Train talk but Quickly - It's High Speed!

The High Speed Rail initiative is making its way around the community, the news and the internet. I have done some research and found that this could have an impact on our community or not and the ultimate answer whether it does won't be known for about a year. 

Resources to look at:

Alto Website: https://www.altotrain.ca/en

Alto Map Resource: https://en.consultation.altotrain.ca/reinventing-travel-between-toronto-and-quebec-city

Indepdent Website:

https://altohsrcitizenresearch.ca/

A link to a summary of all the studies done on high speed trains: https://www.highspeedrailcanada.com/p/all-canadian-hsr-studies.html

One big question to ask is how it would affect the Richmond Estates Neighbourhood if it were moved beside the VIA tracks and how wide would it be?

A recent interview I watched of the Alto staff at the Peterborough town hall indicated the area required for the track would have to be 40-60 m wide.
The entire estates neighbourhood has a 15m city owned piece of land between the privately owned land and the track meaning if the train were to go along side the existing via track an additional 25 - 45 m strip of land would be required. This would undoubtedly affect (remove) all the homes adjacent to the tracks. 

In my research I also found a document that indicates there is an optimized route which will cost less and go faster that will run further south of Ottawa than where we are.

Here is a link to the resource: https://www.highspeedrailcanada.com/2026/01/michael-schabas-releases-high-speed.html

See figure 4-4 on page 36 for a better look where the existign Via line is compared to the Optimized Alignment  

If you have other resource to share on this project please let me know and I will share them here.

Whatever your position is regarding this project rest assured you can find a platform to voice it by doing some research on the internet or social media. 

This project is years away and by my best guess it will not involve an expansion of the Via line but rather will run south of the City of Ottawa. 

New Neighborhood Entry to McBean

Richmond is expanding rapidly in the Fox Run area. In the near future it will expand further at the South West corner of Ottawa St and Eagleson Road. Some may have noticed a new road entry was installed between the Mini Storage and Commercial building just outside of Richmond Estates. Looking into this futher that is intenteded to be 'Road 15' and serve as a major roadway accessing this new neighborhood which may have transit/bus entry as well. See the design here: https://webcast.ottawa.ca/plan/All_Image%20Referencing_Subdivision_Image%20Reference_2025-10-20%20-%20Geometric%20Road%20Design%20Drawing%20Draft%20-%20D07-16-20-0028.PDF

And see further information about the development here:

https://devapps.ottawa.ca/en/applications/D07-16-20-0028/details

More About the Jock River - Richmond Catchment

In 2016 the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority did a large series of studies, one of the Marlborough Creek that runs through the Estates. 

For more great and interesting information take a look at the study available here:

 https://watersheds.rvca.ca/subwatersheds/jock-river/catchment-reports-jock-river/786-jock-river/catchments/jock-river-richmond