Coast to Coast: Exploring the Progress of Rail Projects Throughout Canada in 2023

As we bid farewell to 2023, join us for a comprehensive update on the progress of rail projects spanning coast to coast in Canada. From the bustling cityscapes of Quebec to the scenic landscapes of Vancouver, this video delves into the milestones and developments that shaped the Canadian rail landscape this year. 2023 has been quite a year for all Canadian Rail Fans, and there is a lot more to expect in 2024! Make sure to subscribe to Rail Fans Canada so you do not miss our future content!
Once again, we want to acknowledge and thank all those that contributed photos and footage for this video. We couldn't have done it without your participation!
Video by David Bellerive (@DBellerive15)
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Timestamps / Chapters
00:00 Opening
00:24 Quebec City Tramway (Quebec)
01:27 Reseau Express Metropolitain (Montreal)
02:37 Blue Line Extension (Montreal)
03:15 O-Train Stage 2 (Ottawa)
05:19 Scarborough Subway Extension (GTA)
06:00 Yonge North Subway Extension (GTA)
06:28 Ontario Line (GTA)
07:28 Eglinton Crosstown (GTA)
07:49 Crosstown West (GTA)
08:35 Finch West LRT (GTA)
09:20 Hurontario LRT (GTA)
10:08 Hamilton LRT (GTA)
11:00 GO Expansion (GTA)
11:44 High Frequency Rail
12:20 Valley Line (Edmonton)
13:13 Metro Line Extension (Edmonton)
13:52 Capital Line South (Edmonton)
14:30 Green Line (Calgary)
15:09 Broadway Subway Project (Vancouver)
15:49 UBC Extension (Vancouver)
16:11 Surrey Langley Skytrain (Vancouver)
16:54 Closing Words Twitter (X): / railfanscanada
Instagram: www.instagram.railfans.ca

[@bink023]

Excellent wrap on 2023 . I honestly hope this is the last yearly review that involves Toronto's Line 5 lol... thank you for the content, some exciting times in transit coming!

[@RailFansCanada]

Glad you enjoyed this video! The progress throughout Canada in the past year has been quite impressive, we really hope the trend continues and we’ll see new projects become active in the near future! We also hope it is the last time for it and a variety of other projects! Some that I am quite confident about: Finch West LRT At least 1 of the Stage 2 extensions in Ottawa (South, maybe East depending on testing?…) REM to Anse a l’Orme and Deux-Montagnes Metro Line North Phase 1 (it would be crazy if not!) -David

[@jiecut]

You mean hopefully next year will be the last yearly review, when they look back at the successful launch of Line 5 Eglinton :)

[@vinnylaw]

what a great summary my dude - really enjoyed it with so much going on! we're trending in the right direction

[@shawnn5908]

Excellent review. Great to see so much happening

[@RailFansCanada]

Glad you enjoyed it! Even looking back to last year really shows how much has happened across all projects! -David

[@shawnn5908]

Just discovered your channel. Love it! Big transit nerd from Vancouver. Three blocks from the future Mount Pleasant station of the Broadway extension. Keep up the great videos

[@ALuimes]

I took those pics at 1:32 and 1:50. Cool seeing my content on a vid...

[@RailFansCanada]

Hey Andrew, unless you are talking about other images, the footage at 1:32 was taken by Shane at the REM opening ceremony (which we attended as part of the medias), while the footage at 1:50 is from a webcam installed by CDPQ Infra / NouvLR at the branching of tracks between the Anse a l’Orme Branch and Deux-Montagnes branch. Footage not attributed in the video was taken either by Shane and I on various opportunities. If you have any footage that was used in this video and has not been cleared, it never was our intention. Please email us so we can sort this out! [e-mail] -David

[@ALuimes]

@@RailFansCanada Oops, I meant 9:32 and 9:50.

[@RailFansCanada]

AH! Makes more sense! Both pictures were CC0 on Wikimedia Commons, however if you prefer to have attribution, we have no issues adding a disclaimer in the comments!

[@ALuimes]

@@RailFansCanada Nope, don't need it. I'm happy taking pictures for posterity!

[@vita_travel888]

Cool video! In Metro Vancouver, there’s one project that you haven’t covered: a new station’s construction on Canada line. Its completion is expected in 2024.

[@RailFansCanada]

Capstan station! Completely forgot about it! It could be worth a video of its own at some point! -David

[@krushingkobra]

Great video! I’m so glad you didn’t mention anything about East REM / PSE, I don’t think my heart could take it!

[@RailFansCanada]

Glad you enjoyed the video! We try to avoid projects in an eternal planning phase, but we have to admit it does hurt to see how little progress has been made on this file. It really feels like a back and forth of finding excuses... -David

[@stickynorth]

In the rumor mill and still percolating around the Alberta political system are the Banff-Calgary-Calgary Airport hydrogen rail project and an Edmonton Central-Edmonton Airport commuter rail probably using the same technology, i.e. Alstom Coradia hydrogen MU's since CP owns the ROW's and is "all in" in hydrogen as a carbon-free power source to move its trains around and would need their support and cooperation to get it done... PrairieLink also hasn't announced anything one way or another so I don't know if they are still slowly assembling the land privately for a ROW or its just dormant since it's been pitched as a turn-key 400 km/h HSR line designed, built and I think even operated by a consortium of companies including Ellis Don construction...

