The broadband dream passenger train connection Vancouver to cities across the Pacific Northwest got a little closer Thursday, with the announcement of millions of dollars in new funding from the U.S. government.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration announced $49.7 million for planning a Cascadia project. High-speed train project. Washington State invested an additional $5.6 million.
The proposed rail line would connect Vancouver, Portland And Seattle with regular service and trains traveling at speeds of up to 400 km/h.
The new funding will be used to fund Stage 2 of the Corridor ID program, including route planning, identification of investment projects and public outreach.
“The I-5 corridor is the backbone of Western Washington’s transportation system, but a recent study found that Seattle is the second most congested city in the country,” said the U.S. senator of Washington, Maria Cantwell, in a press release.
“This funding will allow the state to work with residents to develop the best high-speed rail route possible and will one day give Washingtonians the opportunity to avoid the highway and reach their destinations faster.”
British Columbia Transportation Minister Mike Farnworth said the province has contributed $900,000 in funding to help explore the Cascadia rail connection since 2018.
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“Today, that vision is closer to reality,” Farnworth wrote on social media.
“A new $50 million grant from the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration will support technical planning in British Columbia, Washington and Oregon, and support engagement and collaboration with communities along the corridor to understand their priorities for the future transport system.
Although the funding helps bring the project closer to reality, Werner Antweiler, an economics professor at UBC’s Sauder School of Business, said a Cascadia high-speed rail corridor is still years away, at best. .
Antweiler said building such a line would cost between $42 billion and $100 billion.
According to Antweiler, one of the main obstacles is the lack of existing rail rights-of-way to use for the project, with most of the current corridors owned and operated by rail freight companies.
That’s comparable to Europe, where rail projects typically involve upgrading existing tracks, he said.
“We very rarely see new construction (in Europe),” Antweiler said.
“Rebuilding this from the ground up and recreating this in places like Vancouver and Seattle and Portland, where would you put it? »
Antweiler said the other big problem is the lack of existing feeder rail networks in major cities like Vancouver and Seattle that would connect passengers at high speed to their next destination.
“When we look at Europe, we see that it is a rail network, not just a set of high-speed rail lines,” he said.
“You need to run trains at least every hour and, for convenience, you also need connections within the city, to get to the station. »
Paul Langan, of the pro-rail group High-Speed Rail Canada, said the government could get more bang for its buck by simply improving current rail service rather than spending crazy amounts of money on a multibillion-dollar megaproject .
“There is good reason to make significant incremental improvements to the existing line that would make a lot of people happy,” he said.
“If we did a lot with the existing train, the existing border issues and the freight on the Canadian side, we could probably have six or seven trains a day, which would be a lot faster, without going at high speed. »
Langan said whatever the goal of improving rail service, governments should get on with it as soon as possible.
North America is half a century behind Europe and Asia in its passenger rail service, he said, and with infrastructure construction costs soaring each year, project delays drive up these costs.
“If you keep saying no, it’s going to cost even more money,” he said.
“Whatever improvements you make to your passenger rail network, do them now. »
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