The Alberta government should not invest in a high-speed rail link between Calgary and Edmonton at this time, according to a new feasibility report released Friday.

Somehow I missed this article on CBC regarding Edmonton-Calgary High Speed Rail Hearings. It has short footage of the "Dayliner" RDCs that ran between the cities. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-high-speed-rail-line-in-need-of-momentum-1.2552978

It does get depressing hearing the same old diatribe espoused from people who suggest non-solutions to our current, abysmal, passenger rail situation in Canada. A recent poorly written article by Gary Mason in the Globe and Mail forced to me to wait, not 24 hours, not 48 hours, but 5 days after it was written to respond. Mr. Mason starts off with the usual rant that high speed rail is too expensive and the province cannot afford it. What he fails to realize is that every large infrastructure project would also include the federal government and high speed rail projects would involve a public-private partnership. Mr. Mason ignores this basic fact. Can the federal government afford it? It is all about priorities. Somehow they found $20 billion to fight a war in Afghanistan or the recent $25 billion for ship building in Nova Scotia. The federal government spent $1.6 billion to build the Confederation Bridge in PEI and will pay a shocking $44 million subsidy to the company running...

Well Calgary- Edmonton last saw regular passenger rail service in 1985 when the Rail Diesel Car were used on the route. Fast forward to now and more talk about bringing rail back to that corridor. Well the Standing Committee on Alberta's Economic Future discussed high-speed rail at their Thursday, December 12, 2013 meeting. The committee moved forward and decided to solicit written submissions from a large draft stakeholder list on high speed rail, and then the oral presentations would only come from those on the more restrictive list of panelists. Read the whole meeting minutes: http://www.assembly.ab.ca/ISYS/LADDAR_files/docs/committees/ef/legislature_28/session_1/20131212_1000_01_ef.pdf We will keep you informed on these future developments.

On November 25th, 2013 the Standing Committee of Alberta's Economic Future passed a motion that stated "Given the rapid and continual growth in the population of Alberta, in the interest of maximizing the economic impact of that population growth, the Standing Committee on Alberta’s Economic Future undertake a study of the feasibility of establishing a high-speed rail transit system to be built for Alberta in phases.” You can listen to the audio from that meeting here: http://assemblyonline.assembly.ab.ca/Harmony/ContentEntityDetailView.aspx?ContentEntityId=1805 Listening to the audio, it is clear that some members of the committee understand the urgency for Alberta to have high speed trains. Others minimize this urgency, and talk about high speed rail as if it may be possible 30-40 years from now. On December 3rd, committee will receive a briefing from the Ministry of Transportation on the subject. The committee will then decide how consultation will take place between...