Quote:
Originally Posted by Harry Lime
When the possibility of this was first mentioned, I began to wonder about whether new track would have to be laid for a passenger service.
Could this finally be the opportunity to move the tracks out of downtown Cochrane, and south closer to the transcanada?
CP has a number of crossing upgrades that need financing in the next 5 to 10 years through Cochrane.
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I would say it is extremely unlikely that the tracks through Cochrane will be moved. It wouldn't make sense to move the tracks out of downtown Cochrane as the passenger train would probably make a stop there and they would want the station to be as centrally located (read: convenient) as possible.
I actually think that having a train between Calgary and Banff would be amazing. Having been over that stretch of track many times, I can say that it is a pretty scenic trip (except going past the garbage dump in Morley) and would probably be quite popular if priced appropriately. I do question the economics of it though, and there are certainly a lot of questions that would need to be answered before it could become a reality. Double tracking the CP line in order to allow passenger operations would be very costly, requiring major river crossings (bridges are expensive) at 4 locations, as well as some potentially complicated cutting and filling along the Bow River east of Cochrane. It would be cool to see it happen, but at this point I'll believe it when I see it.