One of the key pieces to European success with their HSR is that there also exists strong intra-city public transportation which becomes an extension to the intercity HSR. The stations also arrive in areas of the city that allow either easy access to city public transit, or you come out into the city core. Toronto and Montreal have this covered, I'm not familiar enough about where the station is in QC. But Ottawa? Horrible transit system that only seams to get worse instead of better while adding new capabilities like the O-train. At least they had the forethought to run the O-train to the station. But dollars to donuts the HSP station will be somewhere inconvenient and not served by transit.
And for a lot of the Via stations along the Ottawa-Toronto corridor? My memory for most are that they are away from the city centres, but it has been awhile since I took that route.
