Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang
As a traveller, I like having the option. As a resident of Calgary, the cost/benefit to me and the city isn't worth it.
Obsession is a good word. A train that lots of people will use to live, play, and work? "Public transit is for commies!"
A train that relatively much fewer people will use, most of them non-residents? "Look at us and our expensive train to the airport! We're big time!"
But of course, it is a popular opinion that a train to the airport is so very essential. Whether that's actually true doesn't really matter from a political point of view.
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A train to the airport is certainly a good thing to have, a lot of people who work at the airport will use it, but visitors, probably not as much, at least not at this point. What most tourists come to to Calgary to see and do (I'm thinking Banff, Lake Louise, etc...) at this point requires a car anyway, they might as well rent one at the airport and go, I imagine tourists actually staying in Calgary and only in Calgary is pretty minimal.
A train to the airport will also only be as good as the rest of the rapid transit network, the cities where visitors will actually use airport trains are also cities that tend to have a built out and robust public transit system where you could basically reach anywhere you need to and in a somewhat timely manner. Calgary certainly is not one of those cities.