Saturday » September 29 » 2007
High-speed rail link may be fast approaching
Timing is perfect, president of chamber of commerce says
MARK CARDWELL
Freelance
Thursday, September 13, 2007
The long-discussed idea of building a high-speed train between Quebec City and Montreal will become a reality in the coming months, predicts the new president of the chamber of commerce here.
"The timing for a project like this is perfect," said Daniel Denis, a Quebec City native and architect who took over as head of the 198-year-old association in June.
"There is growing concern for the environment (and) a need to improve our transportation links with the outside world."
Denis told 450 members of the local business community at Château Frontenac this week that he would devote his year-long tenure to the promotion of the high-speed train project .
A proposal put forward at a business forum this spring called for the construction of a high-speed rail line along the north shore of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers between Quebec City and the national capital via Montreal.
Unlike the $11-billion project for a 320-km/h train in the Windsor-Quebec City corridor that was proposed by a Canadian consortium that included SNC-Lavalin that failed to win federal approval, Denis said the Quebec-Montreal-Ottawa line would feature a more practical, albeit slower, model of train that would move passengers and freight at speeds of between 180 and 200 km/h.
© The Gazette (Montreal) 2007
