Alberta Passenger Rail Master Plan — June 2026 Update

A year ago, I wrote my thoughts about the in-progress Alberta Passenger Rail Master Plan. I was expecting the final report to have come out at Christmas time, but it finally appeared about two weeks ago, and just the executive summary. This is my summary after reviewing the available executive summary.

Overall, I remain excited that the report is out, although the implementation timelines seem long and I suspect that much of the exciting infrastructure will only get built long after I might get to meaningfully enjoy it; I guess better late than never.

Some highlights:

• they are explicitly about this involving commuter and regional (intercity) rail lines, and about having a (new) Crown corporation to run it all.
• the Edmonton-Calgary and Calgary-Banff lines are “rated highest”, and appear to be the entirety of the 15 year “delivery plan”. Commuter rail is all on the 30 year horizon which includes no other intercity routes, yet the accompanying text suggests that commuter routes might only be viable when combined with intercity rail routes (to Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, etc). Somehow Spruce Grove/Stony Plain is deemed viable and thus included but Sherwood Park is not (there is not intercity major destination west of Edmonton).
• the Edmonton-Calgary and Calgary-Banff lines are proposed to be greenfield high-speed alignments. This gives a St Albert to downtown Calgary (“end to end”) travel time of 1h45. Actual corridor selection will be part of another report.

• I’m excited to see that the proposed Edmonton station is “downtown” and expected to be thru-running to both the airport (YEG) and St Albert. I had been afraid that the Edmonton station would end up far from downtown and/or south of the river.

• the 60 year “possibilities” provincial map still ignores Cold Lake and Brooks, despite the assurances that it includes all centres with a population of at least 10,000 in 2021. Peace River is not labeled either, but it likely included with Grande Prairie. Lloydminster and Camrose have both been added to the map at least, but aren’t expected to receive rail service under this plan. I also remain annoyed that Bremner (east of Sherwood Park) is ignored, but it’s current population is (effectively) zero.

The proposed (15-year?) Edmonton-Calgary network:

The proposed 30-year plan:

So I guess we need to wait for another report before they start building. Hopefully I can take the train from Edmonton to Calgary before 2040…