The man who couldn’t get slow-moving light rail to work properly in Ontario is now advising the Carney government on their Alto high-speed rail project.
If ever there was a sign that the Alto project is destined for disaster, it’s the decision to hire former Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster.
Verster won’t be running the project, thankfully, but, as first reported by the Toronto Star , will work on the project as a consultant.
Alto is the Liberal plan to spend between $90 billion and $150 billion to build high-speed rail between Quebec City and Toronto.
And what better way to ensure the project is a disaster than to hire the man who missed deadline after deadline while overseeing the Crosstown?
Track record of failure
Hired in 2017 at just over $500,000 a year, Verster continued collecting raises and bonuses while failing to deliver what was promised. His salary eventually topped out at $883,000 despite never delivering the Crosstown.
In April 2023, as insiders in the Ford government pushed to boost Verster’s salary to more than $1 million a year, it was revealed that part of the reason for the Crosstown delay was that tracks had been improperly laid.
When those details were first reported here by the Toronto Sun , Verster was forced to admit the mistake.
“The degree of accuracy we’re talking about is literally millimetres,” Verster said at the time.
Still, as he said at the time, even an error that small could lead to derailment.
It was Verster who was in charge of that work and Verster who oversaw fixing it, two years after the track was laid and only after the problem was exposed in the media.
Verster’s time at Metrolinx came to an end in late 2024, far too late to save taxpayers from the ridiculous delays and cost overruns, as well as his unjustified salary and expenses. It was only after he was gone that it was reported publicly that Verster had been collecting a car allowance of $13,392 per year despite not owning or leasing a car.
One of the reasons for cost overruns on various transit projects was the litigation that Verster favoured to settle disputes with contractors. Industry sources have long described Verster as someone who preferred fighting in court to finding practical solutions.
That only slowed work on various projects while also driving up costs.
Why is he anywhere near Alto?
According to the Star , Verster’s role with Alto will be to advise on understanding regional transit dynamics in the Toronto area and help integrate high-speed rail into Toronto’s existing system.
Still, given his track record with the Ontario government, it’s shocking that Verster is being allowed near the project at all. The same could have been said when the Wynne Liberals first hired him to run Metrolinx in 2017.
Verster had been a managing director at ScotRail in Glasgow from May 2015 until February 2017.
A bad penny turns up again
During his tenure with the Scottish rail company, there were problems with punctuality, reliability, overcrowded trains and a deterioration in labour relations . At one point, to deal with late trains, ScotRail solved the problem by having trains skip stations rather than stopping to pick up and drop off passengers.
“The quicker he disappears, the better,” union leader Mick Hogg said at the time of Verster’s departure.
That was the feeling of many in Ontario’s rail industry when Verster left Metrolinx nearly two years ago. The surprise isn’t that Verster wants back in the rail business. The surprise is that Ottawa looked at his record and handed him a seat at the table on a $150-billion project.