If we use the California high speed rail project as a proxy, this thing can cost upwards of over $30B. For 5M population, that's $6K per every Albertan. And that's just to build it. How much is it going to cost to maintain it?
Seems like they can pay me way less than $9M to tell them it's not feasible lol.
I know most of you don't actually watch the press conference videos, but why comment on it without watching? They didn't announce that they were going to do basically anything. They did not announce that they prefered a rail route. They did not announce that they will fund more rail development, anywhere. They did not even say that they think future rail development would be beneficial for the province.
...
I may be inaccurate in summarizing other people's posts but it seems to me that those of us who didn't watch the press conference did understand that this was a big nothing burger.
We essentially did nothing and we were correct in knowing they were doing nothing.
Pipedreams perhaps, but if ever this province is going to get out of this nasty rut of us relying on cars and bigass trucks to get us around, a first step has to be taken. First steps are hard, uncomfortable even, but they still have to be done. Has there ever been an announcement for a rail plan like this in Alberta's history? I'm not sure. I know that in my lifetime I'd like to see some kind of rail network in Alberta. If Europeans can do it, why can't we?
Could be a disaster in the making, or it could work out, who knows. If it fails, we still have our cars and bigass trucks to fall back on
Seems pretty obvious to me. Size and population.
One example for reference:
France size: 551,695 km²
Alberta size: 661,848 km²
France population: 67.97 million
Alberta population: 4.371 million
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One example for reference:
France size: 551,695 km²
Alberta size: 661,848 km²
France population: 67.97 million
Alberta population: 4.371 million
Nobody is really asking for a train network as extensive as France's though.
Look at cities like Marseilles and Toulouse as a case study. They're about the same size as Calgary and Edmonton, but they have high speed train service between them... and they make it work extremely well.
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Nobody is really asking for a train network as extensive as France's though.
Look at cities like Marseilles and Toulouse as a case study. They're about the same size as Calgary and Edmonton, but they have high speed train service between them... and they make it work extremely well.
Rather topical since I'm about an hour away from jumping on a Frecciarossa from Milan to Rome. I think we'd want something more along the line of this service. Direct Calgary to Edmonton could probably be cut down to about an hour.
The Marseilles to Toulouse service looks like it cuts at 4:15 minute car ride down to a 4 hour train trip. I don't see the benefit to that. If we're gonna spend the ~10 billion to do it there better be a big payoff in travel time.
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One example for reference:
France size: 551,695 km²
Alberta size: 661,848 km²
France population: 67.97 million
Alberta population: 4.371 million
I think a far greater explanation is the addiction to vehicles in Alberta/NA heavily outweighs addiction to vehicles in France/EU. There simply isn't a will for people here to push the government to build something like that and when the topic comes up, there is massive pushback by the population. We cannot even build a "simple" rail connection between Calgary and Edmonton.
If we are ever going to phase ourselves off of fossil fuels for future generations, things like this must be done.
Are the cities in Alberta set up for a train station even. The advantage to all the European cities are that they developed around a train as being a major means of transportation and there was the ability to just bulldoze (poor) people's homes in order to create a rail network. Trying to shoehorn a rail system into the geography of the city is near impossible. All the major European cities that I can think of have a central train station.
I like the theory of the train but I think that there will never be the political will or the financial capital to make it worthwhile.
I think a far greater explanation is the addiction to vehicles in Alberta/NA heavily outweighs addiction to vehicles in France/EU. There simply isn't a will for people here to push the government to build something like that and when the topic comes up, there is massive pushback by the population. We cannot even build a "simple" rail connection between Calgary and Edmonton.
If we are ever going to phase ourselves off of fossil fuels for future generations, things like this must be done.
This is a big issue. Both Calgary and Edmonton are challenging cities to navigate entirely on public transit. How many people would really be willing to take the train back and forth, knowing that at their destination they will be taking busses, ubers, and taxis for the duration of their stay?
Not to mention the long, long winters which make the prospect of waiting for the busses, ubers, and taxis much less appealing. Even with a high-speed rail, I think you're going to see the majority of people opt to drive simply because they will want to have their vehicle with them to facilitate their time in whichever city they are heading to.
Marseilles and Toulouse both have extremely dense central cores compared to Calgary and Edmonton, which makes walking and transit much more appealing modes of transit (not to mention the better weather).
Having a train run between the two cities would be nice, and would certainly get some use - depending on the location of the terminal stations. But I don't think it would seriously reduce the amount of traffic on the QE2 or even get enough traffic to justify the cost. This would change if - for some reason - Calgary and Edmonton massively disincentivized suburban sprawl and encouraged urban densification.
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She is like a child who just learned that trains are a thing.
"Have you guys seen these things? We need more of these that can go everywhere!! Choo-Choo!!!"
I took out the images, just to make the quote a little smaller, but this is my favourite part about the whole thing. "This is going to knock your socks off!" And then it's the railroad...something we've had on this continent for almost 200 years.
I took out the images, just to make the quote a little smaller, but this is my favourite part about the whole thing. "This is going to knock your socks off!" And then it's the railroad...something we've had on this continent for almost 200 years.
I know! Isnt it just ridiculous? It still makes me laugh!
"Breaking News: Trains."
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Nobody is really asking for a train network as extensive as France's though.
Look at cities like Marseilles and Toulouse as a case study. They're about the same size as Calgary and Edmonton, but they have high speed train service between them... and they make it work extremely well.
But the Marseilles to Toulouse line doesn’t just support residents of Marsellies and Toulouse. It draws on cities and towns in the densely populated Marsellies and Toulouse regions, and many passengers embark and disembark in the densely populated region between the two cities.
If you count all the people who live within 45 mins of Marsellies and Toulouse, and within 45 min of the rail corridor between the two, it’s far more than live in the catchment of a Calgary-Edmonton route.
Outside the 401 corridor, Canada is a bunch of large cities separated by unpopulated wastelands. This is why passenger rail travel isn’t economical.
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