Hello ,
It has been more than 30 years since Calgary and the Bow Valley saw scenes like the one above, and since passengers could enjoy the scenery of southern Alberta from the comfort of a scheduled passenger train. That public transport drought might soon come to an end, thanks to two recent announcements: Prairie Link a partnership between Aecom and EllisDon, aims to build a new high-speed line between Calgary and Edmonton by 2030, and the Canada Infrastructure Bank has moved the Calgary-Banff passenger rail project to the next phase of development. You can read about both of these developments on our growing Prairie Region website.
Federal Minister of Transport Omar Alghabra recently toured the southwestern Ontario, holding events in London, Windsor and Brantford announcing that the federal government is committed to working towards enhancing and modernizing intercity passenger rail in the region, following up on the High Frequency Rail announcement for the corridor east of Toronto.
On a more practical note, Londoners recently spotted a GO train making test runs from Kitchener. Metrolinx began examining the option extending the service in 2019, then put the work on hold during the pandemic, and now appears to be moving ahead swiftly. We expect this service would pick up the slack of the early-morning VIA #86 commuter service that was cut by the Harper government in 2011, something our members in the region have been campaigning for ever since.
However, the we have to ask why Ontario seems able to act decisively to pick up federal slack in southwestern Ontario, while not moving with equal speed to pick up its own slack and restore the Northlander before 2022 in accordance with Premier Ford's promise.
Ontario's newly deregulated bus market is also heating up, with competing operators of core routes, but predictably few feeder routes as of yet. The new operators are making frequent adjustments to their schedules as they test the market, and with some of the new bus frequencies already fully booked there's clearly travel demand to meet, especially with VIA Rail's corridor frequencies yet to be fully restored. See details of these new services in our stories below.
As I write this, a federal election has just been called. Please help us get our message that all Canadian deserve and need affordable and reliable public transport to all parties and candidates by making a donation using the button below.
Sincerely,
