Quote:
Originally Posted by wingmaker
You are actually just flat out wrong on these points. I live in Banff. Plenty of tourists come on their own without a car or as part of a tour. Many take the direct to Banff shuttle service from the airport to the town: The Banff Airporter. Would this replace the Banff Airporter? No, but having an option that goes from Banff to downtown Calgary would absolutely be used and is absolutely needed. There is currently no reliable way to get from Banff or Canmore to downtown Calgary conveniently without a car, and vice versa.
Also, Parks is now running shuttles from the train station to Moraine Lake, Minnewanka and other destinations in the summer. Furthermore, there are Brewster shuttles to Sunshine Meadows from town. There are ski shuttle to Norquay, Sunshine, and LL from the bus station which would likely be moved to the train station if this went ahead. You are just wrong that you can't get anywhere once you are in Banff.
Also, PLENTY of people come to Canmore and Banff and stay in the towns. The idea that people only use these places as jumping off points is ridiculous. Come walk around on a summer's day and tell me that people have no interest in Banff or Canmore as destinations in and of themselves. Both have plenty of available activities starting right in town.
One of the reasons this is so much better than buses is that buses have to use the already congested highway. You add the number of busses needed to make a dent in the car congestion and you have essentially reinvented the same problem. Having a train that takes visitors off the highway and with less busses and cars in both Banff and Canmore is a huge need.
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Again its a matter of scale. of the 4 million visitors how many show up without cars not on a pre-arranged bus tours. My position is that number is an alarmingly small portion of the 4 million visitors. That is the train Market. My position is that is not sufficient.
I agree that transit is getting better in the park. Currently it is insufficient and if you want to focus on a problem to solve its moving people around Banff better. I fully agree that in the last 2 years it has improved. Still woefully insufficient for it to be a realistic option for the bulk of the 4 million visits.
How many buses are you removing from the highway. Looks to be about 20 per day from the airporter. If you add the number of buses needed to make a dent in the car problem you have eliminated the car problem. Each bus takes 25 cars of the road roughly. The additional bus relative to the train has negligible impact on a road filled with RV's.
Just look at the price of the airporter at $60 per trip and compare it to the $15 proposed by the article and ask yourself if you see a problem here with the initial proposal.
I agree with you that there should be a better option to get from Banff to Calgary without a car. Its called a bus. And if there was a proposal for a subsidized bus service to Banff and Canmore as a low cost pilot to organically develop carless demand and improve on the transit options once in Banff I would get behind it.
Spending 600 million on track from the edge of Calgary to Banff makes no sense. (You'll notice the article forgot the Billions it would cost to get the track from the airport to the edge of the city).