The Oil Drum

I would like to draw your attention to a post of mine last April 28th.

High Speed or just 110 mph Rail between Calgary and Edmonton ?

There has been some talk (and the province has even bought spaces for stations) of true high speed rail between Calgary and Edmonton. Cost Can$12 billion.

Ed Tennyson (retired transit expert with a nearly epic resume) posted the following:

Since money is the problem, be rational about it, Calgary and Edmonton do not have Japan's population, You can not do what they did or what France did. No one can juatify $12 billion for this, Those opposed can prove it should die.

I am not opposed to good passenger train service between Calgary and Edmonton but it must fit the market.

You will need electric eMU cars with very comfortable appertances but no locomotives,. Cruising speed would be 110 miles per hour, Just double track the present railroad and upgrade the track quality, New Jersey eMU cars have cruised at 104 miles per hour for 30 years, Getting to 110 is no big deal but that is the limit for standard track and power bills Such cars cost only $ 400 per hour to operate and maintain and can average about 88 miles per hour so the cost per passenger-mile will be only 12 cents per-mile using a conservative load factor wth some empty seats on most trips. Albertans will probably pay 25 cents per mile for such service so there will be 13 cents per passenger-mile to amortize the capifal. We can't subsidize everything.

With two million annual passengers there might be $ 37 million a year to support the capital investment. That would support $ 400 million in bonds, It would save a lot of oil that could be sold to tne USA for a good price to help pay rhe rest.

E d T e n n y s o n

Using standard costs, I came up with less than US$500 million to build a second track (with extra sidings), the stations, barn, a fleet 40 EMUs and to electrify the line.

About 2 hours city center to city center, Add a few minutes for a stop in Red Deer. Phase II could be from Edmonton to Fort McMurray.

Just a real world example,

Best Hopes,

Alan

I know of an Alberta utility that would be willing to install and maintain the electrical infrastructure and sell "power at the wire". Perhaps Phase II, Edmonton to Ft. McMurray could be Phase I ?

My eMail address is Alan_Drake at Juno dott com.

Best Hopes for Electrified Transportation solutions,

Alan