Rural transit ideas floated behind the scenes, UCP says

George Lee, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Macleod Gazette

Improved transit could be on its way to rural Alberta, a UCP cabinet minister teased in a recent interview on passenger rail transportation.

“I would just say, stay tuned,” Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen told The Macleod Gazette. “I don’t want to show my cards yet, but we’re actually working on some really interesting policy ideas on how to increase transit options for rural Alberta.”

Dreeshen would say no more about what’s in the offing, but his comments came in response to renewed concerns from the NDP that rural Alberta needs better passenger service. Countryside bus routes remain a low priority in Alberta’s emerging vision for passenger rail, said Lorne Dach, the NDP’s transportation critic.

So-called last-mile service — getting passengers back and forth between their rural homes and, say, a regional transit hub in Lethbridge or Grande Prairie — isn’t given enough emphasis, he said.

Yet Dach supported the thrust of what he’s seen so far in the UCP’s public engagement survey on a proposed 15-year master plan for passenger rail. “But yeah, it’s a good start.”

Proof of the survey’s value will come in how the government frames and reacts to results, said Dach, the member for Edmonton-McClung.

“Consultation is always key when you’re talking about major infrastructure projects that are long term. The rail survey is just the very beginning and a lot of things need to be determined,” Dach said. “But I’m certainly interested to hear what Albertans think about the initiatives the government is talking about, what the final conclusions are, and how those conclusions match the questions that have been asked, so we can see if the outcomes are reliable.”

The government is using the survey, originally set to conclude before Christmas, to peer decades into the future at city-to-city, regional, commuter and high-speed services. The Passenger Rail Master Plan will look at what should be developed where, how the service should be sequenced and governed, and what the funding models will be. Included will be a 15-year delivery plan to start building the system.

The government extended the deadline to take the survey by almost four months to April 15.

Mid-survey results became public information through a Postmedia freedom of information request, when the Edmonton Journal reported Jan. 28 that the government had collected more than 14,000 responses.

The survey by then had found that nearly 80 per cent of respondents were in favour of some level of ownership and operation by the provincial government. A hybrid model earned the most support, at about 40 per cent.

Dach said support for public involvement is reassuring, because he can’t see how private enterprise alone would be enough to make extensive passenger rail service come into being.

He said he is “certainly not opposed” to a hybrid model, perhaps with the province owning rails and rights-of-way but not the trains themselves or their operations. “I certainly found it interesting that the Alberta public was looking at such a model, and somewhat heartening as well,” he said.

A hybrid model “gives a measure of public and Alberta government control over the operation of the line, which appeals to me.”

Dreeshen, the member for Innisfail-Sylvan Lake, said buses may be part of the equation, as regional train hubs start popping up on the Alberta prairies. But he stressed that the master plan is an early stage of how public transportation unfolds in the coming decades.

He compared some aspects of the survey to early mentions in the 1950s of ring roads for Alberta cities. Decades later, the Progressive Conservatives of Peter Lougheed started buying land for a Calgary ring road and utility corridor.

“I think a lot of this is going to have short, kind of immediate planning, engineering and construction dollars on certain projects. And then I would assume that other parts of it are going to have that longer-term view of when they would be economically viable.”

Dreeshen pointed to rezoning around train stations to attract housing and business as part of the equation, depending on where they’re sited.

But how those stations tie into improved rural service is Dach’s burning question.

Passenger busing in Alberta took a major hit in 2018 when Greyhound ceased operating in the West. The company shut down Canadian service completely in 2021. Regional services haven’t taken hold in a broad way since, and what they need is government involvement, Dach said.

“Private enterprises have had six or seven years now to find a way to provide bus transportation for that last mile. And they haven’t done it because they don’t see it as profitable enough or it doesn’t satisfy their business needs. So there needs to be public involvement from the Alberta government in helping establish or even subsidizing rural bus transportation on an ongoing basis,” he said.

“If someone drives a private car to the train station in Grande Prairie, they might as well do five hours and keep going,” he continued. “So that’s not going to feed into the attractiveness of taking the train.”

A better bus system is “given passing attention, but it needs to be talked about now.”

Dach said he hopes more consultation follows from what he calls “just an initial starting point.” Rail connections beyond Alberta, for example, need to be explored, with neighbouring provinces and the U.S.

“It’s a serious business,” he said.

The province’s rail vision so far includes

· commuter rail systems in Calgary and Edmonton that connect to their surrounding communities, like Airdrie and Okotoks or Leduc and Spruce Grove

· rail systems connecting Calgary and Edmonton’s downtowns to their international airports

· a regional line between Calgary and Edmonton, with a transit hub in Red Deer

· lines connecting regional centres like Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Grande Prairie and Fort McMurray to Calgary and Edmonton

· regional lines between Calgary and Edmonton and Rocky Mountain parks.

To take the survey, go to alberta.ca/passenger-rail-engagement. With 34 questions — all but one of them short answer or multiple choice — it should require under 30 minutes to complete.

The government plans to follow up the survey with regional open houses, and aspects of the plan could be reflected in the 2026 budget.

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