Alberta Needs Inter-City Passenger Trains Yesterday

Dayliner No9022 at Lethbridge railway station July 17 1971 - Lethbridge is Alberta's 4th largest city and may not see passenger rail return for 60 more years according to the Rail Master Plan. Photo courtesy of the Galt Museum and Archives

It is no secret that the lack of any inter-city passenger rail in Alberta is a provincial embarrassment. Now the provincial government has released the Alberta's Passenger Rail Master Plan Executive Summary. It is looking at a passenger rail plan or the next 30-60 years. 

Since 2004, I have advocated for getting  passenger rail between Calgary and Edmonton. At that time I had made presentations in province, when their was a high-speed rail study done and during the attempt by Bombardier to sell their JetTrain in the province.

The Bombardier JetTrain, Calgary, Alberta 2003 - photo by Julian Lengauer

The Failed 2004 Edmonton- Calgary High Speed Rail Attempt

In 2003, the Alberta government was studying the concept again of high-speed rail between Calgary and Edmonton. At the same time Bombardier Transportation had built their full scale JetTrain and was trying to sell it in Canada and USA. The JetTrain stopped in Calgary in 2003 for the public to view it.

The JetTrain would run on an existing track. It had a turbine engine capable of speeds of 240km per hour. In October 2004, the Vanhorne Institute released a study about High-Speed Rail in the Edmonton-Calgary Corridor.  The study concluded that high speed rail would bring significant benefits to the Calgary-Edmonton corridor and Alberta as a whole. Depending on the route/technology alternative selected, the project is estimated to generate between $3.7 billion and $6.1 billion in quantifiable benefits, It would offer a travel time of two hours or less required by prospective riders. The two options presented were:

• upgrade the existing CPR line to permit mixed freight and high speed passenger rail service based on JetTrain technology, or 
• constructing a largely new or Greenfield line dedicated to high speed rail service with shared access via the CPR corridor into both cities that uses either JetTrain technology or 300 km per hour electrified TGV type trains.

Like previous and studies that followed nothing has happened to restore inter-city passenger rail service in Alberta.

Will It Be Any Different This Time Around

 According to the Master Rail Plan Study, "Albertans want passenger rail as soon as possible." Unfortunately this plan and its 30 and 60 year time frames show no clear evidence that any inter-city passenger rail service will occur. Just where will the money come from? Why not release the full study to the public, with full costing and timeline? At best, a line from Calgary downtown to the airport may be the only goal achieved.

Danielle Smith & Politics

Now is a time when nation building projects across Canada are being submitted for approval. Premier Danielle Smith, whose abrasive leadership style, and myopic pipeline focus, does little to help get federal money for provincial inter-city passenger rail. It seems even her rail-fan husband David has no influence over her.

The reality is,  this is just another executive summary of a rail study in the growing list of studies in Alberta. Seeing passenger rail return between Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer is still just a dream.