MONTREAL — A VIA Rail Canada subsidiary paid more than Ca$330,000 to a marketing firm to rebrand itself as part of the effort to shift its high-frequency rail project to high speed rail after discovering little support for the original concept, the Canadian Press reports.
Documents obtained by the news service show that the VIA HFR, the spinoff involved in the plan for a passenger-only route between Toronto and Quebec City, was concerned about “widespread disinterest” in the high-frequency concept. It then hired Quebec-based Cossette Communications to come up with a marketing plan reflecting a greater emphasis on speed.
The result was VIA HFR’s rebranding as “Alto,” a name and logo developed more than a year ago but not announced until February, when then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced government funding for development of high speed service on the Toronto-Montreal-Quebec City route [see “Canadian government announces plans …,” News Wire, Feb. 19, 2025]. That announcement was preceded by reports that the government was considering a shift from a high-frequency project to a high speed line [see “Canada’s High Frequency Rail could become …,” News Wire, Oct. 9, 2024].
Internal documents obtained by the Canadian Press under access-to-information laws show that VIA HFR found “strong opposition” to the high frequency concept, which it found “challenging to navigate” since the term was in the name of the Crown corporation. That spurred the move to a high speed concept — and the work with the marketing firm, which billed VIA HFR more than Ca$330,000 (U.S. $238,800) between September 2023 and January 2025.
Post-election, do we have any idea how much enthusiasm Prime Minister Carney and his current cabinet have for this project – or VIA in general, for that matter?
Did I just read an article about branding and marketing?
Historical evidence (what little of it there is) shows which of these options is more inclined to deliver results and which is little more than political buzzwords, so… it sounds to me like the actual project took a step backward regardless what “the study” says.