Transport committee  It's not my place to comment on how government agencies should do their cost recovery. Having said that, it is clearly an obstacle from Amtrak's perspective today. Many years ago we were able to bring some interest to the table. The BNSF Railway invested its capital into the Colebrook siding, which was the first step in terms of making it possible even to have a second train come into our region.

Transport committee  I believe that study was the city's initiative. It was sponsored by the International Gas Association and looked out 100 years. Yes, we have reviewed that documentation, and we stay in touch with many of the stakeholders that have participated in its development. Our horizon at this point has been very focused on the next 30 years.

Transport committee  In our experience in this region--and I'm looking at it just in a large urban region--it has taken us close to ten years. You can do it in about seven years, but it takes closer to ten years to work through the complexities. The actual construction is probably the shortest part of that timeframe.

Transport committee  When we look at that distance, I'm not sure a high-speed rail would, given the cost of high-speed rail.... You're looking at heavy rail, so you're going to need a lot of infrastructure there. I'm not sure that would be probably the best area to pursue a project there. I think incrementally where we're going to see ourselves moving....

Transport committee  First, I'd like to comment again that it has been very helpful to have the support of the gas tax program for purchasing buses. We purchased well over 200. We're getting close to 300, and we'll need more. Our forecast into the future--and we're literally working on this right now; we're consulting with the public this month, and we'll be making some decisions this summer--is that we will need more buses.

Transport committee  That's an excellent question. I certainly can't speak on behalf of YVR, but I am somewhat familiar with some of their challenges. We work closely with them, and have been on the development of the Canada Line. I think there are some specific issues they're facing with the cruise industry and how that works with air travel.

Transport committee  Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the opportunity to add a comment on this. As we have developed our long-range strategy, what we've tried to focus on is analyzing the situation as it is today, which is our starting point, and then we look forward and ask where we want to be in the future.

Transport committee  We have worked closely with a number of stakeholders in the corridor. I've been involved with this now for probably seven or eight years in terms of looking at rail connectivity. There's a stakeholder group out of Seattle, the Discovery Institute, that has put a lot of time into it.

Transport committee  Yes, sir. It's very similar.

Transport committee  That's a very good question. One of the things we are looking at is that many people in the industry no longer see that there's competition between the modes--air versus rail versus rapid transit. We will be opening Canada Line, which will give us rapid transit connection to the Vancouver airport.

Transport committee  As TransLink, we believe it's important, wherever there are rail corridors in place, to maintain those and keep those for the potential for moving people and having more commuter rail options in our region. One of the challenges is that once a rail corridor is gone, it's very hard to create a new one or to bring one back.

Transport committee  There are merits to having both procedures in place. For example, when we look at high-cost major infrastructure projects, we believe it is important to have a rigorous technical review so that all of the options are considered, that we have detailed analysis to determine ultimately what the best route would be--or the alignment, as we call it in the industry--as well as the technologies that should be employed, and that this large project can stand on its own.

Transport committee  With regard to intercity connectivity, certainly the rail crossing of the Fraser River is well over a hundred years old now. I know in the discussions we've had over the years with the rail providers, just working on trying to bring the second Amtrak train into Vancouver, that has been identified as a long-term infrastructure challenge that we'll have to address.

Transport committee  In terms of the specific details of what the appropriate alignment would be coming into the metro Vancouver area, I think we need to study that very carefully. We're not, at this position, recommending a specific alignment. Looking into the future, we know that the city of Surrey will be growing significantly.

Transport committee  I can hear you fine, thank you, Mr. Chair.