UCP to study provincial rail network
`Massive' proposal for passenger service includes link between Calgary, Edmonton
In what's being called its biggest initiative, the UCP government is forging ahead with plans to study and likely build a rail network with commuter service around Alberta's two biggest cities, and a highspeed link between Edmonton and Calgary.
Included in a feasibility study to be completed in the summer of 2025 would be rail connections between Calgary and Banff, and Edmonton and Jasper, said Transportation and Economic Corridors Minister Devin Dreeshen.
A provincial Crown corporation modelled after Ontario's Metrolinx agency would be created to build and operate regional commuter rail lines in the Calgary and Edmonton regions, while networks in the rest of the province would be privately run, but all would ultimately feed into a common network, he said.
“This is bundling together an entire province, interconnected like a nervous system,” said Dreeshen.
“This is a massive undertaking ... probably the biggest announcement this government's made and is likely to make in its four-year mandate.”
It's all part of the province's master rail plan that emerged last year in a mandate letter from Premier Danielle Smith.
“She's taken a very personal interest that this gets rolled out and executed,” said Dreeshen.
But before anything is done, the government is embarking on a $9-million feasibility study to assess ridership demand and infrastructure needs to be completed in the summer of 2025, when requests for proposals will be issued to private firms, a process that would take two years.
The government predicts Alberta's population, now nearly 4.9 million, will reach about 7.1 million by 2051. Depending on the results of the study, Dreeshen said building out the network would take about 15 years. The price tag and funding formula is uncertain, but would “cost many billions of dollars.”
Its centrepiece would be a highspeed line linking Edmonton and Calgary with a stop in Red Deer, said the minister.
“The prime focus is on Edmonton to Calgary, where 80 per cent of (Alberta's) population is,” said Dreeshen.
He noted it's been a transportation vision for decades but the province has always lacked the critical population mass to make it viable.
In recent years, there have been a number of proposals to link the two major cities, one of them a 1,000 kilometres per hour magnet duo-monorail put forth that would reduce the travel time to 30 minutes.
Another was for a more conventional, $9-billion high-speed train, dubbed Prairie Link, that would travel between 350 to 400 km/h with a midway stop in Red Deer.
Also in the mix is a plan by Banff-based Liricon Capital to build a 150-km, $2.6-billion hydrogen-powered passenger line between the Calgary airport and the mountain resort.
Dreeshen said all of those players could ultimately submit proposals.
Also on track is linking the Calgary International Airport with the Blue Line LRT, to which the province has devoted $3 million to study. The assessment of that plan should be finalized this summer with a connection completed in three years, said Dreeshen.
`LACK OF ACCEPTANCE OF PRIVATE-SECTOR INVESTMENT'
Proponents of the Calgary airport to Banff rail proposal (CABR) have said that rolling out the master plan study and request for proposals over several years would effectively kill their plan, whose funding and collaboration with Canadian Pacific Kansas City railway (CPKC) is dependent on a quick commitment from the province.
“Time is of the essence,” said Bruce Graham of the group Friends of CABR, who say proponents signed a memorandum of understanding with CPKC in May 2021 that's now in jeopardy.
CABR project director Nick Hann said the announcement confirms his concerns that Dreeshen's ministry doesn't understand the role the private sector can play in rail development.
“We are particularly concerned by the apparent focus on establishing a `Metrolinx style' provincial rail Crown corporation, which we think reflects a lack of acceptance of private-sector investment,” he said.
But Dreeshen said assessing the province's overall rail needs has to be done before any commitment is made to one component or service provider.
“CPKC are actually supportive of this overarching view on how this will all be connected,” he said.
“We wouldn't want to have a project that precludes other parts of the network.”
He said there's considerable international corporate interest in Alberta's strategy, but that CPKC'S focus is on freight, not passenger rail.
Proponents of rail transport have long called for more regional commuter links and passenger connections between major cities as a way to spur economic development and tourism, combat climate change and reduce traffic congestion.
“We'll see where things go from plans to action,” said Justin Simaluk, president of the Rail for Alberta Society.
But he welcomed the announcement, calling it a major step toward a strategy that could make easy use of existing rail corridors with a strategy that's worked in other jurisdictions.
“The establishment of a governing and planning body similar to Metrolinx in Ontario is something we feel is a critical part of the big picture plan,” said Simaluk.
“We are pleased to see the province is moving in the right direction to ensure that passenger rail in Alberta isn't just a fad, it's poised to greatly benefit how we move for generations to come.”
Liricon Capital, the Banff-based company proposing a Banff-calgary line, said the province's announcement is a positive step forward, but still leaves open risk that the project never gets off the ground.
Jan Watrous, managing partner at Liricon, said the CABR proposal must advance in tandem with the master plan studies for it to be able to secure more than $1-billion in financing from the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) ahead of the next federal election.
“Assuming the province advances CABR'S financial evaluation and project development agreement in parallel with the rail master plan, thus allowing us to secure CIB funding, CABR could drive the first spike in 2027 and last spike in 2029,” Watrous wrote.
PREMIER TAKING NOTES FROM TORONTO'S TRANSIT SYSTEM
Smith said at a Monday news conference that commuter rails in and around Calgary and Edmonton's respective areas will be the most immediately feasible projects “right off the hop.”
The premier suggested a city-to airport rail line would come next, followed by the development of the long-distance rail lines to national parks and between Calgary and Edmonton.
The premier made it clear she's taken notes from the transit system in and around Toronto, adding she was given a tour of that city's commuter transit system last summer. Smith said she returned from that trip and shortly after asked Dreeshen whether it was time to initiate a “broader discussion” of the province's rail plan.
She said Toronto's Union Station — which connects local transit, Ontario's GO Transit system and the Via Rail line — is a helpful model for Alberta, and is why the province should lead the development of the rail plan.
“To understand why we felt the need to step in and create a master plan is that collection point, that central station, is something I think only we can do, because there's just so many different players that have to be involved in that,” Smith said.