A new company made headlines this week with a proposal to bring high-speed rail service to Banff from the Calgary International Airport.
HSBanff launched its crowd source funding campaign last Friday (May 16) to raise $300,000 in order to conduct a feasibility study on the proposed project.
“We are trying to build up public interest and community support right now and part of that is crowd funding,” said HSBanff founder Greg Dansereau. “What the crowd funding allows us to do is raise enough money to get the feasibility study complete and then that really lays the groundwork for how the rail is designed and how much money is required to fund the operation and construction of it.”
Dansereau said because Banff is an international destination, he expects the conversation and fundraising campaign on whether a high-speed rail line is possible to also cross borders. But he also said he would like to hear from people regarding other stops along the line like at the Stoney-Nakoda Casino and communities like Canmore.
“It is too early for us to say yes or no we are going to stop there,” he said. “We really need to understand where it needs to be constructed and if the government is going to let us put it there and where we are going to stop based on demand.”
Dansereau said the goal is to convince 1.5 million of the three million annual visitors to Banff National Park each year to use transit over driving vehicles on the highway. The proposal would connect the rail line directly to the airport in Calgary and take 45 minutes to get to Banff.
His proposal is also put forward as a non-profit enterprise model, which he said makes it more feasible and potentially safer.
“If you look at some of the feasibility studies around the world done on high-speed rail, a lot of these reports say it is a good idea, it will likely work, but nobody is going to get rich off it or there is not enough money for it to be profitable,” Dansereau said. “For us there is enough money for it to operate – we don’t want to get rich off it because we have a different purpose for doing this and that is why the non-profit pitch.
“When you operate a high-speed rail or something where safety is critical, when you remove that pressure to generate a profit it is better for keeping a safety focus.”
According to the company’s website $45,999 has been raised already. Go to www.hsbanff.com for more information on the project.
