nice summary of the current state of Canada's Alto high speed rail project: https://www.hsrail.org/blog/the-latest-on-alto-north-americas-third-high-speed-line/

I'm excited that they're going for the japanese model of dedicated, sealed right-of-way as opposed to the european model of shared lines (which is also what the US northeast corridor does, to the detriment of the acela service.)

I highly recommend canadian rail advocates read "dream super express: a cultural history of the world's first bullet train" by jessamyn abel because the problems haven't changed. opposition/concerns about alto are the same as the tokaido shinkansen. landowner issues, farmland divided, cities fighting each other for a station, etc.