That article didn't get off to a good start. It's third paragraph had this:
"O’Brien initiated a demonstration run where he invited elected officials aboard a chartered O-Train that traveled along a rural rail line to an outlying community to the northwest of Ottawa. There are at present three possible commuter rail routes under discussion. O’Brien’s vision includes an electric light railway system for Ottawa along with a regional commuter rail system with Ottawa as its centre."
O'Brien had nothing to do with the run to the northwest and it didn't use an O-Train. O'Brien was invited but didn't show up, just as Alex Cullen did not show and just as our senior transit planning staff did not show up. An O-Train once did go to Carp, but that was long before O'Brien was mayor. I've also seen no evidence of O'Brien having a vision of a regional commuter rail system.
As for the Cornwall idea, it's not all that nuts. Where the Alexandria Subdivision heads east near Moose Creek before turning northeast near Maxville is only about 8 km from the main CPR line. At $2-3M/km (this is rural construction, after all), a cost of ~$20M could be assumed. Doing this would chop off a lot of useless curving back and forth around Alexandria. So the first part of the idea, to improve existing passenger rail service to Montreal, is quite viable, assuming that CP is agreeable.
Where things get far more troublesome is making the link from around Monkland to Cornwall. There are a couple of river crossings, marsh, farms and residences and of course the 401 to contend with. The $2-3M/km further north would be considerably higher south of Monkland. There is no old underpass of the 401 where the 401 crosses the RoW of the former Ottawa & New York, so that's out, but there is an unused former CPR underpass near the intersection of Service Rd and Boundary Rd to the northeast of Cornwall. It's another 5 km further east of Hwy 138 and is more-or-less where the author proposes the connection be made near the village of Glendale, except I think the author is suggesting to make the connection further east still where the CN RoW passes beneath the 401. Despite the difficulties, and assuming the City of Ottawa isn't put in charge of the project, it should be doable for less than $100M, so having some other revenue would be handy, which is where the freight component comes in.
The discussion on freight trends is interesting. This PANAMAX2 stuff is going to be a real game-changer when the Panama Canal widening is completed in a few years. The lack of region-wide strategic planning encompassing rail becomes obvious when reading an article like this, particularly now that CP is going to abandon the Chalk River Subdivision in the Ottawa Valley (see Monday's Citizen, Page B2).