The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that the Crown corporation Alto is managing the high-speed rail project between Quebec City and Toronto. The Globe's triple-bylined item led by guest columnist Jacques Roy reports that Alto pegs the cost at $60-billion to $90-billion for the 1,000-kilometre route. The Parliamentary Budget Officer estimates the construction to cost between $75-billion and $113-billion. The Alto and PBO forecasts are optimistic given the recent cost overruns of the Californian and British high-speed rail projects. Via Rail's current record for on-time performance is unacceptable. However, there is another solution --conventional trains on existing rail rights-of-way: the high-frequency rail. Alto opposes the high-frequency rail, claiming that it would cost nearly as much as the high-speed rail -- between $45-billion and $75-billion -- without citing any supporting studies. The high-frequency rail project proposed by Via Rail was projected to cost $12-billion in 2021. Alto assumes the high-frequency rail must travel at 200 kilometres an hour, which requires rebuilding the entire infrastructure to avoid railroad crossings. This was not part of the original high-frequency rail plan.