Why not a third railwway to the BC Coast?

[TOM4CWB]

The Railway History of Red Deer and Central Alberta

Early surveys for the Canadian Pacific Railway looking for a way through the Rocky Mountains, had initially recommended a northern route through Yellowhead Pass (which was later adopted by both the Canadian Northern and Grand Trunk Pacific).

An alternate route recommended the Howse Pass west of Rocky Mountain House to the Pacific Ocean which, if chosen, would have had the transcontinental railroad go through or very near to the present site of Red Deer. But, more due to competition threats from American railroads than anything else, the Canadian Pacific chose a southern route even thought the land was less hospitable to agriculture and the Kicking Horse Pass was more difficult."

AS well.. the BC Dawson Creek link to Prince Rupert is all but operational to reduce the cost and traffic congestion of bringing all the rail traffic back through Edmonton... to go west through the yellowhead.

There is skads of opportunity, low cost alternatives to increase efficiencies and reduce the cost of getting our grain to west coast ports.

CNCP instead believe we have blinders on... and will continue to be 'yes sir thankyou sir' slaves to their monopoly.

Not while I am still alive and able to fight!

The CWB thought they could wait me out... and shut me up...

How well did that work out for the single desk anti freedom folks who would not respect common law property rights?

These old cultural western Canadian values... are no where near dead yet!!!!

[crusher]

I can see the steam rising in Killam and I'm 90 miles away. Don't lose your blood pressure pills.

[Hopperbin]

Take it easy on him. Pills are not good on an empty stomac. A for effort.

[furrowtickler]

Tom - tell Ritz/Harper to build it and give the running rights to the grain co's to run their own trains, just extend that track back to Saskatoon - Remember the world does not end east of central Alberta. Good idea, just don't forget about the rest of us.

[bucket]

1. Environmentalist
2. CN
3. CP
4. Shareholders
5. This or future governments with no vision.


There is a start to the reasons it may not happen.

[rockpile]

The cost would be prohibitive, even though the Howes Pass would be the perfect route.

[Hopperbin]

Wouldnt boring through be cheaper than surface?

[Hopperbin]

My thinking. Boring a hole less elevation gain loss. No snow problems. Tunneling should be quite efficient these days. No surface property to buy. Tree to clear. Blasting of mountainside. Flash flood issues. Bored material used for track base or sold.

[WiltonRanch]

How many miles of boring?

[grassfarmer]

Bore all the way through the Rockies? The channel tunnel connecting England and France cost $9billion, that was 20 years ago and it was only 31 miles long.

[Hopperbin]

The divide is west side of banff anyways just on east side of rockies. My thinking bore it through the divide.

[Hopperbin]

In the past 10 years china has built a road tunnel and bridge system to rival the usa Interstate road system Not saying china should build or own it. It can be done. At the least could get a quote.

[wmoebis]

Throw a little potash in there or a little coal or gold, something that anyone, but a farmer, could see a profit on and there would be a hole through there that you could move the Eiffel tower through.

[TOM4CWB]

"...HOWSE PASS
Lying at the head of the Howse River, just five kilometres beyond Mount David Thompson, Howse Pass is said to have been first crossed by David Thompson's party in 1807.(Actually Thompson had sent an advance party over the pass in 1806. Jacques Finlay, a man named MacMaster and two others travelled over the pass, cut a rough trail down the Blaeberry River side, and built two canoes for Thompson's use. They then returned to Rocky Mountain House and presented Thompson with a map showing where they had been.) (McCart)....

Howse Pass was named for Hudson's Bay explorer Joseph Howse. As part of the quest for a passage to Native groups of present day British Columbia, Howse and a party of seventeen traversed the pass in 1809. David Thompson of the North West Company had journeyed through this pass two years earlier. Yet, Thompson named the area after Howse whom he had met in 1810. The Pikuanni carefully guarded this stretch of the Rocky Mountains. They did not want either explorer to gain direct access to trade with western Native groups, such as the Kutenai. The Pikuanni were a formable threat which was possibly why Thompson went north, where he eventually explored and utilized the Athabasca pass. Although, Howse returned to England with a 1500 pound profit from a successful season trading with the Flathead peoples of present day Kalispell, Montana, the pass was deemed too dangerous for future trade. The Howse pass was not used by the Hudson's Bay Company for another twelve years.(Jennifer Howse)..."

There is no doubt which pass would be, from central (Between Calgary and Edmonton) Alberta, the best to go to Southern British Columbia ports...being 95km for trucks/trains... with the Yellow-head at 1,131 m (3,711 ft), but further to the north of our most commonly used Vancouver BC ports...the

Howse Pass [is]
1539 m
5050 ft

Location

Province; Alberta/BC
Canadian National Park; Banff
Map; 82N/15
Latitude; 51; 48; 00
Longitude;116; 45; 20
UTM Grid Ref; 169386

Headwaters N or E; Conway Creek
Headwaters S or W; Blaeberry River
Adjacnt Mtn N or W; Mount Conway
Adjacnt Mtn S or E; Howse Peak


The 'Kicking Horse Pass is:1627 m
5339 ft.
Interesting how it got its' name:
..."Kicking Horse Pass was named for a horse that kicked Dr. Hector. As the party was struggling eastward towards the pass one of the pack horses, in an attempt to escape the fallen timber that made travelling so difficult, plunged into the river. Hector described the events that followed, "...the banks were so steep that we had great difficulty in getting him out. In attempting to recatch my own horse, which had strayed off while we were engaged with the one in the water, he kicked me in the chest, but I had luckily got close to him before he struck out, so that I did not get the full force of the blow. ...According to Erasmus; "Dr. Hector must have been unconscious for at least two hours when Sutherland yelled for us to come up; he was now conscious but in great pain. He asked for his kit and directed me to prepare some medicine that would ease the pain."

A more drastic telling of events was; "Although Hector did not record it in his report, it is said that his men came to the conclusion that he had been killed by the horse's kick and had dug a grave for him. He was almost buried alive and since he had not recovered his ability to speak, had to wink an eye to demonstrate to his party that he was still, in fact, alive."

"Even without Hector's injury, the party was having great difficulty finding food and was near starvation. They struggled towards the pass, eating blueberries along the way until they reached Wapta Lake at the summit where they camped and were able to kill a grouse and, "were happy to boil it up with some ends of candles and odd pieces of grease, to make something like a supper for the five of us after a very hard day's work. The next day a moose was shot and the men began to regain their strength."

[TOM4CWB]

Jackson...
Hmmm... Day 20 of my 'CNCP Writ of Execution' Hunger Strike'... boiled Grouse and blueberries sounds good!!!

Grin!