Quote:
Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos
The convenience of the bus user is clearly low on the list of priorities. I say this as a daily (and daily frustrated) user of public transit.
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I don't mean the transit user, I mean the Greyhound/Red Arrow user who takes the bus to/from Edmonton/Calgary.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Snakeeye
One key thing you are forgetting about the convienence factor of airplane vs train, firefly: It seems like there are about 500 flights between Calgary and Edmonton every day. Especially during the peak morning and evening hours. There are enough flights that you dont need to schedule around them.
With the train through, on a single line, you would only have one train. Assuming this thing takes just one hour to complete the journey one way, and assuming that it spends 30 minutes at each station, with only Calgary and Edmonton as stops, that is a three hour round trip. At most, there would be eight trips a day. Maybe just 5 or 6 given it would be highly unprofitable to run this thing overnight.
If my only choices for the train ride are 6AM, 9AM, 12PM, 3PM, 6PM and 9PM, I'll take the plane, thank you.
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That's a heck of a lot of assumptions there! Any reason we can't have two lines and have multiple trains going each way at all times? Any particular reason the train stops for half an hour at each stop? Heck, the bus only stops for 15 minutes in Red Deer. 10 Minutes is likely MORE than enough. People who will be travelling heavily likely won't take the train, this is for your daily commuter, so you don't need a lot of time to get on/off.
Not only that, but even if there was only one track, there would be areas that trains can pull out... so at each station, there will be multiple tracks. Meaning that you could have a train at each station, and two in Red Deer at any given time.As one is unloading, the next is already loading.
Either way, your assumptions are ridiculous. No transit planner would be that dumb. There would be at least two lines.
Edited to add:
It seems that everyone who thinks this is a bad idea, also lacks faith in the people who are forking out the money for it. They look at Calgary Transit and see what a catastrophe that is, and assume this rapid train would be the same... It won't be planned by the government. It would be run by a private company, and God knows they're more efficient and way smarter than the planners the government has. Have a little faith that they've thought these things out!