HIGH-SPEED RAIL PUTS CHRETIEN, QUEBEC SEPARATISTS ON SAME TRACK
June 23 1996
Re-printed without permission.
By Anne Swardson
QUEBEC CITY -- With the government of Canada barely on speaking terms with the secessionist-minded province of Quebec, and the very future of national unity still in question, the last thing leaders would be expected to place on the table is a multibillion-dollar project that would tie French and English Canada more closely together.
But Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard both recently endorsed the idea of a high-speed rail link from Windsor, Ontario, opposite Detroit, through the major cities of English and French Canada to Quebec City, 740 miles away.
As every Canadian schoolchild knows, Canada was settled by the railroads. The way west was opened not by gritty pioneers but by the federal government's determination to tie this sprawling land together with steel rail.
But the notion of closer ties between Quebec and Ontario, which together are home to two-thirds of Canada's population, is more complicated now than when Canada was building itself more than 100 years ago. Last November, Quebec voters chose by barely more than 1 percentage point to remain within the Canadian confederation, and more separation votes are likely.
Almost nothing in Quebec is without political overtones, and the idea of a high-speed train is fraught with implications for the federal government's hope of keeping Canada together and for Quebec separatists' hope of going their own way.
For Chretien, the link would be a visible symbol of the benefits of remaining under the federal umbrella. For Bouchard, a train would show that Quebec can do business with the rest of Canada even while it seeks independence.
And then there is Quebec's eternal quest to persuade France to endorse its separation hopes. French Prime Minister Alain Juppe was here last week and pleased Bouchard by saying Quebec independence was for Quebecers, not all Canadians, to decide.
Juppe, who was accompanied by executives of the French firm that built that country's TGV, the French initials for "high-speed train"), said the train would be an "excellent" example of cooperation between Quebec and France.
The highest ridership for such a train would be on its middle section between Toronto and Montreal, the two largest cities in Canada. That trip, now more than 4 1/2 hours by train, could be cut in half by a train traveling 180 mph, according to feasibility studies. But Montreal is on the edge of Quebec; more than 90 percent of the new track of a Montreal-Toronto train would be in Ontario. As columnist Reed Scowen put it in the Montreal Gazette, it is as if the Belgians were promoting a train from Brussels to Marseilles.
So, Bouchard and other Quebec leaders say, the TGV, as it is commonly called here, must go on to Quebec City, 146 miles further into the province, even if relatively few people do.
"For the government of Quebec, it is clear that any project that doesn't include the Quebec City-Montreal section is not of a lot of interest," Quebec Transport Minister Jacques Brassard told reporters earlier this month.
This charming city on the escarpment above the St. Lawrence River draws 3 million tourists a year, but during the eight months or so of winter there are few travelers here except for legions of government workers traversing on business. The newly remodeled train station is served by two to four trains a day from Montreal, and few of them travel full.
Quebec City Mayor Jean-Paul l'Allier, who endorsed the losing side in last year's independence referendum, said in an interview that a TGV to his city would entice passengers out of their cars, be good for the environment and show Canadians that an independent Quebec still wants links with Canada. Bouchard plans another referendum on autonomy, but probably not for several years.
"Sovereignty is presented {in the English press} as isolationist, but it's not at all," l'Allier said. "No one wants to close the border. And Quebec and Ontario are closely linked."
Adding to the political dimensions of the rail link is the identity of its chief corporate backer, Laurent Beaudoin of Montreal-based Bombardier Corp. Bombardier, a large and successful maker of snowmobiles, commercial aircraft, transit cars and rail cars, owns the North American rights to TGV technology, and with two consortium partners, including the French TGV firm, it is pushing the train. Beaudoin was an outspoken opponent of separation during last year's referendum and was criticized for his posture by Quebec's leaders.
The Quebec press has speculated that provincial leaders want to persuade Beaudoin to mute his concerns about independence; others say Chretien may want to reward him for his stand last fall. A Bombardier spokesman says the company is willing to pay its share of another study, and that Beaudoin "would see it as a commercial operation. I don't think he is tying it to anything political, {although} we know it cannot be achieved without political will."
It is far from clear that the train will be built. A study last year found it would cost $13 billion, including track, cars and borrowing costs, to serve a 740-mile corridor with a population of 12 million. On the other hand, the Washington-Boston corridor, roughly 500 miles, has a population of about 43 million.
Bouchard himself acknowledged doubt after his meeting with Chretien this month, saying that the train had only been given "a green light in principle" for further study. CAPTION: An artist's rendering of high-speed train that would link Windsor, Ontario, and Quebec City, cutting travel time between Toronto and Montreal by half.
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