Letter to the Editor: High speed trains all the way

Beyond the Calgary-Edmonton corridor, one local resident suggests the real value of high-speed rail lies in connecting southern Alberta to the oil sands. Even if a high speed train station was within walking distance of my house and I could be in Edmonton in less than an hour and twenty minutes, I would only ride that train once as a novelty. Each and every other time I needed to go up north, I would drive. Why? Because my car has a back seat and a trunk where I can put all kinds of stuff for the trip if I need to. And once I get there, I have the means to travel anywhere in the city and come home on my own schedule. If the provincial government is going to build our own Shinkansen, which I rode once from Tokyo to Sendai and back while working there, our train needs to be built from Calgary to Fort McMurray right away all as one project. That's where the need will be most, camp workers who are on for two weeks and home for another two. The train ticket needs to be less than the cost of a flight and the travel time needs to not only be at least half the driving time, but less time than the wait to get through airport security, fly there and disembark would be. With so many camps and so many workers, oil companies would expect bulk discount ticket prices, but I'm sure it would be worth the train consortium's while to give them a deal for such a steady customer base. As for Banff, if it could happen at the same time that would be great. But it needs to be fenced all the way with lots of wildlife overpasses. Imagine hitting a grizzly or an elk at 200 km/h? Les Miller Airdrie, AB