway and Finland, the current high speed offer is mostly 200-220 km/h tilting sets on upgraded legacy lines, plus one short purpose built 250 km/h ready link in Norway that is still capped at 200 km/h operationally.
Russia: The Sapsan is a true high speed trainset (Velaro family) but limited to 250 km/h by infrastructure and regulatory constraints on the Moscow-St Petersburg route, not by the rolling stock itself.
3. The Frontenac Arch is an ancient granite ridge more than one billion years old. It connects the Canadian Shield in Algonquin Park to the Adirondack Mountains in New York State, passing through the Thousand Islands where it crosses the St. Lawrence River. This is the last intact forest corridor in eastern North America, where five distinct forest types converge: Boreal, Great Lakes–St. Lawrence, Carolinian, Atlantic Coast, and Appalachian. The Haudenosaunee call it the 'backbone of the mother' -- the structural spine sustaining living systems across the region.
(With information from Alto, High Speed Rail Alliance, Alto HSR Citizen Research, TVO, SaveSouthFrontenac, Frontenac Arch Biosphere Network, Railway News)
This article was published in
Volume 56 Number 15 - April 9, 2026
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/TML2026/Articles/T560154.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca