By Ted Nickerson
On February 12 and 13, 2026, ALTO teams hosted open houses in Markham and Pickering to share their ongoing analysis, present potential routes, and gather feedback from local residents.
The presentation boards and the ALTO hosts were excellent.
I had an especially good conversation with one host regarding routing. I told her, given the choice between flying to Ottawa or taking the train, I’d take the train. But I’m not going downtown to catch it.
For clarity, I live north of Steeles Avenue. I’m not going through the hassle, the time nor expense of getting to Union Station, be it via driving, TTC, GO, or Uber. Why go to the heart of Canada’s most congested city to catch a train to Ottawa that passes within less than 20 minutes of where I live? Compound that with the fact that when I return, I’m still downtown! So much for the Last Mile transit consideration. This could be ALTO’s most costly mistake.
In general, are people prepared to travel downtown to access ALTO HSR service? In my opinion, for people in York and Durham regions, and maybe parts of Scarborough too, the answer is going to be NO. It is more efficient and cost-effective for me to travel to Toronto Pearson Airport than to Union Station, and the same applies when returning home.
I told her that ALTO needs a station in Pickering or Markham. She responded that ALTO has not determined how to get to Union Station, adding maybe ALTO would have to build a new terminal downtown east of Union Station, or even find an alternate service provider.
She had my full attention with the alternate service provider comment. A lively conversation ensured. Using ALTO’s interactive routing map, I suggested:
- Consider an ALTO station on the federal Pickering lands near Highways 7 and 407.
- Now consider this is the ALTO terminus in the Toronto region, complete with parking, administrative and ticketing offices, and a train storage and maintenance yard.
ALTO HSR does not have to get downtown.
Only some of its passengers want to get downtown.
- Extend the Ontario Line, now under construction, from its planned northern end station at Don Mills Road and Eglinton Avenue to an ALTO Pickering station.
- Create a Pickering Mega-Transit Hub: ALTO HSR, the Ontario Line, the future provincial 407Transitway with York VIVA and Durham Transit
What makes extending the Ontario Line to ALTO Pickering a better idea?
First, the Ontario Line currently ends less than 500 metres from the Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) rail corridor that traverses the federal Pickering lands. The extension would be at grade level, approximately 25 kilometres long within an existing rail Right of Way (ROW).
For ALTO, there would be no expropriations, no massive infrastructure investments within Toronto, no tunnelling, no station construction within Toronto, and Limited-to-No community stakeholder engagement sessions required. The challenge would be negotiating an access agreement with CPKC railways for use of their ROW.
Second, for potential ALTO riders, the porosity of the collection network has been maximised. You don’t have to go to Union Station to access ALTO HSR. In Toronto, any road or transit trip that connects to the Ontario Line gets you to ALTO HSR faster. For York and Durham region riders, an ALTO Pickering station can be a short quick trip.
The Ontario Line extension would have stations connecting to Toronto transit, as many as 5 I think but at least 2, with Sheppard and Finch Avenue stations.
Third, it will be faster to build. The federal government owns the land in Pickering. South of that, again, no expropriations. The politics are largely removed from the conversation. Plus, no massive infrastructure undertakings. The ROW exists as do rail overpasses and underpasses.
And last, it won’t be cheap, but it will be cheaper than extending ALTO HSR downtown to Union Station or a TBD new eastern station. The existing CPKC overpasses and underpasses may need upgrading, maybe there will be a new overpass at Highway 407, plus new station costs. North of Finch Avenue and the CPKC Toronto Yard, the existing single track will have to be replaced by new twin trackage in the current ROW, for about 9 kilometres to the proposed Pickering Mega-Transit hub.
I think the ALTO project saves big time. But it will cost Ontario taxpayers for the Ontario Line extension. An ALTO – Province cost-sharing and operations agreement should be considered.
So, the idea of an ALTO alternate service provider (extend the Ontario Line) could be the Better, Faster and Cheaper solution for accessing HSR in the Toronto region.
Could it help make the ALTO project financially viable? To be built, the ALTO HSR project must find a path to becoming an asset to the region, not a long-term liability.
References:
Alto train needs to stop downtown to be worth taking
Mark , I surely wonder why you would want anything to do with a “high speed rail” line that would cut the province in half environmentally now that Oshawa airport has extended its runway to 5000 plus ft.
All for the cost of 6 m $ which is probable the cost of one mile of rail , I would add.
Surely you would advocate for commercial scheduled airline operations from Oshawa. Nice , easy , dash 8 40 min. run to Ottawa. No? Maybe a short pickup stop in Peterborough. Still way faster than any fancy named choo-choo?.? Milk run on to Quebec City? All in way half the ALTO time.
Added bonus, commercial sked. runs get federal $$ for airports, and Oshawa ap. gets to pay down its 16M$ deficit. I think Premier Ford would like that, don’t you?
My bet OO mayor Carter has a hot seat after Fords recent calls. No regional chair for him.
I am a big fan of Oshawa Airport ( having taught there for years as a flight instructor ). I support the plan to Supersize all of the Toronto Area airports now that the feds have made it clear that they oppose building a new airport. However, we need jobs, 10s of thousands of new jobs manufacturing jobs to stop Durham’s economy from stalling. A transportation hub in Pickering is no substitute for a new airport but it is a start. Durham region needs to get in front of the train wreck that is alto and salvage what we can. Not to mention we could save $Billions in tax dollars from the cost of Alto.