Green New Dealers in the U.S. originally caused quite a stir by calling for high-speed rail to largely replace air travel within 10 years. Although they quickly walked back the air travel part, their resolution in Congress did include the goal of investing heavily in high-speed rail as part of a radical overhaul of the U.S. transportation sector to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Canada is the only G7 country that has no high-speed rail service, but Western Canada is in a class of its own, not even having low-speed rail between most of its major cities. Yet many of its own citizens are blissfully unaware that there are no passenger trains running between Vancouver and Calgary or Calgary and Regina or Regina and Winnipeg, and there haven’t been since 1990 when the Mulroney government axed the century-old service. Instead, there is a two-and-a-half-day trek that chugs from Vancouver up to Edmonton then diagonally back down through Saskatoon to Portage la Prairie, where the tracks finally turn due east toward the real Canadas.
More appallingly still, the Vancouver to Winnipeg route now lacks even a bus service after Greyhound pulled out of Western Canada last year, brutally isolating hundreds of small towns and First Nation communities across the region. A company called Rider Express does offer one trip per day between Vancouver and Calgary.
From a Green New Deal point of view, long-distance travel in Western Canada is a high-emission wasteland, a mobility-impaired backwater where driving or flying are the only options for those who have the means.
So why aren’t climate activists, especially in greener-than-thou B.C., making a big deal about this? Why was there no outcry from western politicians this week when Ottawa announced it was giving Via Rail $71 million toward faster and more frequent service between Toronto and Quebec City – where they already have passenger rail service? Having no trains or buses is beyond unacceptable: it’s incomprehensible. Quebec would separate for less, wouldn’t it?
Clearly there’s no political will because there’s very little public interest. For most travellers, it’s faster to hop on a plane or easier to load up the car or SUV and drive into the next time zone. Besides, their next vehicle is going to be electric – it says so on the bumper sticker.
But things could be changing. I was talking Monday to a Via Rail ticket agent who said he has noticed an uptick during the past year or so in the number of younger people inquiring about train schedules and booking seats. A lot of them are students, he said, who want to keep the car parked at home when they travel.
More power to them, I say. Nothing is more Canadian than riding on the train.
