Banff has a number of issues:
- Basically the only way to get there from Calgary is to drive (Brewster runs a handful of buses a day, mostly from the airport and mostly milk runs taking 2 1/2 hours to get to Banff).
- The Banff area attractions (Banff Springs, Gondola, Cave and Basin, Hot Springs) are all out of the townsite.
- The Banff area attractions are all on the other side of town from the highway, so they generate through traffic in town.
- Parking in Banff itself is tough, so there's a lot of circling vehicles.
- Other attractions in the park (e.g. Lake Louise, Minnewanka, Johnson Canyon) require a car to get to from the townsite.
Rail service only solves the first of these. I'd like to see a really good coach service provided on the route at a low cost and see if it can draw enough passengers to fulfil that sort of demand. Banff needs a major expansion of Roam transit service (and probably additional parking at the edge of town). For $500 million, you could invest it and live off the return to fund a dream transit service in the park and a high quality coach service between Calgary and the park all for free.
Bus service can work in a parks environment. Grand Canyon NP has a series of shuttle buses that get over 7 million riders per year (GC NP has 4.5 million visitors versus Banff's 3.6 million). That's over 1.5 rides per park visitor. Banff has 0.18 rides per park visitor. The difference is that the GCNP shuttles go outside of the townsite area, that they run frequently (15 minutes versus 30/45/60), and that they are free (versus $2-6). The basic problem with Banff's approach to transportation is that it's modelled off of an urban perspective; farebox recovery as a major contributor, etc. $3 per visitor transportation levy would provide enough revenue to solve all the traffic problems.