I live in Alberta. There is no way this will be economically viable in the short term.<p>Here's what this is competing with:<p>Driving from Edmonton to Calgary, downtown to downtown, takes about 3 hours. My car can do a round trip on a single tank of gas with enough left over to do a little running around. The cost is about $60 in fuel, an unknown amount of wear-and-tear on the car, and three hours of time. I've done this trip with four people, so that works out $25/person assuming $40 worth of wear-and-tear on the car. The depreciation and insurance costs are not a factor here since those happen regardless.<p>If you don't own a car, but have a driver's license, you can pick up a Communauto (our version of ZipCar/Car2Go/etc) and drive it down there. This would probably cost less than $100, and Communauto includes fuel, insurance, and maintenance, but the cars in their fleet aren't necessarily ones that I'd choose for a road trip.<p>The flight from Edmonton to Calgary takes about 45 minutes from takeoff to landing. You need to arrive at the airport 1.5-2 hours before takeoff. Plus you need to get to the airport at the start of your trip and to your destination at the end. The cost is between $100 and $300 depending on how far you plan ahead, plus three hours of time.<p>There is currently no passenger rail service between Edmonton and Calgary.<p>There is bus service between the two cities. Red Arrow runs between Edmonton and Calgary and isn't too bad. You still have to get to the bus terminal at the start and your destination at the end, but the terminals may be in walking distance if you're going downtown to downtown. The cost is $172 plus three hours of time.<p>To work, this needs to find the sweet spot of taking less time than driving, being less of an annoyance than air travel, and priced right to make up for its own set of shortcomings. $25 per person plus three hours is a really tough price to beat.