Paul Langan, Founder of High Speed Rail Canada notes: "Public opinion polls have clearly shown that Albertans want passenger rail service to return between Calgary, Red Deer and Edmonton". He says seminar will begin with speakers from some the world's largest high speed rail manufacturers like Alstom Transportation and Siemens Canada. There will also be a presentation from Alberta Rail Inc. Residents will have a chance to ask the speakers questions during a panel discussion. Modern high speed rail videos will be shown.
High Speed Rail Canada, a citizen's national advocacy group dedicated to the education on, and the implementation of, high speed trains in Canada, will be in Red Deer for its 4th in a series of Canada wide public seminars on high speed rail. There is no cost to attend the seminar but seating is limited so pre-registration is highly recommended. Participants can register by calling or emailing Lindsey Hutton at the Red Deer Chamber of Commerce at 403-347-4491 lhutton@reddeerchamber.com.
« Le train a longtemps joué un rôle incontournable à Charny. ... C'est donc pour célébrer cette facette de l'histoire de la ville que la corporation Charny Revit a lancé l'idée du festival. Louis-François Garceau, «né à côté de deux gares à Shawinigan» et passionné du train, s'est vu confier l'organisation du Festirail ».
«'Nous avons plusieurs kiosques, une exposition très intéressante d'artefacts ferroviaires, des draisines et même des démonstrations de télégraphe', énumère M. Garceau. Des expositions de trains miniatures sont également au programme. L'entrée est gratuite pour tous » Jean Pascal Lavoie a rapporté.
www.cyberpresse.ca/le-soleil/actualites/200908/22/01-894960-charny-celebre-le-train.php
FedNor reported: "The Honourable Tony Clement, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for FedNor announced a multi-million dollar Government of Canada investment, aimed at providing a solid foundation for economic recovery and development efforts across Northern Ontario. Up to $31.4 million will be invested through the Community Adjustment Fund (CAF), one of several initiatives introduced as part of Canada's Economic Action Plan."
Coalition for Algoma Passenger Trains: http://www.www.captrains.ca
http://www.sootoday.com/content/news/full_story.asp?StoryNumber=41266
Transport 2000 opposes Ontario's LCV "pilot project". The issue is not the presence of a hundred giant trucks hauling potato chips. Transport 2000 concern is, as Truck News reported on June 1, "the industry is close, in regulations if not in highway infrastructure, to having an unbroken Halifax, N. S. to Windsor, Ont. LCV corridor."
Transport 2000 notes the plan to turn highways into an LCV corridor is being made in secret by means of interprovincial trade agreements as suggested in a report this week by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre. PIAC is calling on the federal government to open up interprovincial trade negotiations.
"It's like the fox running the henhouse," said Virgil Moshansky, a former judge whose investigation into the deadly Air Ontario crash in 1989 in the northwestern Ontario town of Dryden, led to major changes in Canada's aviation industry. "It seems that Transport Canada, or the government, or both, need a major disaster to happen before they take action." Moshansky headed up the inquiry that probed the crash that killed 24 people when ice buildup on the wings sent the plane careening into the ground, where it burst into flames and broke apart.
"Hugh Danford, a former civil aviation inspector for the department, agreed, saying aviation travel is about profit and there's always a balance between money and safety. 'And that's why the (safety management system) won't work because they're putting that balance in the hands of the people who profit'," CP's Terri Theodore wrote.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jb2b7OMbhhuV1NZYRE9kharKzAAw
"The Ontario Environmental Assessment Act requires that the EA consider alternatives to the undertaking such as: Do nothing, transportation demand management, and rail alternatives among others. In the EA for DRIC the rail alternative was touched on briefly and dismissed. But, government investment in new intermodal terminals and a new high rail tunnel to accommodate double stacked containers would be effective in diverting freight transport to rail at much lower cost than the infrastructure proposed by DRIC. The EA process did not seriously consider the rail alternative," Litwin reports.
"Quebec is already heavily endebted, and the métro expansion would come with at least a $3-billion price tag that would require new borrowing by the government. "Vaillancourt conceded that the provincial government might decide to proceed with one line extension at a time, rather than all three at the same time. That would mean choosing between competing municipal priorities. Laval wants the Orange Line to get the first green light. Montreal says the Blue Line in the east end should be the priority. Longueuil wants to see the Yellow Line on the South Shore favoured, as the South Shore has only one métro station to Laval's three. The rest are on Montreal island.
"And an ongoing proposal to create a new (rail) shuttle between the downtown core and Trudeau airport in Dorval has become bogged down with uncertainty over which rail corridor to take - the Canadian Pacific corridor, which serves CP freight trains and the Dorion-Rigaud commuter train, or the Canadian National right of way, which serves CN freight trains and Via Rail passenger trains," the Gazette's David Johnston reported.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/story_print.html?id=1916155&sponsor=
"Spawned by a grass-roots "Save the Railroad" campaign in 1964, the LA&L is a vital ingredient in keeping a namesake trio of small towns humming in farm country some 20 miles south of Rochester. ... With patrons like Kraft Foods, Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill and Perdue churning out Cool Whip, corn sweeteners, cereal grains and chicken feed, the little railroad helped hatch a "food corridor" that has once again ducked hard times hitting vast sectors of the economy not least, the bellwether rail industry.
"Since federal deregulation in 1980, so-called shortline railroads have surged in number from 200 to roughly 520. Dwarfed by behemoths like Omaha, Neb.-based Union Pacific, each has freight revenues below $28 million a year. Two-thirds operate along less than 50 miles of track and only 50 extend beyond 250 miles. But they employ nearly 20,000 people, own 30 percent of track and handle a quarter of all freight," AP's Ben Dobbin wrote.
http://www.masstransitmag.com/online/article.jsp?siteSection=3&id=9421
"Garry Glazebrook, of the University of Technology, Sydney, costs his plan at $40 billion over 30 years, averaging $1.4 billion a year on top of the state's present expenditure of $3.2 billion a year. The proposal is the most comprehensive in almost a century, since 1915 when the engineer John Bradfield, who designed the Harbour Bridge, laid out a vision for a suburban rail network that reached all points of metropolitan Sydney".
"Dr Glazebrook supports the need for new underground metro trains but argues that a combination of single- and double-deck trains, light rail, buses and ferries is vital to meet diverse travel needs at an affordable cost. ... The plan accepts much residential growth will be in existing suburbs but recognises the need to serve outer suburbs, which have poor transport but attract those seeking affordable housing," the Morning Herald's Andrew West wrote.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/access-for-all-to-public-transport-20090823-ev4s.html
Litwin notes many important infrastructure projects have yet to receive stimulus money including Metrolinx which is waiting for most of the $6 billion it needs from the federal government to kick-start major transit projects in the GTA.
"Short haul air travel produces more green house gases per passenger mile than any other form of travel because airplanes use a lot of fuel during takeoffs and landings. Air travel is only efficient for longer distances. A better use of the funds would be to help VIA Rail increase its medium and short distance service," Litwin says.