Pitch to revamp historic Banff train station is back, but will officials be all aboard for change?

Canada's oldest and most visited national park may have been built around rail tourism, but that gateway to Banff has left the station.

These days, most visitors drive to the town.

Long-time residents Adam and Jan Waterous of Liricon Capital Ltd. wanted to change that. They've spearheaded a plan to revive the historic train station and create a transportation hub. The plan has been presented to the town council for consideration.

On Monday, the area redevelopment plan (ARP) cleared its first hurdle. Councillors voted unanimously to proceed with a first reading of the proposed ARP bylaw, which means the plan will go to public engagement, including a public hearing next year. 

The town's mayor, Corrie DiManno, said her vote in support wasn't an endorsement but a part of the process to bring the plan to the community to gather feedback.

Randall McKay, the town's manager of strategic initiatives and special projects, noted the historic station and surrounding railway lands have been neglected for a long time.

"It has sat for so long, almost like an unwanted child or a castaway, operating primarily as a freight and operations yard with very little reason to go there," said McKay. "I find it amazing the community has tolerated it in its current state really for so long."

The document outlines a vision of a new west entrance that would create a sense of arrival. The focus is on restoring the historical station and transforming the grounds as a landmark destination, while including elements to reduce visitor congestion and carbon emissions, according to Liricon.

Those ideas include an intercept parking lot, passenger rail facilities, a transit hub so visitors can connect to shuttles and buses as well as an aerial tramway system from the town of Banff to the Mount Norquay Ski Resort. 

Public submissions, many submitted in the summer of 2023, gave a taste of what some town businesses and residents think. Many were in support of the plan's aspirations to keep personal vehicle traffic at bay — hence the intercept parking lot, which would intercept vehicles before they enter the town centre. 

Ebony Rempel, CEO of YWCA Banff, spoke in support of the plan at the town's meeting Monday. 

"The No. 1 component we feel that we're really here to support is around the railway service," Rempel said. "The Y spends thousands of dollars each year getting people to and from Calgary for medical appointments, different types of supportive counselling." 

Several local and regional environmental groups have spoken out against several elements in the plan. Some have requested the town's decisions on this ARP be put on hold until Parks Canada releases a detailed impact assessment.

"The gondola proposed for the town and the larger environmental issues can't be separated," said Jess Harding of the Bow Valley Naturalists. "We're in a national park. All these things are connected."

Chloe Hahn, a conservation coordinator with the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) said this plan lays groundwork for future development without enough context. 

"We're getting ahead of ourselves," she said. "It's very easy to be excited and find a proposal like this one that comes in and claims to solve all these problems, but in doing that we create a lot of risk when we could just step back." 

Looking at the big picture, Hahn said, would mean having a regional transit plan in place along with strategies on visitor use management in collaboration between the town, province and federal government.

The bylaw will face a second and third reading on the municipal level, but even if the town's councillors are all aboard, the federal minister responsible for Parks Canada will get a final say. Even after that whole process, projects will take more time and approvals to be shovel-ready. 

If the vision sounds familiar, it's not entirely out of left field. Liricon already pitched its eco-transit hub in 2018 with aspirations to build a 2,500-stall parking lot and gondola to transport visitors to Mount Norquay Ski Resort.

That idea was shot down by Parks Canada in 2020. It indicated the proposal would require the agency to alter its policies that limit development to protect the ecological integrity of Banff National Park. 

CBC News has requested an interview with Parks Canada officials about this latest proposal. 

Waterous said many of the components outlined in the ARP, like passenger rail, a gondola and environmental assessments of such projects, would need approvals beyond the Town of Banff's jurisdiction. 

It's a point McKay stressed as well. 

"I think it is important that both council and the public understand this," McKay said. "Some of the proposed initiatives, in fact, may or may not ever come to light."

The area redevelopment plan will help anchor Liricon's vision to transform the town's west entrance, where the historic Banff train station sits, into an arrival centre and transportation hub. 

The town has long dreamed of creating a visitor and arrivals centre for people and cars in this part of town. The earliest reference dates to the 1992 Downtown Enhancement Concept Plan. In that document, officials encouraged other methods of arrival to reduce the use of cars, such as passenger rail. 

Liricon has several projects and ideas in the works, including a proposed passenger rail connection between the Calgary International Airport and Banff.