Alberta - Alberta has been without a train connecting Calgary and Edmonton with the communities in between since 1985, but a new push has begun to restart the Dayliner, and is being proposed to councils all along the Queen Elizabeth II Highway corridor.
 
Rail proposals for that stretch of highway are nothing new over the last 20 years.
 
Most of them, however, have been for High-Speed Rail (HSR).
 
This new proposal is different.
 
Alberta Regional Rail, fronted by Vern Raincock and Thomas Fryer, has the objective of providing a commuter service that would stop at each of the communities as well as an express route along the existing right-of-way.
 
"The overall strategy is to create a passenger rail commission in Alberta so that we can basically get some connectivity between these various communities. It will help people to connect to family and friends, and maybe elderly can stay in their community a little longer, and students with their families," said Raincock.
 
The key component of all of this is finances.
 
Raincock said the project is estimated to cost about $2.2 billion, and he has been told it would take about four months to lay the required rail infrastructure between Calgary and Edmonton.
 
They would piggy-back on existing right-of-ways currently controlled by Canadian Pacific Railway.
 
CP declined comment on this story.
 
CP operated the Dayliner trains between Edmonton and Calgary from 1955 until 1985, ending 94 years of continuous rail passenger service.
 
Currently, the rail proponents are not making specific asks for funding from the different municipal governments.
 
They plan to use private funding while accessing federal and provincial grants that may be available at the time of construction.
 
They would also ship freight and parcels to mitigate risk and help cover costs, especially in the early going.
 
The goal is to organize the different civic governments as a committee that will be able to lobby and organize as one entity, as opposed to operating in silos.
 
They are following a similar path to what is being done in Montana with the Big Sky Rail Passenger Authority as they look to connect residents in the southern half of the state.
 
The two organizers say in comparison, it is a fraction of the cost of an HSR line, or expanding the highway as planned, to three lanes in each direction.
 
Raincock said it will cost on average about $7 million per kilometre, less than half of what it would cost to expand the highway.
 
This is in line with a similar proposal by the Calgary Airport-Banff Rail Authority which is attempting to get a rail line out of Calgary International Airport to Banff, projecting to carry as many as two million passengers a year and cost about $1.5 billion.
 
By comparison, the high-speed hyperloop, proposed by TransPod is projected to cost $22.4 billion, and stop only in Edmonton and Calgary after a Red Deer station fell through.
 
This new proposal would stop at just about every community along the way, including First Nations like Maskwacis.
 
Meanwhile, the express train would take about two hours to get from Calgary to Edmonton.
 
Fryer said the aim is to make it as affordable and convenient as possible.
 
Right now they are kicking around the idea of $4-a-station price point while utilizing rail and stations near town centres.
 
Raincock said there is a transportation gap in the province, one that has been exacerbated by Greyhound pulling out of Western Canada completely in 2018.
 
This has made it difficult for nearly one million Albertans who do not drive to get from community to community, especially if they live in a rural centre.
 
Mayor Lance Colby of Carstairs said it was an interesting proposal, but the town requires more information before approving the deal.
 
The town has grown to almost 5,000 people with an average age of 37, mostly young families who are commuting to Calgary or Airdrie.
 
Colby said before the pandemic a commuter bus had been in operation from Didsbury to Calgary and would usually be full.
 
But the train would need to be sold to the public, not just council.
 
"Something like that will take a bit to get off the ground for people to use it. They're used to commuting. I think the biggest thing is being able to, when you get to an area, how do you move in the town," he said.
 
That could be a major hurdle for a province known for its love of the freedom provided by its trucks.
 
Michael Roberts, associate dean of the Bisset School of Business at Mount Royal University, said he is a big supporter of public transportation and is intrigued by the idea of a regional rail service.
 
He pointed to safety and stress-free travel as important selling points, while Raincock said the cars would have Wi-Fi, making it easy to work while en route or for entertainment purposes.
 
Roberts said he sees the value in such a service once all of the expenses of owning a car are calculated, but people are not walking away from those cars anytime soon.
 
"Everybody in Alberta, perpetually, is sitting with these sunk costs, our automobiles are sunk costs, and once we buy them we own them for 10 years. It doesn't make sense to start taking the train when I have two cars at home," he said.
 
Fryer grew up in London, England, taking the train to get around, especially when he was going to university.
 
He said the makeup of Alberta has changed a lot since he arrived here in 2006, with a vast international community that is also used to taking the train.
 
The hope is that by setting the foundation of the railway in the corridor, the service could expand to all major centres, including Medicine Hat, Banff, Lloydminster, Fort McMurray, Grande Prairie, and Jasper.
 
Mayor Ken Johnston of Red Deer said rail connectivity did not come up as an issue in the recent election this past October, but that does not mean it isn't needed.
 
"It's not just an infrastructure item that depends on one component or even two. It's how it integrates into the broader economic development perspective of cities, how it integrates into tourism, how it integrates into the work-life balance, and the ability to offer small cities as an alternative to those working in large centres," he said.
 
Deborah Yedlin, president and CEO of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, said there is great potential for a major economic impact through a rail line connecting Edmonton and Calgary.
 
She pointed to studies in the early 2000s by TD Bank that showed such a connection having a GDP impact the size of a country like Luxembourg.
 
Much has changed since then, and with the a larger focus on a diversified economy, it could play a role in attracting new business and industry.
 
"I think this is a very important calling card for Alberta as a province to the talent base we want to attract to come here. We want a talent base that will help us grow and diversify our economy, and that's going to come from other places with different kinds of expectations. To commit to this kind of infrastructure shows that you are looking forward as a jurisdiction," she said.
 
Yedlin also pointed to the importance of connecting the province's two largest universities, making it much easier for faculty or students to collaborate and work together.
 
Meanwhile, it would make it easier for students to continue to live at home and commute into the city for classes.
 
There are also important environmental impacts these types of projects can have.
 
One line can equate to four lanes of highway while also creating a quarter of the carbon footprint.
 
That footprint will decrease if they can harness hydrogen cell-powered locomotives, as they intend to.
 
ARR plans to wrap up its council presentations in the next couple of weeks.
 
Josh Aldrich.