|
|
Get moving on high-speed
rail link: expert
reprinted from Red Deer Advocate (Laura Tester) June 11, 2010
The Alberta government
should make a decision this year on developing high-speed rail
between Calgary and Edmonton, a transportation expert said in Red
Deer on Thursday.
Anthony Pearl, director of Urban Studies at Vancouver's Simon Fraser
University, told more than 80 elected leaders and business
representatives of the Central Alberta Economic Partnership that
it's important to get moving on high-speed rail.
Pearl co-authored the book, Transport Resolutions: Moving People and
Freight Without Oil, and is chairing the Intercity Passenger Rail
committee of the U.S. Transportation Research board.
"And plan to actually be building the thing in three to four years
time," Pearl said.
"I'd like to come back (to Alberta) in the coming decade and ride a
high-speed train between Calgary and Edmonton, and visit Red Deer as
well."
Places in the world that develop high-speed rail and other electric
modes of transportation in the next several decades will have much
greater opportunities than those relying on oil fuel transportation,
he said.
"We're on the cusp of an energy shift in the world which is going to
make high-speed rail much more valuable in the future," Pearl said.
"The economy is going to grow the fastest in places that do this
first."
Electric mobility can be powered by many different energy sources,
not just oil.
"While it's not going to happen overnight, but if we wait until the
next big energy crisis, then we're going to have a lot of economic
and probably social problems that come along with that," Pearl said.
China is building the world's largest high-speed rail network, which
will allow the country to move its millions of people around without
reliance on oil, Pearl said.
|
