Albertans want the provincial government to double down on passenger rail service and provide alternatives to car travel along busy routes.
The Ministry of Transportation launched a public opinion survey last November asking for input on a proposed Passenger Rail Master Plan. Results so far show widespread support for passenger service between Calgary and Edmonton, to the airports and suburbs of the two cities, and to the mountain parks.
Initially, the survey was slated to close Dec. 20, but the province extended the deadline to April 2025 because of high public interest.
Strong Support for Passenger Rail
“We’ve had strong engagement with the passenger rail survey and have extended the deadline to allow for additional public consultations so even more Albertans can share their input,” said the transportation Ministry in a media statement.
Of the 14,383 people who responded between Nov. 18 and Dec. 23, 2024, nearly 90 percent want airport rail service in Calgary and Edmonton built before 2040.
Eighty-six percent hope to ride trains between downtown Edmonton and downtown Calgary within the next 15 years.
The province has been studying the possibility of expanding passenger rail service for years to accommodate a rapidly growing population expected to reach 7.3 million by 2050.
The master plan also includes steel rails linking Edmonton and Calgary to regional cities like Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Grande Prairie and Fort McMurray. The transportation ministry says it’s exploring different delivery models, including public, private and public-private partnerships.
Ambitious Target
The province has set an ambitious target of April 2025 for a finalized master plan, with construction starting in 2027 and lasting until 2040.
A passenger rail service between Edmonton and Calgary existed for almost a hundred years, but it was shut down in 1985 because it wasn’t making enough money. As more people owned cars, they chose to drive between the two cities.
Since then, the government has been discussing building better passenger train options in Alberta.
In 1985, the government published an in-depth study of the possibility of rebuilding rail travel between Edmonton and Calgary. The study found that the Edmonton-Calgary corridor is one of the busiest in North America. Most people just fly or drive between the two cities. To convince people to take the train, they found people’s commute time between the two cities needed to be shorter by train than by car.
Since then, the back-and-forth on trains has continued. In 2003, the Alberta Government hired a company to study the possibility of having high-speed rail between the two cities. In the past few years alone, two companies have sent proposals to the Alberta government to build rail lines.
While the current master plan evolves, the province evaluates two private passenger rail proposals. Prairie Link is a joint venture between two British Columbia-based construction companies, EllisDon and AECOM, to build a $9 billion high-speed train between Alberta’s two biggest cities.
CABR (Calgary Airport to Banff Rail) is a proposal from Banff-based Liricon Capital to build a $1.5 billion line from YYC to Banff.
It’s Time
It’s been more than 130 years since tracks were laid across Alberta for the Canadian Pacific Railway. It eventually included a line from Lethbridge to Medicine Hat and on to the border, where it connected to the U.S. railway network.
Meanwhile, in the cities, Calgary’s last significant investment in light rail was in 2014 when it added Tuscany Station and a 2-kilometre extension to CTrain’s Northwest Line. Edmonton’s Light Rail Transit System, which began operation in 1978, now has 37 km of track and 29 stations.
Albertans have traditionally turned to cars over trains, but now there appears to be a shift as roads have become increasingly congested and gas prices have increased. It might finally be time to bring on high-speed passenger rail service.
Click here to take part in the government survey.
