Cascadia could benefit from a high-speed rail link. No argument there. In Metro Vancouver’s case, it could benefit from any decent rail link to its fellow Cascadian urban centres. No argument there either.
The argument starts, however, when it comes to moving ambitious rail link plans from working papers to reality.
The Washington State Department of Transportation’s (WSDOT) Ultra-High-Speed Ground Transportation Business Case Analysis presents a strong argument for a 400-kilometre-per-hour Cascadia rail corridor connecting Vancouver with Seattle and Portland.
It points out that the corridor would unify and magnify the region’s business, innovation, education and research potential.
In short, it would provide a key transportation artery to develop a Pacific Northwest technology mega-region whose whole of six million residents would be far greater than the sum of its three parts.
Consider, for example, that the WSDOT analysis estimates benefits of more than US$14 billion from reduced transportation congestion, lower travel time and increased productivity.
But consider also that we are talking about a project with estimated capital costs of between US$24 billion and US$42 billion – estimates that would spiral up significantly were the megaproject ever to proceed.
Consider also that we are talking about a cross-border initiative in a time when cross-border anything between Canada and the United States has become politically charged at every turn. And consider further that we are talking about a Metro Vancouver region that has its own major unresolved transportation issues. The region has also yet to deal with far more attainable and locally beneficial rapid rail projects such as a Howe Sound corridor link between Whistler, Squamish and the North Shore.
The WSDOT’s analysis presents a compelling business case for a high-speed Cascadia rail link, but regardless of how compelling that case is, the project has little chance of progressing from report to reality.
