(The following story by Jeremy Loome appeared on the Edmonton Sun website on May 25.)
EDMONTON — Transportation mega firm Bombardier is interested in supplying technology and expertise to plans for a high-speed rail line in Alberta, the company said yesterday.
“I know we were involved to some extent in the Van Horne Institute (feasibility) study and I can say we’re monitoring the situation,” said spokesman David Slack.
“If the government is interested in us participating, then we’d certainly have some interest.
“Any region that is seriously interested in investing in public transit is good news as far as we’re concerned.”
Bombardier built the only high-speed service currently running in North America, on regular rails between Boston, New York and Washington, D.C.
It has also consulted on numerous other high-speed projects.
“The bottom line is that rail travel is universally accepted as the most efficient use of transit,” said Slack. “There are studies out there showing the large number of cars that can be taken off the road when rail use is up and the cost is quite competitive with air travel.”
High-speed trains usually operate at between 190 km/h and 240 km/h, but can reach speeds up to 500 km/h in trials. Whether an Alberta train would match those averages depends on the design requirements, said Slack.
“Will it be sharing track, what speeds will be required, what are the impacts — you don’t recommend or put forward a specific technology without a lot of planning first,” he said.