Quote:
Originally Posted by HOZ
I am in the
"Nice Idea BUT it is a white elephant" group.
This kind of project needs a lot of money and a population 3 or 4 times greater than all of Alberta to work and be kind of profitable.
Look at the problems. - Where are we going to lay the track?
- How much would it cost to buy up that land?
- So politician will have the track running through their constituency in no time. The thing will snake through Alberta and it will become the slowest fast train inthe world.
- Stations: Where? How? How many? Best place? People will have to drive to the station...might as well drive to Edmonton or Calgary and have the convenience of a car at hand.
- Airplanes are faster (so far), cheaper, more convenient, getting less noisy, and more fuel effficient.
Money best spent elsewhere. |
Great points, especially about getting to the train station. If it's downtown then I need to add 30 minutes of extra driving and add the cost of parking just to get to the train.
A trip to edmonton via a car will cost you $30 and will take 2.5 hours. Why would I spend 30 minutes to drive in to downtown (or an hour via transit) and then spend $18 for parking, take 1 - 1.5 hour trip to edmonton for what $70? where I'll be stuck at the downtown station with no means of transportation?
It just doesn't make sense. That project would never make any money, not in this market where everyone owns a car. Unless the population doubles this will not attract enough people to make it profitable.
About 3 years ago the estimated cost of a ticket was $57. I am sure we wouldn't see that now.