Earlier this month, Mayor Jeff Genung was in attendance at the communities' meeting with regards to the passenger rail line proposed from Calgary to Banff.

Genung says it was a great meeting, “All the communities along the proposed line, Calgary, Cochrane, Canmore, Banff and ID9 (that’s the district around Lake Louise) attended the meeting. We thought we would get together and discuss the next steps for our communities in response to the proposal that has been given to the provincial government around the rail line.”

The old adage that there is strength in numbers works well for the communities as Mayor Genung says the affected communities quickly realized that they were on the same page with desired outcomes. Genung says, “We agreed that this would be an excellent project and do so many things for our region in so many areas.” There would be positive impacts on economic development, transit as well as combat traffic congestion on the highways and in the parks."

Genung says one of the primary obstacles has already been overcome, “Prior to the election, there were some communities that had some different ideas about what this should be or could be. But now all the mayors and all the elected officials seem to be aligned that this is something we need to support.”

At the meeting, it was decided the group would draft a letter of support of the passenger rail service project to the province. Genung says the group stipulated in the letter, “We don’t feel, as communities, that we are in a position to make a financial contribution as we would already be financially contributing through the infrastructure upgrades that we would have to do to interface with the project.” Examples of such upgrades may be a train station, land for a station, and all the things that would come along with a train stop in a community.

Genung says along with writing the letter, it was agreed that it is important for each community to connect with their MLA’s in the region to share with them the communities’ support of the project.

The communities’ meeting also recognized that “We as communities need to speak up, that this is something that we need, something that will help our communities and then outline what some of those points would be.” Genung explains.  As already mentioned, economic development but also, commuter transit, a big factor for Cochrane and of course, the promotion of tourism at all stops.

Genung says the letter is being drafted here in Cochrane with input from all those involved agreeing on the wording before being sent out to the province this week.

What comes next? Genung explains that the passenger rail line proposal is defined as, “An unsolicited proposal it is the terminology used by the province when somebody proposes something that they haven’t asked for so that’s what this category is, and the province has its own timelines attached to that and I understand that would be as early as mid-February that we might hear something back.”

Mayor Genung has been championing the idea of a passenger rail service from Calgary to Banff with a stop in Cochrane for a few years now and reiterates his excitement. He says, “This timeline is pretty short that they are contemplating of having a rail system in place by the end 2025 or early 2026. It’s not really that far away and then my excitement starts to wane, and I start to get worried that as a municipality we actually really need to get our ducks in a row here and make sure we are ready for a rail to come through.”