Tuesday, March 17, 2026
By Ana-Maria Tomlinson
Fifty years ago, Canada was recognized as a global leader in public transit design and delivery. The country’s early rail and streetcar systems set a model for reliability, safety, and innovation. Cities like Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, and Vancouver developed networks that shaped how Canadians moved, connected, and built communities.
Over time, however, as other countries in Asia and Europe expanded high-speed networks and built seamless regional transit systems, Canada’s progress slowed. Investment lagged, technical expertise waned, and our ability to deliver complex rail infrastructure on time and on budget declined.
Canada now has the opportunity to change course.
A once-in-a-generation investment
Canada is undergoing a significant transit expansion. Urban rail systems across the country are growing by over 40 per cent, with 250 kilometres of new track and 206 new stations planned or under construction. Projects like the Alto High-Speed Rail corridor are advancing, and several medium-sized cities are planning new commuter and intercity lines.
This is the largest wave of rail construction in generations—a transformation intended to improve mobility, reduce congestion, and drive economic growth across major urban centres. It also represents a generational shift in how Canadians access opportunity.
But ambition alone is not enough. Despite unprecedented investment, many Canadian transit projects continue to face missed deadlines, high costs, and public skepticism. These challenges threaten to undermine confidence in the systems themselves and in the responsible use of public funds.
Why projects struggle
The causes of these challenges are not new, but they have become more pressing as projects have grown in size and complexity. Rail infrastructure projects require expertise from a multitude of engineering, technical, and social disciplines, crossing civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering, safety and risk management, urban planning and design, architecture and accessibility, and more.
Canada’s transit and passenger rail sector currently operates without a unified national framework to guide how systems are designed, built, and tested. Instead, each project tends to create its own technical roadmap, often combining a patchwork of international standards, custom engineering solutions, and varied interpretations of safety and performance requirements.
This lack of cohesion creates cascading challenges:
Unclear technical direction: Procurement and design teams lack consistent guidance on which standards are appropriate for use in Canada.
Costly custom approaches: Projects frequently rely on bespoke technical solutions that are time-consuming and expensive to develop.
Integration issues: Combining different standards from multiple countries or jurisdictions often leads to compatibility problems and delays.
Siloed management: Without a systems-level framework, design, construction, and commissioning activities are often fragmented by discipline.
Together, these issues have resulted in delays, rework, cost overruns, and eroded public trust, despite the best efforts of engineers, contractors, and agencies.
A gap in technical expertise
Beyond the absence of a unified framework, Canada faces another critical challenge: a shortage of domestic rail expertise.
For decades, few Canadian universities or colleges have offered courses in rail systems engineering, operations, or maintenance. Many projects rely on international expertise, which, while valuable, can increase costs and create inconsistencies when foreign standards are applied without adaptation to local contexts.
To sustain the country’s growing investment in transit infrastructure, Canada needs a stronger technical foundation, including clearer guidance, dedicated training programs, and pathways for professional certification.
A new framework for Canadian transit
With all of this in mind, CSA Group has identified an urgent need to develop a National Code for Transit and Pass†enger Railway Systems—the first of its kind in the country. This new Code will help safeguard the $250 billion in current and planned investments by providing a cohesive, Canadian-made framework for how transit and passenger rail systems are designed, constructed, and commissioned.
Development of the Code is scheduled to begin in April 2026. The goal is not to replace existing standards but to connect and contextualize them, offering clear, consistent guidance that reduces confusion, differences in interpretation, and duplication. Where appropriate, the Code will reference existing national or international standards that are proven and suitable for Canadian use.
To reflect the diversity of rail systems being developed across the country, the Code is expected to be structured into three main parts:
Light and urban rail: Systems such as streetcars, trams, and light rail transit operating within dense urban environments.
Heavy and intercity/commuter rail: Longer-distance systems connecting suburban or regional communities to city centres.
High-speed rail: Dedicated high-velocity passenger networks like the Alto project, designed for rapid intercity travel.
Each part will address common technical areas, including infrastructure, rolling stock, energy, noise and vibrations, safety and security, signaling and communications, accessibility, and operations and traffic management.
By aligning Canada’s rail development around a shared set of principles and requirements, the Code could help streamline project delivery, enhance safety, and improve public confidence in how infrastructure dollars are spent.
A pathway for skills and certification
Perhaps equally important, a unified technical framework can help drive education and workforce development.
By defining clear, consistent expectations for design, construction, and operations, the Code can serve as a foundation for university curricula, professional training, and certification programs. This will help develop a new generation of Canadian rail professionals with the skills to plan, deliver, and maintain modern transit systems.
In time, the Code could serve not only as a tool for project delivery, but as a catalyst for rebuilding domestic expertise, supporting a sustainable, skilled workforce capable of maintaining Canada’s long-term transit ambitions.
CSA Group’s broader role in infrastructure standards
The development of the National Rail Code builds on CSA Group’s long-standing work in infrastructure and mobility standards that support safety, performance, and sustainability across sectors.
CSA Group has published more than a hundred standards that directly or indirectly shape Canada’s built environment—from bridges, roads, and energy systems to the electrification of vehicles and charging networks. These initiatives include standards supporting climate-resilient infrastructure, urban energy systems, accessibility, and decarbonized transportation.
This experience provides a strong foundation for the rail sector. CSA Group’s work emphasizes collaboration across government, industry, academia, and civil society—an approach that helps standards be both technically sound and socially relevant.
By convening experts from across disciplines, CSA Group helps translate complex technical concepts into practical frameworks that drive safer, more efficient, and more sustainable outcomes. The same collaborative spirit will underpin the development of the Code, ensuring it reflects not just engineering excellence, but also environmental, social, and economic priorities.
Collaboration across the sector
The Code will be developed in collaboration with experts from across Canada’s transit and passenger rail ecosystem. CSA Group has already established a Strategic Working Group of technical and policy leaders representing governments, transit agencies, engineering firms, and private industry—all of whom have been contributing to shaping the vision and structure of the Rail Code.
This collaborative model will help the Code reflect the full complexity of Canada’s rail landscape, froΩm procurement and design to safety, accessibility, and operations. The process will also draw on insights from international partners while keeping the resulting framework aligned with Canada’s specific context.
CSA Group will also publish research and policy reports exploring international best practices, identifying standards gaps, and recommending strategies to strengthen the technical foundation of the rail sector. These reports will support both the Code’s development and broader conversations about workforce capacity and regulatory alignment.
From ambition to action
Canada is now a leader in transit investment. The next step is to become a leader once again in transit delivery.
A cohesive National Rail Code will provide the clarity, consistency, and coordination that Canada’s passenger rail sector urgently needs. It will help every dollar invested translate into safer, more reliable, and more efficient systems that connect Canadians to opportunity.
Canada’s renewed focus on transit represents a historic opportunity, but one that must be matched by technical excellence, thoughtful design, and national coordination. With the right frameworks, expertise, and collaboration in place, Canada can reclaim its leadership role in rail innovation and create a transit network that truly moves the country forward.
Ana-Marie Tomlinson is the Director of Strategic and Cross-Sector Initiatives with CSA Group.
[This article appeared in the March/April 2026 issue of ReNew Canada.]
Featured image: (Getty Images)
