Banff Alberta - Several conservation groups are calling for better consultations around impacts to wildlife and the environment as talks around a proposed rail line from Calgary to Banff continue to progress.
 
Sarah Elmeligi, national parks program coordinator for the Canadian Parks and Wildlife Service (CPAWS) Southern Alberta Chapter, said the impacts of trains running from Alberta's largest city into the mountain town could have on wildlife are currently unknown.
 
She called for data on those potential impacts to be collected and released.
 
"My biggest concern right now is that we don't actually know what those impacts are because no work has been done to quantify them. I can hypothesize what I think the impacts might be. I mean, the biggest one is that you've got a Trans-Canada Highway and an existing CP rail line traversing a really essential wildlife corridor through the Bow Valley and into Banff National Park, and there are existing impacts with the highway and the rail line. So you cut the habitat in half, you end up with wildlife-vehicle or wildlife-train collisions," said Elmeligi.
 
A rail line linking Calgary and Banff has been discussed for years.
 
Last December, developers Liricon Capital Inc. and Plenary America said they had submitted a proposal to a number of government agencies, pushing their hopes to build the line from the Calgary Airport into the national park forward.
 
The developers said they are still waiting to see if the provincial government will commit funds to the project.
 
The preliminary blueprint envisions a 150 kilometre rail line running from the airport southward, parallel to the existing CP tracks along the west side of Deerfoot Trail before crossing the Bow River on an existing bridge.
 
Proposed stations would be located at the airport, downtown, near Stoney Trail at the Trans-Canada Highway on the city's west side, Cochrane, Morley, Canmore, and Banff.
 
The proponents hope to have the rail line built by 2025.
 
Tony Clevenger with The Bow Valley Naturalists said in a news release Friday that the rate at which the proposal is moving forward should concern all Canadians.
 
"The consequences of doubling the rail line may lead to increased wildlife mortality, changes in gene flow, and ultimately impair the ability of wildlife populations to persist over the long term," said Clevenger.
 
Elmeligi and CPAWS, along with a number of other conversation groups working in the area, released a statement Friday calling for the proposal to slow down.
 
She said that as the proposal moves forward, there needs to be better conversations around the impacts the rail could have and there should be proof presented that a rail line would, in fact, remove vehicles from the Trans-Canada Highway.
 
"We need to take more time to thoroughly understand the impacts, conduct proper public and indigenous consultation. And I also really want to understand more about why we need a train," said Elmeligi.
 
She said a feasibility study conducted several years ago found that a bus could provide a similar mass transport service while using existing infrastructure, the existing Trans-Canada Highway.
 
Elmeligi said that while they can get behind a mass transport system linking the two municipalities, they need to see concrete evidence of the benefits a train specifically would have.
 
"I want to see projections of how many wildlife will be struck by the train, like, what do they anticipate that being? Can we mitigate, or are there ways to mitigate that loss? How much habitat will be impacted by a third linear disturbance? I want to see information. I also want to see data on how many cars will be removed from the Trans-Canada Highway. And people put in the train, there's very little information that assures or guarantees that the train will actually result in less traffic," said Elmeligi.
 
Elmeligi said that she has had talks with varying stakeholders but that so far she has been unsuccessful in being able to ensure wildlife and environmental impacts are studied.
 
Dylan Short.