EDMONTON, Alberta — A major Canadian construction firm has announced formation of a partnership to pursue construction of an Edmonton-Calgary high speed rail line, an estimated $C9 billion, seven-to-nine year project.
The CBC reports Mississauga, Ontario, firm EllisDon announced the project to connect the two cities via Red Deer, Alta., with a line to be built entirely with private-sector funding. A spokesman for the Prairie Link project said the company is currently working on a business case for the 170-mile route; it expects to have that document completed in about six months.
A website for the Prairie Link project says EllisDon is partnering with engineering firm AECOM on the project. A press release says the partnership already has a memorandum of understanding with provincial agency Alberta Transportation for cooperation on project development, and that it has begun discussions with Indigenous groups about its plans.
The CBC report notes the provincial government considered a high speed rail plan in 2014 — the most recent examination of an idea dating to the 1970s — but determined the population along the route was not enough for it to be profitable. Edmonton’s population was about 980,000 as of 2017, while Calgary’s was 1.33 million and Red Deer’s was about 103,000. They are the province’s three largest cities.
But the project’s spokesman says the partnership is “thinking differently” on how to achive the project.
