It started with $9 million in Alberta's 2024 budget to study the revival of rail services — and the government’s vision is objectively bold.

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Alberta politics made an unexpected stop recently on its long, torturous journey toward the restoration of regularly scheduled daily passenger rail services in the province.

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There was the fact the provincial government was talking about the subject at all, only to be outdone by its sheer ambition of the proposed endeavour.

It all started with a line in the 2024 budget committing $9 million to study the revival of rail services in Alberta.

Last week, we got a better view of the government’s vision — and it is objectively bold.

Should it come to pass, it would transform transportation in Alberta.

Currently, the province is served only by two sparse transcontinental services: a twice weekly Vancouver-Toronto train going through Jasper and Edmonton, and a thrice weekly Jasper-Prince Rupert train via Prince George.

Under Alberta’s newly released roadmap to the creation of a passenger rail master plan, the oft-talk-about and never-implemented Edmonton-Calgary rail link via Red Deer would finally see the light of day, in addition to local rail services in the Calgary and Edmonton areas, plus........

© Winnipeg Sun