Transport 2000 Canada Hot Line

13 November 2009

This is the Transport 2000 Canada Hotline, issue number 1046, for 13 November 2009.

In this issue...

1 - Transport Action Canada: Transport 2000 Canada to change name

At its AGM Transport 2000 voted to change its name to Transport Action Canada. The watchdog group awaits Corporations Canada approval until it makes a formal announcement. The name change will be supported by mailings, emailings and a website upgrade.

2 - Transport 2000 opposes Acadian service cuts

The Acadian Coach Lines bus service to wants to eliminate the route between Fredericton and Miramichi. On Nov. 13 the Daily Gleaner reported: "Harold Nicholson, president of Transport 2000 Atlantic, said he's against it. "We would stand radically opposed to that," the Hartland resident said. "That leaves all the communities along Highway 8 unserviced."

"Acadian's plan calls for more express runs between larger cities such as Halifax, Fredericton, Moncton and Saint John, while it reduces the number of kilometres travelled in New Brunswick's rural areas ... That doesn't sit well with Nicholson. "In other words, we don't want to serve you unless you live in one of four big cities," the Daily Gleaner's Shawn Berry wrote.

http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/cityregion/article/856144

3 - Windsor Station: Plan for a new downtown transportation

A plan to integrate Montreal's Windsor Station into a major new downtown transportation hub was unveiled this week. On Nov. 13 the Montreal Gazette reported: "Public-transit activists said the $520-million hub would be good news for commuters. Transport 2000's Normand Parisien said having an intermodal hub where commuters could move from one mode of transit to another would make transit more attractive and lure more users.

"It would also correct the historic anomaly of allowing the Bell Centre to block Windsor Station," Parisien told the Gazette's Andy Riga. http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/Heritage+activists+board+with+Windsor+plan/2217386/story.html

4 - New fee at AC: Airlines will charge for anything, Gow says

"Air Canada is joining a growing number of carriers, including its main Canadian competitor WestJet Airlines, by offering customers preferred seats for a price. The seats, costing up to $35 per one-way trip for domestic flights and up $75 for international flights, are usually located in exit or bulkhead rows," Canwest News Service reported on Nov. 13.

"Harry Gow, a spokesman for the Canadian Association of Airline Passengers, said paying extra for legroom is becoming common in the airline industry and is part of a pattern of charging for "everything, including the air you breathe. He also said 'it does provide an option for those who are longitudinally challenged, that is if they're over five-foot-five' pointing out 'seat pitches in airlines have gotten tighter'," Canwest's Sarah Schmidt reported.

http://www2.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/business/story.html?id=6b31fb22-7da0-446e-998b-42e915aece47

5 - Canadians overwhelmingly support high-speed rail

"Canadians overwhelmingly support high-speed rail and believe the federal government should provide the startup funding as well as investments on an ongoing basis, concludes a new poll," Canwest News Service reported on Nov. 9 "(IKOS pollster Frank) Graves said in the case of high-speed rail, the support is so high that he believes it could suffer a 'substantial erosion and still remain a clear winner.'

"Both the Liberals and the Bloc Quebecois have indicated their support for high-speed rail projects. Members of the Harper government have been reluctant to comment on the topic, indicating that they are participating in funding updated research on a central Canadian high-speed rail project with the governments of Quebec and Ontario that is expected to deliver a report early in 2010," Canwest's Mike De Souza wrote.

http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=2197693

6 - Complete EKOS Research high-speed rail poll

High Speed Rail Canada in cooperation with EKOS Research Associates released the complete High Speed Rail Poll conducted Nov. 3.Paul Langan, Founder of High Speed Rail Canada says: "This poll, like others before it, show Canadians would like to see modern high-speed passenger rail in Canada. 86% of people surveyed somewhat or strongly support the implementation of high-speed rail."

http://highspeedrail.ca

http://grandevitesse.ca

7 - Bullet Trains for America?

"The Obama administration has revived the dream of building high-speed rail lines to rival those of Japan and Europe, but the tracks are littered with political and financial obstacles," Mark Reutter wrote in an extensive review of high-speed rail in the Wilson Quarterly. The writer cites President Lincoln's 1863 decision to build a transcontinental rail as a case study in support of the high-speed rail project.

http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=wq.essay&essay_id=554055

8 - EU emissions trading will help Halifax Stanfield International Airport

The Halifax Chronicle-Herald reports legislation passed by the European Union could lead to major growth in air cargo handled at Halifax Stanfield International Airport. The EU has decided to include aviation in its emissions trading system as part of efforts to reduce carbon emissions from many areas of commerce. Airlines flying into, out of, or within the EU would pay a carbon tax beginning in 2012. The tax would be based on tonnage carried, fuel used, and kilometres flown. Less time in the air would mean tax cost savings for carriers. Thus Halifax, with its closer proximity to Europe, could offer a cost advantage to cargo carriers. The airport could become a hub for air cargo trans-shipment with North American cargo movement by surface means and a shorter, less costly, trans-oceanic flight.

