kEiThZ
Superstar
Which also shows that the excuses other provinces make for poor rail service and their insistence that all rail service be paid for by the feds is nonsense.
Would be nice to see the federal government help with funding on this one.
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Lack of meaningful Passenger Rail service outside the Quebec-Windsor Corridor
- Thread starter Urban Sky
- Start date
Which also shows that the excuses other provinces make for poor rail service and their insistence that all rail service be paid for by the feds is nonsense.
Would be nice to see the federal government help with funding on this one.
MisterF
Senior Member
It would be great to see an extensive passenger rail system in Alberta. But colour me skeptical. We've seen lots of rail plans come and go over the years. If this is genuine I'd be interested in knowing how they plan to get around the problems with host railways that Via has been struggling with for decades. They might find that negotiating with CN and CP isn't as easy as they think.
crs1026
Superstar
I can't imagine Ottawa declining to offer funding.
The interesting part is, the proposal of a third (fourth? I'm not aware what body in BC runs the West Coast Express) provincial level planning and decisionmaking body for passenger rail. Ottawa dares not add this to the list of tug-of-war issues with Western Canada by imposing itself on the planning, but it says something that despite a federal mandate on railways, Ottawa is pretty much out of the picture on decisionmaking about passenger rail. Ottawa even apparently wants to stay out of Ontario-Quebec planning (as indicated by severing HxR planning from VIA). In a world where empire building and turf protection is paramount, the federal bureaucracy is pretty much firewalled from any useful role in rail passenger planning across the country. Having brought nothing to the table over the past few decades, they have dug themselves into a hole of their own making. Hopefully Alberta attracts some bright minds and puts together a well informed, doable plan.
The fact that this particular Alberta government is willing to promote the idea (sure, so far the promotion is inexpensive, but they are not afraid of being laughed out of the room by their own grass-roots support base) is still sinking in. Who would have thought?
And what will PP say now to VIA ?
- Paul
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Northern Light
Superstar
Lets have a look at the meager details on offer:
www.alberta.ca
The only commitment here is to 9M in planning; and to create a crown corporation that Premier Smith apparently wants to model on Metrolinx (so the goal is bad project management and high levels of secrecy apparently)
* note the RFP is not for implementation of anything, its merely for a plan to be recommended to government.
News coverage of the announcement in Alberta:
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From the Calgary Herald:
calgaryherald.com
In the above piece we hear objections from proponents of the Calgary-Banff service long in discussion.
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Passenger rail
Alberta is developing a Passenger Rail Master Plan that will serve as the foundation to advance passenger rail in the province.
The only commitment here is to 9M in planning; and to create a crown corporation that Premier Smith apparently wants to model on Metrolinx (so the goal is bad project management and high levels of secrecy apparently)
* note the RFP is not for implementation of anything, its merely for a plan to be recommended to government.
News coverage of the announcement in Alberta:
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From the Calgary Herald:
'Massive undertaking': Province eyes commuter, Edmonton-Calgary passenger rail links by early 2040s
Alberta has unveiled its master rail plan with an eye to linking big-city regional lines with a network running throughout the province.
calgaryherald.com
In the above piece we hear objections from proponents of the Calgary-Banff service long in discussion.
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micheal_can
Senior Member
This almost sounds like an announcement to kill the plans to work with CP to connect Banff and Calgary.
DirectionNorth
Active Member
That this announcement came from this Alberta government, of all the possible provincial governments, should be an embarrassment to all of our premiers who complain about intercity transport but always want someone else to pay.
I have my doubts about the sincerity of this announcement, but at the same time, if she wasn't sincere, this would only alienate their base without gaining support. We'll know by 2026.
I believe Translink operates the WCE.
The federal government has consistently led, as their own PR release for the 413 says, on impact analysis studies for over fifty years. Not in actual building things. And actually, many of the HSR studies in this country have been provincially-led.
I do hope that the UCP goes ahead with this. It makes HxR more palatable: "look, we're funding both Alberta and the Laurentian Elites,!" and also (hopefully) makes the AB heartland less hostile to intercity transit.