[@TheRandCrews]

Interesting they’ll do a new high speed line, though whay would the stations be when there’s like no current stations right now best for like 3 cities functioning. Probably outskirts for Red Deer, maybe platforms underneath Calgary tower, there’s the train tracks thay the streetcar uses that crosses the bridge that is right in front of the Legislature with a connection to the LRT underneath that? Interesting they’ll be using hydrogen trains for that proposed commuter lines for both cities and airports. Why Alstom Coradia Hydrogen sets? Train de Charlevoix has a the smaller version similar to the diesel train of the Ottawa O-Train, but why not like Stadler FLIRT that LA’s Arrow service has

[@LoneHowler]

​​@@TheRandCrewsI asked why they were going hydrogen on the official KZbin Channel Friends of CABR. They said that the old station in downtown Calgary just doesn't have the overhead capacity for electrification

[@jfmezei]

Just walked on Ste Catherine at Mc Gill College. If it is 85% complete, REM folks sure are taking their time cleaning up the site that is still dug up, and they still need "storage" for their stuff between cathcart and Ste-Cathine (the digging was between Ste Catherine and de Maisonneuve). Will be interesting to see how much delays will happen from the time they start testing. Since they have a running system, I would assume many of the bugs will have been worked out or prevented on their pet project. Hopefully west island opening is delayed a lot so we can keep our express buses. The work on west island this past summer was interesting. they went from northing at the Kirkland station to having the station structure built up. (and work site signage still use "St-Anne de Bellevue" for the terminus station. (Anse a l,Orme is a road that is nowhere near it, and the station itself may be within SAdB city limits, but is in middle of nowhere and buses not allowed to go from station to the actual village of Ste Anne. (narrow road). The impression I have is that flow of cash was reduced which resulted in slowed progress. They did put a lot of wiring inside the overhead structure (there are manhole covers on underside of the elevated structure and saw scaffolding/stairs to let humans go inside the structure and saw lots of wires go up pylons to the inside of structure. ) Curious to see if the west island terminal station with get a visible hydro feed and power station.

[@fernbedek6302]

The race between Hamilton and Quebec City seems to have Hamilton starting to take the lead. Exciting.

[@RailFansCanada]

Ironically, not a race I expected to see. In my mind, Quebec City was a sure thing since 2021, but Legault thinks differently of course. We will follow what happens in 2024, but I hope that both projects really pick up steam! Both cities deserve proper transit. -David

[@Vajamjam]

Any hope for Cambridge ION or Gatineau LRT?

[@RailFansCanada]

Cambridge ION is further ahead in terms of progress: the necessary environmental approvals have been obtained and while there are still some discussion about the location of southerm terminus, construction could technically proceed once funding is available. As of right now, there is no actual commitment or timeline for this to happen, as such the project is somewhat dormant. In Gatineau, the studies for the project have been completed and published, but environmental assesment has not yet been started. Funding commitments were made by both the Federal and Provincial Government earlier this year, as such any decision to move forward depends on the city finalizing the required studies / assessments, as well as the launch of a procurement process. Given the project is not "ready to go" as-is, I did not include it in this video (unlike Quebec City that, for example, had the RFP ongoing). I would really hope that in 2024 both projects have opportunities to advance forward and concretize themselves! -David

[@es3359]

Nice update! I’m curious, though - no upgrades on the future REM phases?

[@RailFansCanada]

Any specific phase? Of the three remaining branches, two are expected by the end of 2024 (Anse-a-l’Orme and Deux-Montagnes), with the airport branch due 2027. Other than those three, there is no currently planned expansion of the REM network. There was the REM de l’est proposal, but this was ultimately dropped by CDPQ and instead turned over to the ARTM as an entirely different project. -David

[@ky8040]

no rail services from Calgary to Regina to Winnipeg?

[@drewpatterson8261]

Such a shame that EXO in Montreal and West Coast Express in Vancouver are not getting similar attention as GO in Toronto. Having the Skytrain extend all the way to Langley is ridiculous. Distances that long should be covered by commuter rail, not by a LRT/metro line.

[@erickpalacios8904]

How are people in Langley city supposed to catch the WCE when it's way up north away from all the density? It makes a lot of sense extending Skytrain down Fraser Hwy if you ask me. The amount of development on the Surrey side that'll be coming on that stretch will be crazy over the next 10+ years.

[@sauvanto9316]

Any plans to add these projects to the RailFans system map? Seems like about half are missing

[@RailFansCanada]

There is a backlog in regards of updating the map as our main contributor has other commitments that take priority over it. In some cases, the issue is that the alignment is not provided in a usable format, which makes additional entries time-consuming. The dataset relies heavily on open-data from governments / municipalities , user contributions and OpenStreetMap, though we much prefer to rely on the former two whenever possible. We hope to update the map as soon as possible with new datasets. -David

[@iamzuckerburger]

I want 1 million new stations by 2025.

[@nathandavidowicz3721]

Both rail projects in Metro Vancouver are behind schedule. Broadway Subway unlikely to be open in 2026 maybe 2027, SLS has not even started and again unlikely to be done by end of 2028.

[@RailFansCanada]

Yes, we heard murmurs on the topic, however we use the most recent deadline provided by the Transit Authorities / Constructors to avoid confusion! We’ve done the same for all projects featured in this video to also be consistent. The only ones without a date that we “inserted” one was Eglinton Crosstown, somewhat as wishful thinking! 🤪 -David

[@edwardmiessner6502]

30,000 passengers a day on Stage I of the REM... that's an excellent number for a short line with only six stations! 1:30 EDIT: 8:55 🙄 Another transit agrncy has plagiarized Boston's MBTA 'T' logo. The first was the Minneapolis Saint Paul Metro.

[@jfmezei]

You forgot to mention Canada's only true high speed train, the Polar Express which links Chicago to the North Pole in less than the length of a movie 🙂 (or perhaps this is all fake becaus ethe North Pole looks a lot like the original Pullman rail car plant in Chicago and perhaps the train only travelled from Chicago to Chicago 🙂