"Halifax airport is in a good position to benefit from the lack of an aviation environment tax in North America, with its plans for a $15 million multi-tenant cargo facility. The 40,000 square foot building will have 8,000 feet of refrigerated space and will be ready early in 2010. The main airport runway is also to be lengthened to 3,000 meters allowing heavier cargo loads," the Chronicle-Herald's Tom Peters wrote.

Transport 2000's John Pearce observes: "It is unfortunate that this benefit is brought to us because of North Americans' lack of environmental concern."

9 - Tim Hortons crash: Jetport safety management system deficient, audit of system deficient

The accident that injured Tim Hortons co-founder was culmination of long list of flawed procedures at private operation the Globe and Mail reported on the Transportation Safety Board of Canada report released Nov. 10. "Although major airlines must pass regular inspections by Transport Canada officials, Mr. Joyce's operation used independent auditors approved by the Canadian Business Aircraft Association (CBAA). These auditors failed to detect several safety issues, the TSB investigators concluded. They noted that the pilots in the 2007 crash were flying the Global 5000 jet using techniques based on the Bombardier 604, a much smaller aircraft - a fact that led them to misjudge the Global 5000's altitude," Peter Cheney reported for the Globe and Mail on Nov. 11.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/sequence-of-failures-blamed-for-plane-crash/article1358859/

10 - Mississauga: November 10, 1979: Transport Canada needs more regulatory power

"Stephen Harper's Conservative government must be lauded for earmarking an unprecedented $44 million of new money in the last budget for Transport Canada to increase safety inspections and enforcement on the railways. But more needs to be done," Teamsters leader William Brehl wrote in the Toronto Star on Nov. 9. "Transport Canada needs more regulatory power to ensure public safety is the top priority at the railways. One cost-effective and quick way to do this would be to order railways to set up joint committees with workers to investigate systemic safety problems," Brehl wrote in the Toronto Star.

http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/722478

11 - UK: Old tracks could see trains again

"Passenger lines axed from the rail network under the Beeching reforms in the 1960s could once again see trains. The Welsh Assembly Government has asked Network Rail to conduct feasibility studies on two former track stretches," BBC News reported on Nov. 6.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/wales/8346748.stm

12 - Ottawa councillors simply can't run a bus company

"In the perfect world, the bus company called OC Transpo would be run by a board of directors consisting of people who know something about transit and something about business. Instead, we have city councillors whose business experience is negligible to non-existent and who think their job is to be hands-on managers of the bus company, even though they're not qualified for the job," the Ottawa Citizen's Randally Denley reported on Nov. 8.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/These+people+simply+company/2198869/story.html

13 - Coalition for Algoma Passenger Trains: Town Hall Meeting on Nov. 27

CAPT's Ashleigh Sauvé reports: "Mark your calendars for the next CAPT Town Hall Meeting, scheduled for November 27 at 7:00 P.M. in the Shingwauk Auditorium at Algoma University. We will be featuring a panel of informed speakers representing a wide range of interest in passenger rail service. The meeting will be followed by a performance by a local band Porter and there will be a cash bar serving as well.

http://www.captrains.ca/

14 - Transit fare hikes across the country

A year of unprecedented government spending on infrastructure has done little to benefit transit users. Municipal transit systems across the country are raising fares, delaying capital projects and studying service cuts. With deficit reduction politics on the rise the grand transit plans of the past two years stand out as prime targets. BC and Alberta have already cut back.

Transit's position is not strong. Only 11% of Canadians are regular users and are so weak politically that it is painless to raise their taxes (fares). Transit's environmental card is no longer trump. The benefit of the 1/10 lower per kilometre ghg emission does not pay cash. Similarly the idea transit is good for drivers on clogged roads, while true, has not been persuasive to this 89% of Canadians. This group's preferred solution is improving roads. As a result public transit remains a hand-to-mouth proposition.

Thank you for calling the Transport 2000 Canada Hotline. For additional information, please contact our web site at:

www.transport2000.ca.