Plans for Canada’s first high-speed rail, the Alberta High Speed Rail have been revived as AECOM and EllisDon come together to bring the project to life. The CAD$ 9 billion project was launched in July and will be funded privately. The firms’ partnership has stated that it has inked an agreement with Alberta Transportation to build an estimated 200-mile fast rail network connecting the provincial cities of Calgary, Edmonton, and Red Deer. The development team will focus on gaining various regulatory and environmental approvals it needs to move forward. The process will include consultation with “our Indigenous partners,” Colin Hill, vice president of EllisDon’s civil west division and a Prairie Link board member said, alluding to Canada’s First Nations’ populations, who have become more crucial in Canadian permitting efforts.
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The Prairie Link team will also work with “key stakeholders” that include executives and officials in the destination cities, Edmonton International Airport, Calgary International Airport, and the Alberta government. The high-speed rail line would need 4 million passengers annually, a number that high-speed rail executives contend is realistic given the demand for private and business rail travel and the current population of the province.
One big problem has been that estimated costs for high-speed rail projects have had a tendency to increase as feasibility studies get underway, causing both provincial and federal governments to be uncertain of this move. In addition, as much as the environmental goals to reduce carbon emissions have increased, simply rolling out high-speed rail in this city may not necessarily be an unalloyed win. The province still relies on coal-fired power plants, so the increase in electricity needed for the additional carbon emissions and eventually the new rail line may offset the environmental benefits of switching to rail.
