(The following article by Jill Mahoney and Dawn Walton was posted on the Globe and Mail website on October 7.)
EDMONTON — A costly high-speed rail link between Alberta’s three core cities would spark considerable demand and generate billions of dollars in benefits, a new study concludes.
The service would have had a 22-per-cent to 28-per-cent market share of all trips between Edmonton, Red Deer and Calgary if it had existed last year, according to an Ipsos-Reid poll commissioned for the preliminary review.
“The project’s benefits far exceed its costs,” said Teresa Watts, the study’s project manager.
A high-speed rail system has been considered before in Alberta. Reviews in the 1980s and 1990s concluded the project was premature because it was too costly and lacked a sufficient ridership base.
However, the new study says the province’s economic and population growth, along with technological advances, has spurred recent interest in a service along the 300-kilometre Edmonton-Calgary corridor, the fourth-largest and most rapidly growing urban region in Canada.
The preliminary review was conducted by the Van Horne Institute, which studies transportation issues. Yesterday, the provincial government said it would forward the findings to a private-sector advisory board for further review.
Economic Development Minister Mark Norris, who said the study’s release so close to the expected provincial election in November was not by design, said he favours the link, partly because it would enhance Alberta’s reputation internationally.
“I think, and have thought as a lifelong Albertan and Edmontonian, it has a lot of merit,” he said.
However, while the study examined two potential financing scenarios — 100 per cent public grants and a shared public-private option — Premier Ralph Klein was cool on the issue of government support.
“I do not want to get, and I’ll make this quote plain, back into the business of owning transportation systems,” he told reporters in Lethbridge.
Mr. Klein said he would be open to contributing the province’s right of way along the corridor, which is dominated by Highway 2.
The study focused on providing a high-speed rail link between downtown Edmonton and Calgary with stops at both city’s international airports and in Red Deer in two hours or less at speeds of 200 kilometres an hour or faster. The poll of Albertans was based on service 10 times a day at a one-way cost of $48.50.
Such a system would be expensive, with capital costs ranging from $1.7-billion to $3.4-billion, depending on the technology and route. Annual operating costs would range from $71-million to $97-million.
The study deemed two main options feasible: upgrading the existing Canadian Pacific Railway line and using Bombardier’s JetTrain or an equivalent technology; or developing a new dedicated corridor for a non-electric JetTrain-like vehicle or an electric TGV (train à grand vitesse orhigh-speed train) alternative.
The link, the review estimated, would create between $3.7-billion and $6.1-billion in benefits to the province over a 30-year period. The benefits include: federal and provincial tax revenues, construction jobs, employment income, direct and indirect jobs, accident reduction and environmental advantages.