The government is once again talking about train travel in Alberta, and they want your opinion! Until December 20, you can complete Alberta’s Rail Master Plan survey and share your thoughts about train travel in Alberta with the government.
“We need to move ahead on passenger rail infrastructure,” Premier Danielle Smith told the public at a forum in Calgary on November 22. She said that Alberta’s booming population was the reason behind the government’s decision to begin talking again about train travel in the province.
The UCP will dedicate $9 million over the next nine months to researching what’s possible. They will study where the routes should be built and develop a construction plan. They aim to have trains up and running within fifteen years.
They’ll research four different lines. The first line is between Edmonton and Calgary, with a stop in Red Deer. The second is between Calgary and Banff. The last two could connect both Calgary and Edmonton with their international airports.
The Benefits of Train Travel
Mixing up our transport options has been on Canadians’ minds recently, especially after Ontario Premier Doug Ford has been pushing back against Ontario’s bike lanes. But what are the benefits of using a variety of travel methods?
For one, taking the train, especially in winter, is much safer than driving, up to 20 to 30 times safer! In fact, it’s one of the safest travel modes. Being able to travel by train would mean that instead of thinking about the road conditions on the two-and-a-half-hour drive from your place in Red Deer to the ski hills in Banff, you could just sit back, relax, and enjoy the scenery.
It’s a much more relaxing way to travel. When you’re in a car, you must focus on the road and constantly decide whether you will pass someone. On a train, you can read a book. Most modern trains have WiFi, so you can get work done while you travel or watch that movie everyone’s been raving about.
Can Alberta Finally Commit to Trains?
We want to trust that the UCP will implement its ideas about rail travel, but we’ve been burned several times before.
For almost a hundred years, a rail line between Edmonton and Calgary existed, 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.
Ultimately, it’s good that these two plans aren’t happening. If private companies own the rail lines, the money will go to a wealthy CEO instead of back to Albertans. However, it shows how many people are interested in building this train line and that the endeavour would be profitable.
Your Voice Can Shape the Future of Rail Travel
Just because the province has been waffling for decades doesn’t mean a rail line between the two cities will never happen. The UCP’s recent talks about building trains could just be a plot to get more support from urban voters, but it’s partly up to voters to decide whether that’s the case.
For Albertans to mix up our transport options, we need our politicians to know that this is what we want and that this is how they will win our votes.
The best way to ensure this does happen is to voice your opinion! You can fill out the government’s survey, you can talk with your friends about how important you think it is for Albertans to be able to mix up their transport options, or you can get in touch with your local MLA to tell them what you think.
