Quote:
Originally Posted by GGG
Do you believe that is because of the transportation problems within the park or from Calgary to the park?
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it's both. there are two separate issues that are heavily intertwined. Here's why:
1. Many people just don't want to drive to Banff. This is especially elderly, backpackers and Europeans. They rent a car because there isn't a good alternative. I wouldn't be surprised if 50% of foreign tourists would prefer a train. Think of people you know that went to Europe - many of them likely took the train during their vacation, especially for crowded locations.
2. Existing bus service from Calgary isn't frequent enough, in many cases not that nice and the good service is very expensive. Further, there is a psychological barrier between a bus and a train which I have heard about and I agree exists. People choose a car vs. a highly imperfect bus service.
3. The cost of renting a car in summer is onerous - $100/day for a compact. It makes Banff more expensive than other options, thus reducing tourism.
4. The majority of tourists actually don't need a car. They come for 2-5 days and want to see: Sulphur Mtn gondola, Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, Johnston Canyon, Minnewanka. All are currently serviced by (admittedly pretty bad) public transport. Actually, Minnewanka service is pretty good with Roam.
5. Having a car and visiting any of the above places is absolutely terrible. There is usually no parking. Most times tourists end up driving back to the bus stop. This is a horrible visitor experience.
6. I haven't even listed winter, where many tourists are terrified of driving in the rockies. There is ok service from hotels to ski resorts, but terrible options from YYC to Banff.
So you have a chicken and egg situation here. Not enough demand for transportation within the park as people need a car to get there. Once somebody has a car they expect to use it, not spend an extra $5-$10/person/day to get around. This results in traffic jams, no parking and visitors commenting what a poorly managed system we have.
Also, remember that the public transportation is new in Banff, as visitor numbers are increasing so steadily.
On this topic, I think there are four other usage scenarios that make the train option something that shouldn't be immediately dismissed:
1. Takes cars off transcanada. This delays the huge spend to triple the transcanada.
2. Having a train that goes YYC-Downtown-Canmore-Banff-Lake Louise likely puts extra hotel nights in Downtown and YYC, benefiting calgary tourism. People stay in Calgary at start / end. Heck, with prices in Banff you may see people take a 1hr train up to Banff each day and stay in Calgary.
3. Obviously reduced pollution and negative car-wildlife interactions.
4. There is a benefit to the Calgary population in getting to mountains without a car. I see this most beneficial in winter for skiing, but also for summer. If it was easy to take C-Train to Downtown and then be in Banff in 60-75 minutes people will chose that. Again, powder days will be way better with a train. Connect Sunshine, Norquay, Lake Louise stations by gondola and get off the train onto the gondola and it's a big win.
So tons of benefit and the issue comes down to what's the cost? Worthwhile to quantify what this service actually looks like and figure out costs and benefits rather than throwing it out from the start.
BTW - This would be a great infrastructure project for the olympics. Increase money into Calgary, provide something of high value.