Monday, November 16, 2009

In reply to: ETS to YEG?

Great post Steven.

The transit option is an excellent stop-gap measure. Virtually every airport in the western world has some form of public mass transit available. Your ideas on how to make it work are critical.

In the meantime, we need to talk about this ludicrous arrangement that is forcing every single taxi driving to or from the airport to make the return trip empty. Edmonton needs to get over its protectionism of turf and negotiate a solution with Leduc county. Leduc needs to recognize how much a cash cow the entire airport is for them and offer some compromises.

Furthermore, Alberta needs to get on top of the high speed rail link between Edmonton and Calgary. Our geography is in such a perfect alignment to allow for a trip to get people from Downtown Edmonton to YEG to Red Deer to YYC to Downtown Calgary in around two hours.

All of this would save a ton of trips in small vehicle traffic and air travel. Especially when you consider the high number of government and business trips between these cities every day. And people might argue that the train won't get used, but if it takes less time, costs less and has less hassle you can guarantee the business class will jump aboard!

When we demand stimulus from our government, these are the sorts of actions that should be talked about instead of another tax grab for the oil industry.

4 comments:

Steven Dollansky said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Steven Dollansky said...

My apologies, I thought this post was being made by a different author.

That said, I completely agree with your response that this is a temporary measure, and will inevitably be replaced by a more efficient link. That said, I would hate to see our government make an investment in high speed rail that cannot be justified with the current populations of Edmonton and Calgary. over time, as the populations increase and the technology improves this solution will unquestionably become more viable.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

mm. nice post )