A sleek new high-speed rail line stretching from Quebec City to Toronto will transform Canada’s economy, better connect bustling cities and attract billions in investment and development.

That’s the elevator pitch for the federal government’s multibillion-dollar Alto project that promises to reinvent Canada’s transportation network and erase our distinction as the only G7 country without high-speed rail.

But opponents warn that it’s a too costly bet that will offer sparse improvements over the existing rail system, and pave over prime agricultural land and other ecologically sensitive areas.

Eastern Ontario has emerged as ground zero for the fight over Alto, pitting urban mayors enticed by the benefits of a new station against their rural neighbours, who worry about the disruptions caused by a bustling rail line that will glide through their communities.

That was nowhere more evident than Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon’s announcement on Monday morning in Kingston.

It was supposed to be a triumphant moment for the city, with MacKinnon announcing that he had ordered the Crown corporation responsible for the project — also known as Alto — to consider a new route that included a stop in Kingston.

He acknowledged this could potentially slow down the train, but said it would be offset by offering easier connections for the hundreds of thousands of residents that call the Kingston region home.

Instead of a hero’s welcome, MacKinnon was greeted by protesters, who called on him to cancel the project that the Liberal government has already earmarked as a “transformative strategy” as part of the push to build major projects.

Phillip Lawrence, a Conservative MP who represents a nearby riding, said he’s not surprised by the reception that greeted MacKinnon.

“We never got more emails, I’ve never got more calls, I’ve never been stopped on the street than by folks who are concerned about this project,” he said in an interview on Tuesday.

Lawrence separated opposition to Alto in his riding of Northumberland-Clarke into three camps: Those with land near the route, those concerned about the noise and disruptions, and others who dislike the economics underlying the project.

As for support, he said there’s not much to be had. The riding already has Via Rail service in Port Hope and Cobourg and some access to GO Transit, but isn’t slated for a stop on the Alto line — at least currently. The closest stop would be in Peterborough, which is around 45 minutes away.

“The challenge is that the way the project is structured right now, I don’t see a realistic commuter alternative for many of the folks,” Lawrence said.

Kingston Mayor Bryan Patterson lies on the other side of the debate.

He’s been rallying residents to lobby the government and Alto to include a stop in the city after it was left out of the initial study route.

While MacKinnon has directed Alto to consider a possible Kingston stop, it’s not a done deal.

Adding Kingston will increase travel time and would require some revisions to maintain the needed straight path for the line.

Alto has said high-speed service will cut travel times between Toronto and Montreal, and Ottawa and Toronto by over two hours, not to mention drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions by replacing air travel and car trips.

But for Patterson, it’s an essential change — a high-speed rail line without a stop in the largest metro area between Ottawa and Toronto just doesn’t make sense, he argued.

“We’re a regional centre, we have a number of national institutions,” he explained.

“It’s both for people in Kingston to be able to get to where they need to go, but also for people around the region to be able to get to Kingston.”

Alto’s route for the roughly 1,000 kilometre is far from set in stone. The Crown corporation presented a corridor to guide the public consultations it hosted from the fall to spring.

The corridor pitched by Alto was roughly 10 kilometres wide and mostly followed the trajectory of the current Via Rail service from Quebec City to Montreal.

Once it leaves Quebec, the route moves a bit north from the current Via alignment before stopping in Ottawa.

That’s when things really shift. Instead of following Via’s route by heading south to Brockville and running alongside Highway 401, the Alto corridor moves west to Lanark then Peterborough before eventually turning south to Toronto.

This new alignment has turned heads in the region. There are concerns about properties that will need to be expropriated and fears that a rail line will slice through communities, blocking off neighbours and turning roads into dead ends.

The Eastern Ontario Warden’s Caucus has come out against the plan in its current form, urging Alto to reconsider the route to limit the impacts on the region.

Bonnie Clark, chair of the caucus and warden for Peterborough County, said in an interview on Tuesday that Alto could salvage the project by moving the route south closer to the 401 or building on viaducts to limit interference with roads and other infrastructure.

If no changes are made, she said the impacts could be severe. Under the current route, all emergency services in Clark’s township of Otonabee-South Monaghan will fall on one side of the rail line.

