Quote:
Originally Posted by Jaspertf
There have been multiple studies conducted on the potential of high speed rail in the Calgary - Edmonton corridor, going back to 1981.
Interesting note, Virgin Trains USA is going to take over Brightline services in Florida. With Richard Bransons group also taking on the challenge of building the Las Vegas - Southern California high speed train service.
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They go back further. It is viable now, at minimal cost to the government. Just a few key things need to happen under the provincial Railways Act
http://www.qp.alberta.ca/1266.cfm?pa...1&display=html .
1) Make sure the province's designated Railway Administrator is ready to consider a railways proposal.
2) The government would then invite Railway proponents into a process which selects the most viable proponent, through an RFI as the first step. This would a formal process under the Railways Act 11(2) which the Railway Administrator would only consider proposals from the winner for a few years afterwards along the nominal route (Calgary-Edmonton). You can also put in the process that if the firm fails to proceed to the full operations, that the work to date and approvals isn't an asset which they can sit on forever, preventing others from building, that either they could be forced to sell, or forced to JV with a partner later if they stall out for a long time.
3) The railway applies to construct, which starts the more detailed processes regulatory process.
4) Verify that the corridor selected are appropriate under a process of the railway administrator much like what happens when constructing a power line or pipeline.
5) Approve the corridor and construction, and state that section 8 of the act which allows expropriation of private land to build railways applies, and that requirements for crossings between lands owned by the same owner under section 19 should be proportionate, and the section 8 powers should be used to expropriate unviable land when buying the land is better than building a crossing (AAMDC studied this and it is less than 400 acres), and that when alternatives exist, like crossings at a highway within a reasonable distance, that the requirement is waived.