Include Kingston on Alto HSR
Petitioners ask the Minister of Transport to require Alto High Speed Rail to add a Kingston station and adopt a more southerly alignment to better serve Kingston and reduce ecological harm.
Why we would sign this petition
- A Kingston stop would give direct high‑speed service to a 175,000‑person CMA with federal institutions and post‑secondary campuses, improving regional access and mobility.
- Adding Kingston and moving the alignment south could boost ridership and strengthen sustainable travel options across Eastern Ontario.
- A southerly route that avoids wetlands and wildlife corridors would reduce habitat fragmentation and long‑term ecological harm.
Why we wouldn’t sign this petition
- Adding a Kingston station and rerouting south could increase costs, complicate delivery and risk delaying the overall HSR schedule.
- A more southerly alignment might shift environmental or land‑use impacts to other communities or require longer routes that reduce travel‑time benefits.
- The petition requests changes without presenting detailed engineering or environmental studies; planners may prefer targeted mitigations or alternative alignments based on full assessments.
The summary and both sets of reasons are AI-generated from the petition and given equal weight. Claims are the petitioners’ own; consult the official record for the full text.
Official petition
Petition to the Minister of Transport the Government of Canada has mandated the High Speed Rail (HSR) project, currently branded as Alto, to develop a new passenger rail corridor between Toronto, Ottawa, Montréal and Québec City, and the proposed plan does not include a stop in Kingston; on February 18, Kingston City Council expressed support for the Alto project in principle while affirming that Kingston should be directly served; the Kingston Census Metropolitan Area, with over 175,000 residents, is a major regional centre in Eastern Ontario with federal institutions, post-secondary campuses, a strong tourism sector, and a long reliance on passenger rail; excluding Kingston would reduce regional transportation equity, limit economic opportunity, and weaken sustainable travel options; the proposed southern alignment crosses ecologically sensitive lands, including wetlands and wildlife corridors, raising concerns about habitat fragmentation and long-term environmental impact; and an alignment that includes a Kingston stop and shifts the route further south would improve ridership potential and reduce ecological harm. We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Minister of Transport to : 1. Direct the Alto project team to include a Kingston station in the finalized High Speed Rail service plan; and 2. Require the project to adopt a southern alignment that runs further south than the currently proposed route, in order to reduce ecological impacts and better serve Kingston and surrounding communities.
Government response
No government response is available yet.