Proposed Alberta rail network could create links across province

A proposed regional rail network could connect not just Alberta’s biggest cities but also a web of smaller rural communities.

Alberta Regional Rail Inc. (ARR) is proposing a $2.5 billion rail network that not only connects Edmonton, Red Deer and Calgary but branches out to service surrounding communities along the way.

The proposed rail line would extend outward to Grande Prairie and Fort McMurray in the north from Edmonton, along with Wainwright, Lloydminster and Jasper. Connections from Calgary would go to Lethbridge, Medicine Hat and Lake Louise.

“You’ve got to walk before you run, and an infrastructure project has to provide value to more than two urban areas,” said Alberta Regional Railway Inc. director of global sourcing Vern Raincock.

“We’re looking to become high-performance rail, similar to what’s going on in Florida as well as the Washington, D.C.-New York-Boston corridor,” he said. “A high-performance railroad provides good frequency at low cost.”

“There’s roughly 500,000 people you could bypass within 20 kilometres of that corridor,” Raincock added, “and the biggest problem in Canada is that rural communities are often overlooked. You have two levels of support for infrastructure.

“Urban is very dense with lots of support and rural areas sometimes don’t have health care, don’t have adequate water supplies. So the big picture is providing that level of infrastructure so that more people in Alberta can actually get involved in the economy,” he said.

Discussions about the regional rail network began over a decade ago, Raincock said, when he met with Alberta Council of Technologies founder and CEO Perry Kinkaide about creating a regional roundtable to gauge interest.

“The timing at the time didn’t seem right, everything in the economy was firing on all cylinders and talk of climate change of diversification wasn’t as prevalent as it is today,” he said. 

A decade later Raincock sat down with ARR executive director Thomas Fryer to hear the company’s plans for a regional rail network and was struck by how much it resembled the earlier plan.

“When I heard what (the ARR) focus was, I almost giggled, because 10 years prior, that’s exactly what we came up with,” he said.

Raincock pointed to TransLink’s West Coast Express as a good example of the type of system ARR would implement.

“We would use very similar rolling stock, but concrete ties rather than treated wood. We’ve spoken with two tie manufacturers and there’s a possibility of building a plant in Alberta. It’s easier to produce locally than to ship,” he said.

Raincock said the group has a fully costed and engineered plan, with next steps including environmental studies and completion of a gravity model which estimates the demand for long distance travel between zones.

He added ARR recently reached out to all 23 municipalities between Edmonton and Calgary..

The first stage of the project is to eliminate all what ifs he said and determine the rolling stock and engineering partners.

“If the sun is shining on this project in the next five years, we’ll have a limited start by 2027 and complete service by 2030, which is not only regional service but express service between Calgary and Edmonton,” Raincock said.

Longer term plans include linkages with Big Sky Rail in Montana as well as CP Rail’s line past Lethbridge and towards Montana.

“These are long-term discussions, but each timeline is concurrent because if you don’t start planning today, it won’t happen in 15 years,” he said.

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