The long-awaited 12.5-kilometre Lac-Mégantic rail bypass project has taken another step forward, with the railway operator officially submitting its application to the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), and moving the Quebec project into the assessment phase, closer to construction.
The projected $133-million bypass project has been a priority since the disaster in 2013, when a train carrying 72 oil tanker cars derailed in downtown Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, killing 47 people.
The new application, filed under section 98 of the Canada Transportation Act, includes environmental studies, consultation reports, and a well monitoring plan. These documents will be available online as part of the upcoming public consultation process. To help determine whether the proposed location is reasonable, the CTA will consider the needs of railway operations as well as the views of affected communities, individuals, and groups.
“We will remove the railroad tracks from downtown Lac-Mégantic,” said Minister of Transport and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Steven MacKinnon, in a statement. “The bypass project is becoming increasingly concrete now that the project’s application was officially submitted to the Canadian Transportation Agency. All the information required to assess the project and start the public consultation process is now available to the CTA. We will be ready to go as soon as the application is approved by the CTA.”
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In 2015, the City of Lac-Mégantic selected AECOM to carry out a feasibility study of the rail bypass project. Later, in November 2020, the Commission de protection du territoire agricole du Québec (CPTAQ) approved the acquisition of the agricultural lands necessary for the project and finalized a route with the least impact on agricultural lands.
The government has emphasized that the project is vital to Canadians in the Lac-Mégantic region. Work to date has included extensive environmental consultations, including a public consultation on the Environmental Effects Evaluation held between May 16 and June 30, 2025. Residents and stakeholders from Lac-Mégantic, Frontenac, and Nantes submitted eight comments on issues ranging from municipal infrastructure and environmental protection to project planning and social impacts. Transport Canada has shared the feedback with the railway operator and provided response letters to participants.
Other ongoing work includes the wetland monitoring plan, which saw wellpoints installed in wetlands near the bypass route during the summer of 2024. Data collected from these sites will provide benchmarks for detecting environmental changes during construction and allow corrective measures to be implemented if necessary. Representatives from CIMA+ are in the region in September 2025 to update the monitoring data.
Meanwhile, the Concertation and Bon Voisinage committees met in Lac-Mégantic earlier this September to review the project’s progress, discuss the consultation results, and receive an update on the CTA filing. Once the agency has completed its review and deems the application complete, a new public consultation will be launched for a minimum of 30 business days. The full application will be available on both the CTA and Transport Canada websites, as well as in municipal offices for in-person review.
Earlier in 2025, Quebec’s Court of Appeal upheld a 2022 lower court ruling that found Canadian Pacific Railway had no legal liability for the rail accident.
