Via Rail subsidiary paid Quebec marketing firm $330K as it pivoted to high-speed rail

A VIA Rail train is seen on tracks in Dorval, Que., as it heads out of Montreal on Friday, May 23, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi

MONTREAL — A federal Crown corporation paid more than $330,000 to an outside marketing firm to rebrand a planned passenger rail project between Toronto and Quebec City and boost its popularity.

Documents obtained by The Canadian Press detail how the corporation, concerned about “widespread disinterest” in a high-frequency rail corridor announced in 2021, decided to change its name and pivot to high-speed rail instead.

As part of that shift, the VIA Rail subsidiary hired a Quebec-based firm, Cossette Communication Inc., to develop a marketing plan that would reflect a new direction – signalled by the Crown corporation’s chief executive, Martin Imbleau – to ensure the project placed a greater emphasis on speed.

With the firm’s help, the corporation came up with a new logo and a new name – Alto – more than a year ago.

The rebranding was apparently so sensitive that the Crown corporation also chose a code name for Alto. Multiple documents, obtained using access-to-information law, refer to the new name as “Tracks.”

It would take until February 2025 for the new name to be made public, when former prime minister Justin Trudeau announced the government was awarding a contract to a consortium to design the 1,000-kilometre high-speed rail network.

If completed, the train would take passengers from Montreal to Toronto in just three hours.

The government’s initial plan for the passenger rail system, announced in July 2021, envisioned a high-frequency rail line connecting Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City. The network would have cut travel times for passengers, but the trains would be too slow to be considered high-speed.

The documents make clear that by the fall of 2023, however, the Crown corporation felt it needed to change course and scrap its original name — VIA HFR.

“The concept of ‘high frequency’ faces strong opposition. There’s widespread disinterest and dissatisfaction associated with the term, hindering any meaningful discussions and support. This resistance has become particularly challenging to navigate as the term ‘high frequency’ is directly embedded in the (corporation’s) name,” reads an undated briefing note written in late 2023 or early 2024.

It goes on to say that discussions of higher speed “are met with openness,” which would lead to “greater project support and acceptance.” It adds that the VIA HFR name should be changed early in the process, while the public’s awareness of the project is “relatively low.”

VIA HFR’s work with the marketing firm dates back to at least September 2023, when it signed a contract with Cossette to develop a “brand narrative” and a tag line for the corporation as part of the shift to high speed. The contract appears to have been extended multiple times through the end of 2024, and invoices from the marketing firm show it billed more than $330,000 between October 2023 and January 2025.

Cossette declined to comment on the contract. In a statement, the office of Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland said Alto is an arm’s-length organization responsible for its own day-to-day activities. “Minister Freeland expects that these institutions are well-managed and ensure value for taxpayer dollars,” it reads.

A presentation from the firm dating from December 2023 shows a list of “top 3” names under consideration at the time: Inter, XLR and Trax.

But none of those made the cut. An April 2024 presentation from VIA HFR shows the corporation had landed on Alto, which it said “embodies the project’s stronger focus on incorporating higher speeds and providing a higher level of service to Canadians.”

Alto also evokes “music and the train as catalysts for connection,” the presentation says, and is a “play on words with the train as an alternative way to travel.” The name also works in both official languages, it adds.

“Naming a national project of this scale goes beyond branding,” a spokesperson for Alto said in an email statement to The Canadian Press. “A strong, meaningful name anchors public support, reflects ambition, and shapes how Canadians will connect with the project for decades. It’s a sensitive process. We approached Alto’s naming with care, rigour, and a long-term vision.”

It’s not unusual for transit projects to get branding makeovers worth hundreds of thousands of dollars – nor is it uncommon for them to attract criticism. Last November, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation took issue with Saskatoon for spending $317,000 on a city bus rebrand. The city responded by saying the cost was in line with similar projects across the country.

Ultimately, Trudeau introduced the rebranding of Alto in February, when he announced that a consortium called Cadence, made up of CDPQ Infra, AtkinsRéalis, SYSTRA Canada, Keolis Canada, Air Canada and SNCF Voyageurs, had won a $3.9-billion, six-year contract to design the high-speed line.

The federal Conservatives dismissed the announcement as “yet another promise with no details that will take years and $3.9 billion on planning and bureaucracy, without laying a single piece of track.”

Ryan Katz-Rosene, an associate professor at the University of Ottawa who studies high-speed rail, said it’s “concerning” to see the Crown corporation focus on “how to maximize the marketing appeal” of the project instead of “trying to address very specific challenges in the transport sector.”

He said a big problem the high-frequency plan sought to fix was the fact that VIA Rail currently has to schedule passenger trains around freight trains sharing the same tracks. Building new, dedicated tracks would have removed a major obstacle to improved service, he said – regardless of speed.

But a high-speed rail line could cost double the price of the high-frequency option, Katz-Rosene said, and is therefore less likely to get built.

Still, the switch to high speed clearly won over some important players. In an interview after Trudeau’s announcement in February, Quebec City Mayor Bruno Marchand said he was “very happy” with the decision, and called the high-frequency project “crap.”

An internal presentation from August 2024 cites public opinion research showing that people preferred a higher-speed rail line, despite the added cost. “We must continue to shift away from the high frequency narrative to keep the public and stakeholders engaged,” it reads.

According to the documents, the corporation in September 2023 asked the three groups qualified to bid on building the project to “propose a second option without speed limitations.”

Katz-Rosene said it’s not surprising that people would choose high speed over high frequency. But a high-speed rail project will face substantial political challenges, he said, including the fact that Western Canada may balk at the idea of paying billions of dollars to build a rail corridor for Quebec and Ontario.

“I don’t think anyone has a really good handle on how much this is actually going to cost,” he said, adding that the “sticker shock” could eventually kill the project. “You just know it’s going to be a hot political issue.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 28, 2025.

Maura Forrest, The Canadian Press