The Environmental Political Economy
of High-Speed Rail in Canada
Academic Study Group
hsrcanadastudygroup.ca · #EPEofHSRCan
About This Website
High-speed rail is more than just very fast trains; it is a complex web of energy, massive steel and concrete requirements, layered upon multi-level governance and billions of dollars in public and private investment. Building it would change Canada (though whether that would be for better or worse — is still up for debate).
This website serves as a hub for independent, impartial, expert academic research and analysis of the conditions required to make high-speed rail environmentally friendly and financially accessible to everyday Canadians, inasmuch as the conditions which may make this project too risky for our nation to pursue.
Explore our analysis of the political and economic forces shaping the future of Canada's rails! Or, if you are a fellow researcher or student and would like to be involved in this Academic Study Group, get in touch!
Three Perspectives on High-Speed Rail
Debates about high-speed rail in Canada tend to cluster around three positions. Across the four domains below — environment, economy, politics, and society — here is how each camp frames the key issues.
| Domain | Anti-HSR | HSR-Neutral | Pro-HSR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Environment |
Building new HSR infrastructure is enormously energy intensive; it will require concrete, steel, energy for operations and induce new energy demand. Building new track infrastructure through sensitive ecological corridors will disturb species-at-risk and affect habitats. |
Interested in the big picture trade-offs and the conditions required to ensure any new HSR infrastructure — IF built — is sustainable. And if NOT built, what is necessary for sustainable intercity transport? |
New HSR lines can help us reduce transport emissions and congestion by getting travellers out of vehicles and airplanes and into electric, efficient rail. |
| Economy |
HSR will cost tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer funds, meaning we can't use those funds for other important infrastructure or programming. It's a waste of taxpayer dollars. |
Interested in discussing the broader costs and benefits of an HSR project to determine at what point the cost is 'worth' it. Acknowledges costs to both building HSR and also NOT building it (Opportunity Costs). |
HSR development is a driver of economic growth. It increases real estate values especially around stations and creates new economic ventures and opportunities. |
| Politics |
Will divide Canadians as taxpayers' funds are used for a project which only benefits those in Ontario and Quebec. The threat of land expropriations will anger property owners and Indigenous communities who never agreed to having a rail line traverse their land. |
Interested in the potential rallying effects of a new transport infrastructure, so long as the political costs of public opposition are not too high. |
HSR is a nation-building infrastructure that can occur alongside other projects in other parts of the country. It puts Canada on the map as a 'serious' country with the kind of transport infrastructure seen in other G7 countries. |
| Society |
HSR could stratify society as urban elites benefit from this travel opportunity while rural and remote communities do not. |
Concerned about questions of equity and accessibility — and the distribution of benefits. IF HSR is built, how will those who stand to 'lose' (via, say, expropriation) or minimal access be compensated? |
HSR encourages greater interconnectivity between the most populated regions of Canada. HSR will lead to a more interconnected society. |