(The Edmonton Sun posted the following article by Paul Cowan on its website on April 10.)
EDMONTON — Transportation manufacturer Bombardier is unrepentant over its decision to not showcase its new high-speed JetTrain in Edmonton — which it compares to Quebec or Windsor — choosing Calgary instead.
The firm showed off the train in Calgary earlier this week as part of a nationwide tour, but the train sat parked on a platform in Edmonton yesterday morning with no fanfare.
“There is a cost issue,” explained Bombardier spokesman Marie-Francoise Hervieu. “We didn’t do anything in Quebec or Windsor either. We chose Calgary because that is headquarters of CP Rail and we had a great location to show the train off.”
Bombardier has been taking the revolutionary train around North America in a bid to push high-speed rail links.
Two possible links in Canada would be Edmonton-Calgary and Quebec City- Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto-Windsor.
City Coun. Alan Bolstad said not putting the train on display in Edmonton may prove a false economy in the long run.
“This is a project that will need a lot of public support,” he said. “I think they missed out on encouraging interest and support by not putting the train on display in Edmonton.
“There’s a lot of interest in projects like this and I think a lot of people here would liked to have found out more about the plan and to hear more about it.”
Hervieu said a number of prominent Edmontonians and city officials were invited to Calgary to see the new train.
Among them was Mayor Bill Smith.
Smith has made no secret of the fact that he would like to see a high-speed land link between the two cities, but he prefers an option involving a magnetic elevated train system.
Experts agree the present line between Edmonton and Calgary is unsuitable for a high-speed passenger train.
The sleek turbine-powered locomotive is capable of 240 kmh. Via Rail diesel locomotives at the moment can manage 160 kmh on a good stretch of track.
Bombardier estimates it would cost $3 billion to create the Edmonton-Calgary link. The travel time would be just over 90 minutes.