train à grande vitesse • Richard Bronstein
By RICHARD BRONSTEIN
train à Grande Vitesse
Y
ears ago I rode France’s excellent fast train, the TGV, from Lyon to Paris. It was an amazing ride – fast, smooth, comfortable and competitively priced. This is a train that actually does 300 kilometres per hour. What is remarkable is that when you go into a curve, you can still walk down the aisle of the train without feeling like you are being thrown against the side. I think this has something to do with the suspension system and track design. It would be my fervent wish that we could duplicate something like that in Alberta. If we did, I would even take a trip to Edmonton just for the ride. But…the current discussion we are having about the costs and benefits of a fast train in Alberta seem more about smoke and mirrors than hard-headed analysis. The TGV is very successful and profitable in France because it serves a population of 60 million people in a country that is 100,000 square kilometres smaller than Alberta, with a population of four million. There are about 12 cities in France with a population between 500,000 and 200,000 in addition to Paris (three million) and Marseille (one million). There are another 20 cities with populations between 100,000 and 200,000. Bless the Van Horne Institute at the University of Calgary for doing its part to keep hammering for an Alberta bullet train. I think the institute should be commended for trying to make us think big and there may be merit in its argument that a high-speed train link between Edmonton and Calgary would open new and creative development synergies in the province. Unfortunately, given our lack of critical mass, such a project could also be a huge train wreck. I don’t know. Let one thousand consultants rule, as Chairman Mao might have said if he were a capitalist. The real thing that is wrong about this discussion is that it is too closed. We should not be talking about whether Alberta needs a bullet train or not. What we should be asking is for public input to develop an Alberta transportation plan for the future. The bullet train guys can come and talk. The city mayors can pitch the need for urban transit. The municipality of Crowsnest Pass can argue to relocate Highway 3. Cyclists 10 • March 2014 BUSINESS IN CALGARY | businessincalgary.com
can talk about bike paths. Ranchers can vent about hikers not closing fences. And we still haven’t finished with Highway 63 yet. Instead we get a government committee responding to a particular interest group that wants to refloat the fast train balloon. This really shows the lack of wit and leadership in the Alberta government. There is absolutely no point in considering rapid rail as a single item in Alberta’s transportation mix. This is dull thinking. What the Alberta government should have done when it came under pressure to revive the idea of a bullet train is to say, “OK. Let’s talk about the train and everything else at the same time.” By having a broad public hearing process about future transportation needs in general, it would have given the fast train people a fair opportunity to make their case. It also would have given others the opportunity to make their case. At the end of the day the government would not have to make a commitment to anything. It can say, “There are some wonderful ideas here but sorry, we don’t have the money for any of this now.” That might disappoint some people, but at least the government would have a better baseline of knowledge about Alberta’s future transportation needs. What are the estimated vehicular volumes on the QE2 in five, 10 and 20 years from now? What is the impact of technological change such as the driverless car? What is a fair way to finance urban transit needs? The list goes on and on. To hold government hearings only on the bullet train, without considering the whole field of transportation needs, is rather shabby. If Richard Branson happens to go to an Oilers game and bumps into an Alberta cabinet minister, are we going to have government hearings about building a spaceport in Red Deer? That’s what this bullet train hearing is like. Completely irrelevant to the lives of most Albertans. C’mon government. Surely you can do better than this? BiC