CAN ALBERTA BUILD NORTH AMERICA'S BEST RAIL SYSTEM?
High-speed, intercity network in province a wonderful goal that's worth striving for
Sometimes in the middle of a nightmare you can suddenly have a pleasant dream.
The nightmare is driving from Calgary to Edmonton, for roughly the 100th time, through snow, rain, ice, construction, horrific crashes, madhouse drivers and scenery that becomes dead boring after endless repeat viewing, especially in winter.
In the dream, this isn't happening at all because you're sitting in a comfortable railway car, gazing happily at cars dropping behind like stationary toys because you are travelling at 350 kilometres per hour.
The UCP now resurrects the dream of high-speed rail. Few people yearn for it more than southern Alberta politicians who must drive back and forth when the legislature is in session.
The constant dangers became vividly apparent in 2015, when Calgary PC MLA Manmeet Bhullar died on the Queen Elizabeth II after being hit by a transport truck while trying to help a driver at the scene of a rollover.
High-speed intercity rail is a wonderful goal for this highway and the whole province. It might finally be feasible as population grows rapidly in the big cities.
Imagine trains that would link Edmonton and Calgary in a single hour, even with a stop in Red Deer.
Not many folks remember that there used to be a rail link between the cities. The Calgary and Edmonton Railway began service in 1891 (not a typo) and ran until 1985 as a Canadian Pacific Railway line.
My wife remembers jolting along in that train as a kid, with stops at many little towns that had sprung up along the route. The leisurely Calgary-edmonton line helped create much of rural central Alberta.
A modern Alberta plan should be much more ambitious than just catching up with the already outdated Canadian present.
Premier Danielle Smith referred to the system in southern Ontario and Quebec, which involves Via Rail as well as GO Train rail and buses.
Via Rail is much criticized and hardly high-speed, but you can catch a train in Windsor at Canada's southern tip, and ride all the way to Quebec City, a distance of 1,160 km.
The system links Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal, and many smaller communities. The GO Train is a wide-reaching intercity commuter service, with both trains and buses.
Many people ride those rails while complaining about cost, reliability and travel times.
No wonder. The Ontario-quebec systems are old. The GO Train, for instance, started service in 1967.
There's nothing in Canada to match France's TGVS (Trains a Grande Vitesse), which have been running for decades, or other high-speed systems in Spain, Italy and Germany.
China has become the world leader in advanced transit. Its High Speed Rail network covers 45,000 km — two-thirds of the entire world's length of track for bullet trains.
As a nation, Canada is increasingly clunky and out of step with advances elsewhere. It takes decades to approve, plan and build anything significant, whether it's a new cancer hospital or a pipeline.
Alberta has a chance to break this pattern by creating a worldclass, integrated transit system with the latest technology.
These trains would replace thousands, even millions, of automobile trips, leading to lower emissions, safer travel and much greater convenience.
In the UCP plan, there will be rail service from Calgary to Banff. Hydrogen engines are already in the works.
LRT would link downtown to the airports in Calgary and Edmonton. Spur lines would connect smaller centres with the cities (Airdrie-calgary, for instance.)
The goals are highly ambitious and wholly aspirational. There will be many controversies over rights-of-way, costs and business details.
The UCP expects to have a study done by next year and a working plan by 2027. After that, “delivery” would take 15 years.
That's a long time to keep riding the QE2. But it would be a fine thing to dream about, as we hit that tortured pavement one more time.