16 August 2010

Rocky Railroad a Smooth Idea

The first run of CP 2816 from Vancouver to Calgary at Wapta Lake - 22 Sep 2001 William Slim.

Calgary Alberta - When the last VIA Rail transcontinental train rolled through Calgary in January 1990, this city lost its last year-round, regularly scheduled rail link with the Rocky Mountain parks.
 
In the 20 years since, commuting and tourism have grown without a passenger rail option.
 
That's left most people with only one way to gain access to one of the world's most renowned locales, road travel.
 
Most people headed for the mountains end up on Highway 1.
 
To see the Trans-Canada Highway in the Rockies clogged with cars and trucks is not unusual.
 
Frankly, anyone who drives through probably expects to be caught in traffic, especially on long weekends.
 
Even with all the twinning and other upgrades underway, we can continue to be assured the slightest accident or bad weather will sever our link with the mountains.
 
There is an alternative.
 
The old road to the Rockies, Highway 1A, is scenic, but it's a slower highway that's also winding, narrow, and downright dangerous in places.
 
For these reasons and more, we need another option to get to and through the Rockies.
 
Logical Solution
 
The train seems like a logical solution.
 
A proposal for a regular rail option west from Calgary was found in the un-likeliest of places, Calgary's failed bid to host the 2017 World's Fair.
 
Bid-related documents obtained by the Sun showed a few transportation-related projects, including some airy-fairy ideas like a human-powered monorail, personal rapid-transit, and a Bow River marina, buried in the reams and reams of paper.
 
While the race for Expo 2017 is off, and most of the proposals contained in the bid have been set aside, perhaps we should salvage the lone transportation idea that would be most realistically achieved with success, bringing back a regular passenger train to Banff and the mountain parks.
 
(It should be noted there are currently passenger trains to Banff, but they are purely tourist products, some of which fall under the category of luxury travel. They also don't make intermediate stops.)
 
Here's the first bit of good news:  The infrastructure is still there.
 
The Canadian Pacific Railway has shipped goods across the southern Rockies for a century and more.
 
I'm not a betting man, but I'd guess that the tracks will continue to be there for a while yet.
 
All that would be left for the rail link's operator to do is to make a deal for use of the tracks.
 
Tourist operators in Banff and Lake Louise would certainly benefit from enhanced and more-frequent transportation links.
 
For the last few winters, some of their counterparts in Jasper National Park have been working with VIA Rail to shuttle skiers from Edmonton to the mountains.
 
The same concept could be applied and expanded here.
 
Apart from Banff and Lake Louise, there are commuter destinations on the line, namely Canmore and Cochrane, that would benefit from a revival of passenger rail service.
 
You might also recall local and provincial governments have been eyeballing a regional transportation plan that includes a commuter/passenger rail option to Cochrane and beyond.
 
Blend these ideas together and you get one service simultaneously serving travellers commuting to work in Calgary and those looking for a fun time in the mountain parks.
 
Open Throttle
 
The idea of reviving regular passenger trains to the Rockies has been around, but it's been left idling for years.
 
Perhaps it's time we started throttling up to get this train rolling again.
 
Ricky Leong.