Transport committee  I know for a fact that the Alberta government was very interested in the project. They have gone forward with the next step, which was our recommendation, to get more robust figures around ridership to assure them and inure themselves from the risk. I think it will obviously requ

Transport committee  It definitely does affect the ridership. We recommended two things. First was that the stations be located in proximity to the downtown stations and the LRT, and, second, in the outer facilities, our market surveys indicated the need for parking, and we incorporated that into t

Transport committee  In two ways--sort of a yes and a no--it did. First of all, obviously there are areas in Switzerland and so on that have snow as we do. I think the engineers felt that the design standards being applied would not be a problem. Having said that, we did not do a study of the technol

Transport committee  Yes, but it is a 2004 figure, I will say that, and it is a pre-feasibility study. There was quite a high contingency built into those numbers, particularly for the new greenfield option. The range was $1.7 billion for the CPR option, which is the existing corridor, and I think th

Transport committee  In answer to your question, I would first of all support what Mr. Côté said about market research and public support for high-speed rail. That certainly was the case, with comparable levels of support, when we undertook a study in 2004 within the Calgary-Edmonton corridor. Market

Transport committee  Since the study was done, there really has been no investment in the corridor whatsoever. I'm speaking of Edmonton to Calgary, and that's all I can really refer to. The only work that has been done as a result of our recommendations has been this investment-grade ridership study

Transport committee  Well, certainly our study was a pre-feasibility study. We made every effort to be very conservative, because it did not take the level of engineering or estimation--

Transport committee  Thank you. An unfortunate coincidence--

Transport committee  Or fortunate, in this case, very fortunate. As a consequence, there has been an escalation of costs. On the other hand, I think we see some improvement in terms of how construction costs have increased in the interim period, but we made certain recommendations in terms of lookin

Transport committee  Thank you. Mr. Chair, members of the committee, on behalf of the Van Horne Institute and Peter Wallis, its president and executive director--he is unable to attend today's session, and has asked me to come on his behalf--I thank you for your invitation today. The Van Horne Inst