Interesting item from the 3 year AB budget Maybe there's some wiggle room in the wording there, if the plan was to extend blue line to the terminal they likely would have said connection, not connector? Good news regardless, and happening much faster then I expected!

Don't disagree on the cost and use cases for helicopters, but it just so happens there are quite a few use cases directly west of Calgary. I think we're well past the safety concerns though, especially with the Chinook. The platform is three times as old as it was when the Brits ran them, its...

Yeah I've seen a lot of variance in the Chinook numbers, but as its primarily used by militaries I think those number skew high like $500 hammers. Moot point though, like everything else Boeing, there's a long waiting list for new airframes. I think the Brits lucked timing wise out with the...

This is why I like the idea of a separate heliport for those short flights, minimal facilities with minimal waiting. Turns out the idea isn't all that novel, the Brits did it back in the early 80s for air service to their smaller islands. 44 pax with some models capable of over 1500km range...

Yeah, short on everything.. While there are a decent amount of pilots around with Chinook experience, there likely aren't many looking for work. Nor are there all that many airframes available. China to the rescue again? It's a bit small at 12 pax, but could be pretty cheap to operate. Maybe a...

Never suggested bus connections can't be used, but a variable 3ish hour trip is less desirable than a reliable trip of less than one hour. If airframes are the ultimate constraint, so be it. Partly why I suggested helicopter service to DT in the first place. Avoids both potential bottlenecks at...

Given infinite airframes and infinite runways upgrading both cities to 3x daily dash 8 service would be great. But it seems the flight isn't overly appealing due to timing, and because the flight doesn't generate a lot of demand it can't justify a good timing. Circle of route failure. I see...

I saw news of the cuts earlier. Disappointing, but not too surprising if the times were lousy. I think there's likely a chicken/egg thing at play, but sounds like YYC and WS are too busy to worry about route development like this, and likely don't have many landing slots to spare at peak times...

Yeah this was hyped up a bit too much for what was delivered... That said, move this plan to the Westbrook site and it'd look and work 100x better!

Those are the ones that make the most economic sense, for sure. The rest of it is 'nation building' for the most part. May not ever get full cost recovery, but would still be good to have. At some point the YEG HSR link will make economic sense too though. Can't expand YYC any further, and it...

This is another one that I want to like more than I do... First off, these multi tower mega proposals just scream ' never gonna happen' to me after seeing all the proposals for that two block parking lot in Eau Claire over the years. Digging into the details, it also looks like far too many...

My prediction / wishlist: 2030: 3 leg Calgary commuter rail complete YYC / Banff HSR complete Daily Jasper / Edmonton service established 2035: YYC / Red Deer / YEG HSR complete YEG LRT extension complete Red Deer region commuter rail established Commuter rail extension to Banff Jasper /...

This is something that shouldn't just be dismissed, underground metros screech on turns, outdoor LRT tracks are worse. Might be good reason to completely cover the track for that curved part. Won't eliminate the noise but it'll reduce it.

That is neat, we're still a ways from fully robotic shipyards but with robots like this effectively acting as apprentice helpers, doubling or tripling the productivity of specialists, it could significantly reduce build times. If the Korean sub bid is successful, looks like Hamilton will be the...

This is one of the coolest things I've read about in a while, it should make a huge difference in the shipyards. Nisku based company BTW https://csrrobotics.com/ Confirms that a lot of the precision fabrication and machining done for oil and gas can be adapted to other manufacturing sectors...

I'm wondering if these might be dependent on the provinces rail plan too? If a greenfield HSR route is going to be used, heading east of the city before heading north could avoid a lot of obstacles.

Lol, if the US annexes any part of Canada it's going to look a lot more like VZ than Ukraine.. Just look at how close Ottawa is to Fort Drum That's not a very long helicopter ride.. Just another reason the Capitol should be moved to a more geographically secure location, like Winnipeg! And...

I agree, but unfortunately the root problems aren't really local, just the results. The opium war, housing crisis and catch and release policies are all in Ottawa's jurisdiction, not the city or province. Interestingly, it turns out the cost of housing a prisoner in Alberta is roughly the same...

Interesting breakdown, notable that among people leaning to stay, the arguments of the feds not being square with the province still hold a lot of weight. Seems to confirm my suspicions that this is more protest vote than secession attempt. Makes sense politically, just following in Quebec's...