A commuter rail line linking Okotoks to Calgary and on to Airdrie would be an expensive but useful – one might even say necessary – piece of infrastructure that would bring convenience to thousands of residents, particularly commuters.
Visit any other country in the world (particularly those in Europe and Asia) and you'll likely use some kind of high-speed train to travel from city to city. These interconnected transportation networks have been established for decades and are highly utilized by both commuters and visitors.
Unfortunately, this same public transportation system never caught on in Western Canada, despite (or perhaps because of) the long distances between most urban centres. If you want to travel from Calgary to Edmonton or Calgary to Winnipeg, you'd better be willing to drive, take a bus, or fly.
As most people are aware, the populations of all of Calgary's "bedroom" communities are rapidly expanding. Okotoks topped 30,000 in the latest census and large-scale development proposals will push that number much higher in the years to come, while Airdrie's population is now more than 80,000 people.
It's well established that all of Calgary's bedroom communities possess a high percentage of workers who commute to and from the city for work. It’s leading to clogged thoroughfares and a lot of frustration for Airdrie commuters in the mornings and late afternoons. The same kind of traffic issues exist in Okotoks, where the census found that 87 per cent of commuters drive themselves to work.
Therefore, it's well worth exploring the feasibility of building a passenger rail line that would ease much of this traffic congestion. Not only that, but passenger rail would reduce carbon emissions by taking so many cars off the highways.
While admittedly expensive, passenger rail is really a no-brainer that would improve the quality of life for many Okotoks, Airdrie and Calgary residents. So, let's see if it can be done.
