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Bullet train concept worries Alberta towns

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Bullet train concept worries Alberta towns


March 22, 2010

By Jason Fekete

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Read More: http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Bullet+train+concept+worries+Alberta+towns/2709735/story.html

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The province's smaller municipalities are worried about the fallout on rural Alberta of a potential Calgary-to-Edmonton high-speed rail link, and are examining a bullet train's impacts on their communities, economies and population trends. The Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties, a group representing 69 rural municipalities in the province, is commissioning a study to review the wide-ranging effects of a high-speed train in the Highway 2 corridor and what it would mean to rural communities along the route.

- "Most of (the rural municipalities) are concerned about what the negative impact will be," said AAMDC president Donald Johnson. "Does this really make sense?" Several questions remain unanswered on key issues that the group is seeking clarity on, including the viability of high-speed rail and the direct economic consequences on communities near Highway 2.

- The government's new three-year business plan states one of its priorities in the next three years is to "develop high-speed rail and other transportation modes to support Alberta's social growth." The document says considering a bullet train, and other options, is necessary due to population growth and the need to "support the mobility of all Albertans, reduce urban congestion and decrease the travel time necessary to connect Albertans."

- All of those potential rail trips mean fewer cars on Highway 2 and, therefore, bypassing communities and their businesses along the way. High-speed rail could also drastically alter population patterns within the QE2 corridor, with short commutes between Red Deer and the two major cities meaning Albertans could work in one city and live in another. "One of the future changes that rural Alberta may need to adapt to is high-speed rail. . . . (It) could significantly alter the economic development of the province," says the AAMDC request for proposal.

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You really only need to look as far as Welland to see what changes in transportation patterns can do to a community. So their concerns are very real. Not that I don't think high speed rail isn't a good thing. It's just one of the side effects of progress. You're going to benefit some and cause challenges for others.
 
There will only be major impacts if everybody now driving on Highway 2 moves over to the HSR route. Which isn't going to happen. This isn't the 1950s or 1960s when a new freeway would severely impact the main streets of small towns. Highway 2 will always be there, as will the trucks, and everyone not driving.

The only one really with a potential gripe would be Red Arrow, the profitable provider of high-end coach service between the two cities.
 
This is always the lamest excuse I hear against these kinds of projects. "Oh we must slow everybody down and force them to go through our towns so we get business." The concept of a city surviving on passing traffic is just really outdated, and if a city has no other means of survival then it's either doing something wrong, or it's existence has no purpose. By now people should know better than to base their lively hood on the hopes that people will continue to travel through their towns and bring them business indefinitely. They should have expected something like this to happen sooner or later, and their business is not a reason to stop many thousands of people from betting a fast, cheap, and energy efficient method of transport.
 
HSR for the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor is a fantastic idea, its too bad that the project will go nowhere due to the ineptitude of Stelmach and his cronies and the the ridiculous amount of NIMBY's in the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor. Or the project will get so watered down, the end result will be a regular train linking Calgary to Edmonton.
 
Watch them build a bullet train..... that stops in every town along the way.
 
Watch them build a bullet train..... that stops in every town along the way.

How fast would that "bullet" be traveling if it did this? If it wasn't for speed, gravity would simply make the bullets fall down as soon as they're fired. The point of the thing is to be fast.

Bullet trains/HSR have been successful all around the world, so why not here? I could see a stop in Red Deer, but nowhere else.
 
This is always the lamest excuse I hear against these kinds of projects. "Oh we must slow everybody down and force them to go through our towns so we get business." The concept of a city surviving on passing traffic is just really outdated, and if a city has no other means of survival then it's either doing something wrong, or it's existence has no purpose. By now people should know better than to base their lively hood on the hopes that people will continue to travel through their towns and bring them business indefinitely. They should have expected something like this to happen sooner or later, and their business is not a reason to stop many thousands of people from betting a fast, cheap, and energy efficient method of transport.

This is exactly right. Red Deer also stands to gain a lot from this.
 
This is always the lamest excuse I hear against these kinds of projects. "Oh we must slow everybody down and force them to go through our towns so we get business." The concept of a city surviving on passing traffic is just really outdated, and if a city has no other means of survival then it's either doing something wrong, or it's existence has no purpose. By now people should know better than to base their lively hood on the hopes that people will continue to travel through their towns and bring them business indefinitely. They should have expected something like this to happen sooner or later, and their business is not a reason to stop many thousands of people from betting a fast, cheap, and energy efficient method of transport.
I think it's a bit of both. It's not really that bad a thing to ask people to visit small towns and be a part of their economy, and I'd really prefer it if towns didn't take up the model of city economies but just downsize it (well, that's basically what they're doing these days.) But also, it makes no sense to make a train slow just for the sake of keeping those economies afloat. Also, I would never ask for an express HSR service without a regional HSR service stopping in smaller cities and a hugely improved local system. Small towns need to have things to attract people (and none of those roadside oversized objects for tourists,) and people need to have time to go to those little towns in between their hectic city-city commuting life.
 

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