Alberta can’t sustain a high-speed rail line

By Marco Navarro-Genie and Brianna Heinrichs

The economic case for a high-speed train in Alberta is extremely weak.

Transportation Minister Ric McIver announced earlier this fall that several people “from substantial business interests” had come by his office saying that if the land were available, they would build a high-speed train between Calgary and Edmonton. Reportedly, the minister said that “research into high-speed rail is happening within government.”

While it may sound appealing, hard evidence from around the world shows that the idea of cost-effective high-speed rail in Alberta amounts to fantasy.

High-speed rail must connect highly densely populated areas and transport huge numbers of people each day to be profitable. Alberta could not meet these criteria.

Only two high-speed rail lines in the world are profitable: the Tokyo-Osaka corridor (Tokaido) in Japan and the Paris-Lyon line in France. A quick look at their context helps us inject some reality into the debate here.

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