Leong: Hopeful steps toward return of daily rail services in Alberta

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Alberta politics made an unexpected stop recently on its long, torturous journey toward the restoration of regularly scheduled daily passenger rail services in the province.

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There was the fact the provincial government was talking about the subject at all, only to be outdone by its sheer ambition of the proposed endeavour.

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It all started with a line in the 2024 budget committing $9 million to study the revival of rail services in Alberta.

Last week, we got a better view of the government’s vision — and it is objectively bold.

Should it come to pass, it would transform transportation in Alberta.

Currently, the province is served only by two sparse transcontinental services: a twice weekly Vancouver-Toronto train going through Jasper and Edmonton, and a thrice weekly Jasper-Prince Rupert train via Prince George.

Under Alberta’s newly released roadmap to the creation of a passenger rail master plan, the oft-talk-about and never-implemented Edmonton-Calgary rail link via Red Deer would finally see the light of day, in addition to local rail services in the Calgary and Edmonton areas, plus services reaching the Rocky Mountain parks west of Calgary.

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The master plan also includes proposed regional rail lines to Fort McMurray/Wood Buffalo, Grande Prairie, Lethbridge and Medicine Hat.

And all of this within 15 years or so.

Reach for the stars, they say.

Before new action on reviving passenger rail: more studies

Of course, step one in the implementation of this vision is … more studies.

The results of the work are expected relatively swiftly in terms of politics, with the master plan to be completed in just over a year from now.

Those who follow such things know how passenger rail has been studied over and over again.

The Calgary-Edmonton link is hardly a new idea. There hasn’t been a daily passenger train along Alberta’s most populous corridor since 1985. Attempts to implement high-speed trains have come and gone since then, to no avail.

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Meanwhile, an active proposal to bring useful passenger rail back to Banff National Park — the closest thing Albertans have seen to a train revival in a very long time — is now in limbo with the provincial government’s announcement.

While the potential delay caused by the province’s new studies is sure to be disappointing, there’s something to be said about having a province-wide effort on rail transportation as opposed to disparate, disconnected work that might end up interfering and doubling up with each other.

For example, there are currently overlapping ideas to bring rail service to Calgary International Airport: a service from the airport to Banff via downtown Calgary; an airport service as part of some kind of regional rail; and an airport service as part of the city’s CTrain.

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If those ideas are to coexist and succeed, there needs to be more co-ordination.

Alberta can’t only rely on highways to help people to get around: Smith

Most interesting was some of the verbiage to be used by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

She acknowledged it wouldn’t be possible to accommodate the travel needs of a rapidly growing Alberta population solely by endlessly expanding highways.

“Expanding our roads freeways and highways to be six or eight or 10 lanes all the way across is not always feasible,” Smith said at a news conference last week. “A more densely populated province will need a mobility system that supports our growing population with a fast safe and reliable choice of transportation.”

Equally important was the highlighting of multi-modal transport facilities — but the government could take it even further, understanding that people need to somehow get to the train and are most likely going to/from trains to some other form of transportation, whether it be buses, planes, automobiles, or something else.

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Frankly, I don’t think it would take much convincing to persuade anyone who’s done that infinitely soul-crushing (and sometimes dangerous) drive from Edmonton to Calgary that it would be much more relaxing and fun to enjoy a train ride and let someone else do the driving instead.

And as pretty as the drive is between Calgary and Banff, I’d rather get to Canada’s premier national park by public transport and not have to worry about finding somewhere to store my car once I get there.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

This is just the latest baby step following many other baby steps in this long-running saga.

May this attempt be greeted with green lights on smooth track.

rleong@postmedia.com

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