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Edmcowboy11 said:
Commuter lines to bring people to transfer points are very important but we still need that trunk line. I wish they could pick and start construction on the alignment and the train maintenance yards.
As for the stations the 1st easiest would be a downtown Red Deer station. The density in Red Deer is so low the could build a station with retail and other Commercial amenities attached to make it a nice regional hub.
That just leaves the age old questions of where do the Edmonton and Calgary Terminals go.
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Also, If the trip was under an hour either way from Red Deer, I believe people may actually choose to live there and commute to Calgary or Edmonton when they need to. The city could essentially build a massive TOD if the station was located on the current rail alignment on the periphery, and with relatively affordable housing, varied types of housing, lots of commercial/amenities and a walkable environment, I wouldn't mind living there myself.
 
Edmcowboy11 said:
Commuter lines to bring people to transfer points are very important but we still need that trunk line. I wish they could pick and start construction on the alignment and the train maintenance yards.
As for the stations the 1st easiest would be a downtown Red Deer station. The density in Red Deer is so low the could build a station with retail and other Commercial amenities attached to make it a nice regional hub.
That just leaves the age old questions of where do the Edmonton and Calgary Terminals go.
Click to expand...
Calgary still has a rail line right to and through downtown, so somewhere along it would be an option.

Edmonton's south rail line now ends in Strathcona (just like the early 1900's) but there is still a right of way to the High Level and a bit north in proximity to Government Centre LRT station, so close to that would make sense.
 
The HSR downtown connection could be done via cut and cover from Strathcona to 100 Ave and 109 St.

The North Saskatchewan River crossing would obviously be a brand new bridge. I've been in favour of the High Level replacement for years. Goodbye rusty old hunk of junk.

Give Edmonton Radial Society funding for their troubles (I love you guys, but please start accepting tap), and run an ETS, year round tram from here to Strathcona to solve Whyte Ave connection to DT issue.

A massive underground central station under 109th and area (in red), would be directly connected to Government Centre LRT and the Legislature Building via pedway.

I think you could construct this section for $2-2.5 billion, including the new bridge ($750 million).
Screenshot_20250110-165917~3.png
 
Barnaby said:
The HSR downtown connection could be done via cut and cover from Strathcona to 100 Ave and 109 St.

The North Saskatchewan River crossing would obviously be a brand new bridge. I've been in favour of the High Level replacement for years. Goodbye rusty old hunk of junk.

Give Edmonton Radial Society funding for their troubles (I love you guys, but please start accepting tap), and run an ETS, year round tram from here to Strathcona to solve Whyte Ave connection to DT issue.

A massive underground central station under 109th and area (in red), would be directly connected to Government Centre LRT and the Legislature Building via pedway.

I think you could construct this section for $2-2.5 billion, including the new bridge ($750 million).
View attachment 624772
Click to expand...
Double the price tag. A new bridge would be $1 billion alone. And I would put the station a couple blocks south at Government LRT Station, right across the street from the Legislature.
 
Sure, your location would probably be better. I don't agree on the estimated cost. It's a small area with limited utility relocations, and a single Atco Natural Gas pipeline to navigate. It doesn't require significant roadway disruptions or demolitions. The tunnel could be built and covered in 3 years.

The cost for cut and cover should only be around $200million/km. This is already higher than other first world countries. Edmonton has also built affordable cut and cover train tunnels in the past.

So $600 million for the tunnel, $750m-1 billion for the bridge, and $1 billion for the station.
 
Edmcowboy11 said:
That just leaves the age old questions of where do the Edmonton and Calgary Terminals go.
Click to expand...

I haven't seen anything semiofficial for Edmonton yet, but there's really only one logical place for it to go.

Calgary's is more or less decided now, there's even some renders of the central station.

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Disappointed the HSR airport station isn't more integrated to the terminal, but that may just be the price to pay for the fastest possible route.

Hoping some of the Edmonton details leak, if not the full report gets published this summer.
 
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Kevin O'Leary's Wonder Valley greatly increases the need for the Edmonton to Grande Prairie line to be built. They should build an HSR line instead. There's going to be a huge population boom in GP. With a bunch of Tech workers moving there. Getting qualified people from Edmonton and Calgary to GP is going to be incredibly vital.
 
NateTheUrbanist said:
Kevin O'Leary's Wonder Valley greatly increases the need for the Edmonton to Grande Prairie line to be built. They should build an HSR line instead. There's going to be a huge population boom in GP. With a bunch of Tech workers moving there. Getting qualified people from Edmonton and Calgary to GP is going to be incredibly vital.
Click to expand...

The grifter who destroyed the educational software industry and ran underperforming mutual funds? In the sector with a huge bubble that's primed to burst if it's not already bursting? For a project designed to be interfaced with remotely and only requiring a very small onsite permanent workforce, and no presence of actual software developers?
 
David A said:
There are good arguments for inter city and high speed rail, but an overly ambitious project that may likely never happen is not one of the better ones.
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Yeah, Grande Prairie should probably get a rail link. I'm not sure true HSR is anywhere near as viable there as it could be in the Edmonton-Calgary corridor (something more akin to Swiss style regional rail could certainly work), but even if this happens as designed it's not going to generate a huge need for travel from Edmonton to Calgary except possibly during its construction and outfitting. The tech worker population would amount to the on-site IT needed to babysit the servers and network infrastructure while the farm gets used from Edmonton or Calgary or more likely Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto-Waterloo, greater Seattle, Silicon Valley, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Austin, Cambridge, Rhine-Main-Neckar, New York City, Eindhoven, Shenzen-Hong Kong, Geneva, etc by people who never actually set foot in Grande Prairie.
 
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True HSR is just barely feasible between Edmonton and Calgary, Edmonton to Grande Prairie would be a non-starter until Edmonton reaches 2 mil and Grande Prairie minimum 700 000. A regular inter-city line would be possible, and likely will be a part of the rail plan, or at least discussed when the report releases in the summer.
 
With a potential Grande Prairie route, there is going to have to be lots of track laid northwest of Fox Creek to connect to Grande Prairie or else upgrading the Grande Cache route which will be longer. Could also connect Fahler to Rycroft but this would be some extra distance too. Lots of $$$$ to get just the line built or upgraded.
 
dkazzed said:
Honestly other than EllisDon being involved, I thought this thread was just going to die off as quickly as it came. Strong support for HSR in Alberta not only by Albertans but also a conservative government was certainly not on my bingo card.
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I honestly have some hope for the first time ever regarding rail in Alberta for this reason. If the Conservative agovernment is really pushing for this to happen and is genuinely interested, NDP or any other party would probably be just as keen if not more!
 
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