2008 began with an announcement by Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon that the federal government would join Quebec and Ontario to update the existing studies on high-speed rail. A year later there is hope that this work, which is about to start, will unlock the logjam that has denied Canada a role in the worldwide development of high-speed rail.
In February a study for a light rail link between downtown Montreal and Trudeau airport was initiated. Vancouver's Canada Line progressed with the rail link to Vancouver Airport scheduled to open in 2009, the first train with passengers to the airport ran on November 12. Toronto's long-delayed Blue-22 Pearson Airport train got a new start under streamlined Ontario 6-month transit Environmental Assessment regulations and support from Metrolinx.
Short line railways received cash infusions for upgrading from the Quebec government in February, and the Federal budget also signaled federal plans to improve branchlines, such as Toronto to Peterborough, both for freight and potentially reinstated passenger services.
In March, serious questions were raised about high costs at Pearson Airport, coupled to low efficiency compared to other airports. Controversy continued when the airlines imposed new baggage fees and restrictions in April, and in May the Auditor General raised concerns about Aviation safety and the effectiveness of the newly mandated Safety Management Systems.
In April a landmark change occured when Bombardier took over the crewing contract for GO Transit's commuter trains. This supplements Bombardier's large existing business maintaining commuter rail fleets in various North American cities.
Planning for fleet replacement for Montreal's metro and Toronto's streetcars continued with several setbacks. Alstom took successful court action against Montreal's plan for a directed bid to Bombardier. Toronto rejected all bids for its streetcar replacement, citing failure to meet its challenging technical requirements, such as 100% low floor and tight turn radius.
In May Ottawa tried to move forward on a $4 billion transit and tunnel plan, replacing the north-south LRT project cancelled by City Council at end 2006. The new plan fails to follow the recommendations of the Mayor's task force, led by David Collenette, which in June 2007 recommended incremental use of existing rail corridors and an eventual tunnel to serve all routes out of downtown. The new plan prolongs Ottawa's dependence on busways, while providing little relief for the downtown bus congestion even after building an LRT tunnel.
In June the US Congress made a major funding commitment to Amtrak for capital investment, with a majority that made it veto-proof by the rail-hostile Bush Administration.
Edmonton city council decided in June to phase out electric trolleybuses. Vancouver will be the last trolleybus city in Canada. This comes at a time when diesel electric hybrid buses are widely failing to meet expectations, for example with the batteries on Toronto's hybrid fleet.
VIA Rail launched projects under the federal funding announced in October 2007 for projects to rebuild the F40 locomotive fleet, to refurbish the VIA LRC cars, and in July to selectively upgrade tracks and signals, between Montreal Ottawa and Ottawa station.
At Toronto Union Station, the stalled revitalization plan finally found a new vocation with a planned dig down to create a 2-level retail and transportation concourse under the tracks, whiole GO Transit proceeded with track rebuilding, a resignalling project, and a new glass atrium to replace the centre section of the gloomy 1920's Bush trainshed. GO Transit also completed the third track between Scarborough and Bayview to increase train capacity.
In August the long-planned start for a second Amtrak train to Vancouver was blocked by the Canadian Border Services Agency, insisting on new fees to screen on-train passengers. This despite infrastructure investments already paid for by the provincial government to support the additional train, and the need for this link for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Greater Toronto and Hamilton areas, planning for the City's light rail network, announced in 2007 as Transit City continued. The new over-arching Metrolinx agency developed a comprehensive regional transit plan, incorporating but City and GO Transit components, as well as regional Bus Rapid Transit. Metrolink Transit plan for the Greater Toronto Hamilton Area wqas approved at the end of November for a 25-year $50 billion regional transportation investment strategy.
September's Los Angeles Metrolink head-on collision at Chatsworth which killed more than 25 people when the commuter train engineer ran past a stop signal while text messaging has led to commitment and action to introduce positive train control on Americas railroads.
Major snowstorms, particularly on the west and east coasts caused transportation havoc through the Christmas-New Year holidays. Both Amtrak's and VIA's Canadian experienced derailments in the yard at Vancouver, resulting in service cancellations. A 33-car CN freight derailment stopped VIA services east of Montreal to Quebec City and Halifax.
Bad weather affecting Toronto's Pearson and other airports created lengthy delays and cancellations at the busiest pre-Christmas travel time, leading to extreme customer dissatisfaction, particularly with Air Canada who kept passengers on grounded aircraft for over 12 hours or stranded at airports without assistance or information for days on end.
Ottawa ended the year with a transit strike in its fourth week with no end in sight. Bus and O-train users stuggled with ice and snow-covered sidwalks and extreme car congestion, due to the winter storms. The union and city are deadlocked over a driver seniority and scheduling issue. Federal industry minister Rona Ambrose ordered a supervised vote on the City's offer, because OC Transpo is federally regulated as an interprovincial system.