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Vancouver - Seattle- Portland Ultra High-Speed Rail Project and Amtrak Cascades Vancouver - Portland Update

First High-Speed Rail Study was in 1992 for the Vancouver-Seattle-Portland Corridor Since 1992, There has been studies and discussion about high-speed rail, or recently ultra-high speed transportation between Vancouver, Seattle and Portland. Let us look back at the history of this idea and an update of where we are at now. In October 1992, the Washington High Speed Ground Transportation Study was submitted to the State of Washington. It was done by Ganett Fleming Incorporated. The recommendations from that study stated, the State of Washington, Oregon and the province of British Columbia, should continue its commitment to upgrade Amtrak service and take further action on improving rail infrastructure now to build support for a high-speed rail program by adopting the following three goals. Implementation of true high-speed rail service, 250 kilometers per hour or greater between Everett and Portland by the year 2020. A maximum travel time between downtown Portland and downtown Seattle
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High Speed Rail Canada uploads Youtube short on the benefits of high-speed rail for Canadians

Benefits of High-Speed Rail for Canadians  As part of our outreach to educate Canadians on the benefits of high-speed rail, we have uploaded a video to our High Speed Rail Canada YouTube page. Click HERE to view video. 
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Martin Imbleau CEO of Via HFR is on the Right Track

  Martin Imbleau CEO of VIA HFR is on the Right Track  Martin Imbleau is the CEO of Via HFR Inc., a wholly owned Crown corporation that will report to Parliament through the Minister of Transport. He is giving interviews to the public about the challenges they face implementing faster, modern passenger rail service between Quebec and Ontario. It is refreshing to hear such straightforward, frank, open discussion on the issues facing the High-Frequency Rail project. Mr. Imbleau is quick to highlight the biggest challenge, which is, how to enter and exit the big cities quickly. He also has stated on numerous occasions that “It's not about frequency only. It's about being fast. It's about being reliable.” He even realizes the singular-focused name of the project "High Frequency Rail" needs to be changed. What a difference in Mr. Imbleau’s approach to that of the former VIA Rail CEO Yves Desjardins-Siciliano, now a Siemens employee.  During his tenure at VIA, Desjardi
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A Short History of the High-Speed Rail studies between Calgary-Edmonton, Alberta.

Edmonton - Calgary High-Speed Rail It is no secret that the Edmonton-Calgary corridor is ideally suited for high-speed rail. But 35 years after the first study was completed, nothing has happened. High-Speed Rail Canada will give you a quick history lesson on the line and the grim reality that there is no passenger rail service between Alberta’s two largest cities. It will also look at possible ideas to bring passenger rail service back between these two communities and Red Deer. From TranSyt High-Speed Monorails to Bombardier's JetTrain, Calgary-Edmonton Corridor Ideas Regular Passenger Rail Service started in 1891 Regularly scheduled passenger trains served the area between Calgary and Edmonton on the Canadian Pacific line from 1891 to 1985. In 1969, the journey time was 3 and a half hours, with 3 trains per day carrying 80,000 passengers. The service was terminated in 1985. In 1982, TranSyt proposed to build a high speed 240km/h monorail between the two cities. Unfortunately th
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All Eight Calgary - Edmonton High-Speed Rail Studies Available to the Public

The mandate of High Speed Rail Canada (HSRC) is to educate Canadians on all previous and current high-speed rail studies in Canada. Their website has been updated to include all eight previous Alberta high-speed rail studies on the possibility of a passenger rail service from Calgary to Edmonton. The public is welcome to use and download all these studies. Please credit HRSC as the source. A history video by HSRC of the Alberta studies will be released soon on the HSRC Youtube channel. Here is the LINK to all the Alberta studies page.
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Passenger Rail Advocacy in Canada: From flyers to youtube has anything really changed?

I walked into the VIA Rail station in Windsor in 1991 to protest VIA Rail Canada’s refusal to allow my girlfriend to purchase a CanRail Pass. They refused her because she was a Canadian. Ridiculous……It was my first real world experience with the dysfunctional state of passenger rail then and today in our country. Back then and today, Transport 2000, (now Transport Action Canada) were, and still are, the only national passenger rail advocacy group in Canada. I had read in the newspapers about Harry Gow, President of Transport 2000 back in 1991. His fire and brimstone passenger rail advocacy was legendary and inspired me. Moving to Guelph in 1994, I got involved with local passenger rail activists the late Mary Pappert and George Bechtel. Mary was a no nonsense person and so was George. I had no idea at the time, just how effective they were at passenger rail advocacy. If cuts were coming or money was being made available for passenger trains, they immediately went into action. Organizi
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High-Speed Rail Canada adds new Bombardier 2002 JetTrain Video

High-Speed Rail Canada has added a new video on the 2002 Bombardier JetTrain to their youtube channel. The JetTrain was proposed for different routes in the USA and Canada. Top speed was 240 km/h. Unfortunately, over 20yrs later, Edmonton and Calgary one of the proposed routes still does not have passenger trains. View the video HERE.
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