Of note, the timeline says 2027 for the first shovels. If some line is U/C by the election, it's harder to cancel, and the NDP are not going to cancel rail lines anyways.
This is a pessimistic line of thinking, especially with the Metrolinx comment.Lets have a look at the meager details on offer:
Passenger rail
Alberta is developing a Passenger Rail Master Plan that will serve as the foundation to advance passenger rail in the province.
The only commitment here is to 9M in planning; and to create a crown corporation that Premier Smith apparently wants to model on Metrolinx (so the goal is bad project management and high levels of secrecy apparently)
-snip-
* note the RFP is not for implementation of anything, its merely for a plan to be recommended to government.
Unlike HxR, there's not a proposal that could be a base for intercity rail. The timeline for construction says 2027; we'll see if they meet it, but it's something.
While we're on the subject, does anyone know what happened to Prairie Link?
The timeline does say 2027 for construction ... so maybe?News coverage of the announcement in Alberta:
View attachment 560212
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From the Calgary Herald:
'Massive undertaking': Province eyes commuter, Edmonton-Calgary passenger rail links by early 2040s
Alberta has unveiled its master rail plan with an eye to linking big-city regional lines with a network running throughout the province.
In the above piece we hear objections from proponents of the Calgary-Banff service long in discussion.
View attachment 560214
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View attachment 560215
Northern Light
Superstar
This is correct.
Has anyone here ever called me a pessimist? LOL
A tad cynical maybe........
It is something. But I'll admit, I'm in the camp of seeing Kathleen Wynne's proposal for HSR to Windsor when reading this........ Which is not to say we won't get HSR to Windsor.........but maybe not on the timeline originally advertised.
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FWIW. This is a link to Alberta's Capital Plan from the recent budget:
Its only 2024-2027 (a rather short time horizon!).
But there is no implementation or design funding indicated in the document. There is planning money for the Calgary Blue Line (LRT to the Airport), but no implementation dollars show for that either, yet.
nfitz
Superstar
In the 2026 budget! Could they really not afford 9 million in 2024?
This "announcement" is trivial and only demonstrates that this is a non-priority for the current Albertan government.
Dan416
Senior Member
Yeah this doesn't sound like a plan. It's a plan to make a plan. It's a Steven Del Duca-worthy announcement, as far as I can tell.
micheal_can
Senior Member
Second daily Amtrak route from St. Paul to Chicago starting May 21
ST PAUL, Minn. (WKBT) -- A second daily Amtrak train route begins later this month.
While this is not Via, it does show how even if you have a long distance service, adding an additional shorter run train can be warranted.
Amtrak is bringing in the Borealis train between Chicago and St Paul MN. It will be a daily train that does the same route as the Empire Builder.
Via sort of does this with their Edmonton-Vancouver train. I doubt there are plans to cancel the Empire Builder and chop it up. My hope is that when the new fleet arrives, if it ever does, that Via can look at the LDS not just one train always going the whole length, but adding extra frequency in the sections that can support it.
dowlingm
Senior Member
The difference here though is that the Feds pay for Builder (exemption from PRIIA) and the States are paying for Borealis. If the provinces would fund overlay day trains on top of LDs, we might start getting somewhere
micheal_can
Senior Member
The funding is also something that we should emulate.
kEiThZ
Superstar
There's not much of a business case for extensions outside the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor. So what happens when the feds inevitably refuse to fund that part?
Let's be honest. This is part of the ridiculous game Smith is playing. She's gutting transit support in Calgary and Edmonton and offering to build a regional rail system instead, to reward her rural base.
micheal_can
Senior Member
If the province came to the federal government with a viable plan, I'd think that regardless of who is in power at the time, it would be funded.
lenaitch
Senior Member
I've never quite understood the rationale for rail between Calgary and Banff. It would shovel more tourists into a town that is horribly overcrowded in the summer as it is. The town is in a National Park so can't expand without the permission of the federal government, and significant expansion would impair the very reason people flock to the area in the first place.
Perhaps to grow Canmore as a bedroom community.
Perhaps to grow Canmore as a bedroom community.