[Acajack]

The first stage when you build these things is to go where the people are. The vast majority of the population between Toronto and Montreal is in the Ottawa area (more than 1 million), so it is unlikely that it would be bypassed in the first stage. More likely that the route would first be Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal to take maximum advantage of the most potential ridership in the corridor. A subsequent project, once ridership was well-established, would then be to build a bypass of the Ottawa area along the St. Lawrence River to allow some trains to go directly between Toronto and Montreal without stopping in Ottawa.

If you look at European high speed rail lines, many of them are not in straight lines between major cities and do have detours in order to serve second-tier cities: Milan-Rome via Bologna, Madrid-Barcelona via Zaragoza, etc.

Regarding people being miffed at the train taking 30 minutes longer because of the Ottawa connection, don’t forget that people won’t be choosing the train (or not) based on how fast it *could* be without the Ottawa stop, but rather on how fast it is compared to other modes.