“I think that the biggest concern of rural Ontario is the fact that you’re going through us, but what economic advantages are there?” she asked.

The broader benefits of the project have been studied and analyzed.

A report from the C.D. Howe Institute said it would spur the construction of 63,000 additional housing units, drive up land values near stations and support transit-oriented development.

But it’s unclear what it will mean for the communities the train drives on through at speeds of 320 kilometres per hour without stopping.

Alto has promised to have as limited of an impact as possible on rural communities, noting the right-of-way for the rail line will just be 60 metres wide.

It also vowed to prioritize negotiating sales for land at fair value as opposed to expropriation and to replace any lost road access for agriculture operations.

Peter Paz, Alto’s senior director of public and government relations, said the Crown corporation deliberately hosted half of the town halls in rural communities to better understand their specific concerns, though acknowledged that it wasn’t always possible to provide answers at this early stage in the process.

“We need to work with the local municipalities. We need to work with the road authorities to determine the right decisions to make in terms of access around grade separations and so on,” he said in an interview on Tuesday.

“But I think the challenge is we consulted so early that we don’t have the answers that everyone’s looking for, because we don’t have an alignment yet. Once you have a more refined alignment, it allows us to identify which municipalities will be impacted, what roads need to be analyzed, and how we can go about ensuring access for residents for emergency services.”

Paz said he understands why there’s support for moving the proposed study corridor further south near Highway 401, but that comes with its own set of challenges. It’s a densely populated stretch of the province, many sections of the corridor are owned by rail freight companies and perhaps most importantly, the highway has many bends and curves that aren’t suitable for high-speed rail, he explained.

“The 401 proposal is an interesting one, and certainly one that we continue to look at, but there are a lot of challenges with following the 401 in its entirety,” he said.

“It’s a very curvy highway, and the curves are designed for speeds of 100 to 120 kilometres an hour. Where [with] high-speed rail, curves have to account for 300 plus kilometres an hour. Straight lines are really important — you have to minimize curves, because curves are where you lose flexibility of following property lines.”

As for the rural impact, Clark said Alto has promised a specific economic study, but that it won’t be available until the route is finalized.

Even without that guidance, she said Ottawa needs to reflect on whether a project like a new high-speed rail service will offer more economic benefits than other less disruptive options, such as upgrading the Great Lakes ports to create a water highway that would take around 1,500 tractor trailers off the 401.

“The water highway is cheaper, certainly more economical, and more carbon friendly. So, are we investing in the right project?”

The government’s estimated price tag for the Alto project falls from $60 to $90 billion. Construction on the first leg from Ottawa to Montreal is expected to start in 2029.

Kristin Muller, the co-founder of thr AltNO website, which has emerged as the predominant opposition to the rail line, said the rural versus urban divide over the rail line is an oversimplification, with even city dwellers concerned about the project’s price tag and impact on conservation spaces.

“We’ve been talking to people from the beginning, even from urban areas that are upset about the implications of this project. It’s the wildlife concerns, it’s the money concerns. There’s a whole bunch of reasons that people are upset about this,” she said, accusing the media of dismissing the opposition as a “farmer’s protest.”

“I mean, certainly the rural communities have the least to gain from this and have the most to lose, so maybe they’re a little bit more vocal about it.”

Paul Langan, the co-founder of High-Speed Rail Canada, said these concerns are hardly new and have been used against every high-speed project, included Ontario’s most recent plan, which was axed by Premier Doug Ford in 2018.

He credited Ottawa for making changes to simplify the expropriation process and Alto for its “very thorough consultations,” but said ultimately it will come down to a matter of “willpower” on the part of the government to push the project forward.

Mayor Patterson said he’s “very attuned… and empathetic” to concerns over the project from rural communities, noting the city of Kingston includes large swaths of farmland.

That’s why he thinks the best option to quell opposition is to avoid creating an entirely new path and move the corridor south to as close to the 401 as feasible.

“We’re not saying that the line would have to run right along the 401 again as it has a lot of curves and twists. We know that doesn’t work for high-speed rail,” he said.

“But we think that there’s a corridor in or around the 401 where that line could be that… would significantly reduce any impacts that people are understandably concerned about.”