The engineers have been named, but no one knows if there will be any trains on the tracks.

On January 28, VIA Rail and the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) announced that it had hired AECOM and Arup in joint venture to act as the project engineers to study the feasibility of the High Frequency Rail (HFR) project between Québec City and Toronto.

"We are pleased to have secured the expertise of these renowned firms," said project director Vernon Barker. “This is an important step of our mandate to complete the de-risking engineering and technical analysis; which are components required for a final recommendation on High Frequency Rail.”

HFR is VIA Rail's proposal to transform passenger rail service in Canada. It would separate passenger and freight rail operations along the Québec-City-to-Toronto corridor, create new trains on dedicated tracks, and establish new routes on discontinued and lower density rail infrastructure.

Currently, train traffic through the corridor is shared by passenger and freight trains. As a result, VIA’s trains’ schedules and frequencies are entirely dependent on the access granted to the passenger rail operator by the infrastructure owners.

Dedicated tracks would allow VIA Rail to control its own frequencies, speeds and traffic priorities. It could allow trains to travel at speeds of up to 177 kilometres per hour, which would reduce travel times from Ottawa to Toronto by about a quarter—to as low as three hours and 15 minutes.

The Government of Canada sees potential for the greatest improvement in rail transport along this corridor. About 72 percent of VIA’s passengers travelled through the corridor in 2018. That volume accounted for two-thirds of VIA’s revenues.

As the owner's engineers, AECOM and Arup will support the VIA Rail-CIB Joint Project Office with all technical and engineering matters. The firms will provide general technical and engineering support, and specific planning and engineering activities. They will also help obtain an environmental assessment and undertake site investigation studies.

In 2019, the federal government and the Canada Infrastructure Bank committed a combined $71 million in funding to explore VIA Rail's HFR proposal.