On April 29, the Alberta government announced its intention to undertake a master planning exercise for a long-term vision for passenger rail in our province.
As advocates for passenger rail, we at Rail for Alberta were thrilled. The dream of relaxing on a train between Calgary and Edmonton instead of fighting traffic on the QE2 highway was one step closer to reality.
We signalled our support by accepting the invitation to emcee the announcement event at Heritage Park alongside the minister and premier.
We were also encouraged by the province’s approach. A short but ambitious master planning exercise that includes conversations about governance, planning and implementation.
Instead of announcing projects ad hoc, the master plan is an opportunity to look at the available options and evaluate them with public input, planning expertise and stakeholder consultation. We even supported the province wanting to take a greater role in city transit projects, as their ability to leverage grants and supply funding is far greater than what a municipality can offer.
Through collaborative work, our major cities would have the best train systems in North America.
But the province’s abrupt reversal of its funding commitment to the Green Line LRT project has thrown that vision into jeopardy. Instead of respecting the process — in this case, more than a decade of careful planning and engagement work — the province has decided that process is not to be respected.
With transit, it’s easy for anyone to feel empowered to pull out the crayons and draw lines on a map, and there’s a time and a place for that. But once the visioning is done, it’s time to put the crayons down and turn the vision over to the planners and engineers to execute the vision.
There are nuances in ridership predictions, travel behaviour, integration with existing transit, public stakeholder priorities, construction contracts and much more. Making decisions about where and how a transit line should go is a complex process.
Every decision made about where the Green Line would go had a careful rationale. With its sudden interference in the Green Line’s route alignment, the province has signalled that it doesn’t respect the planning process.
Can we expect the same from their approach to provincial passenger rail?
With the planning work presumably underway, can we expect a master plan that is supported by planning, engineering and research? Or can we expect a plan that is hastily drawn on a napkin by politicians and presented in a news release?
Projects of this magnitude need certainty. Builders need confidence that the project is carefully planned and designed. Planners and designers need confidence that their work will be respected.
Otherwise, it’s just politicians planning infrastructure for fun. And that’s a scary thought.
Justin Simaluk is the president of the Rail For Alberta Society.