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| Transport Action Hotline - 5 March 2010 | |||||||||||
In this issue...This is the Transport Action Hotline, issue number 1062, for 5 March 2010.
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1 - Calendar
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2 - Students, regional government, Transport Action oppose Sydney-Halifax bus service reduction"Darren Bruckschwaiger, deputy mayor of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, and John Pearce, director of the transportation advocacy group Transport 2000, spoke in opposition to the Acadian proposal that includes dropping one return run between Halifax and Sydney," the Cape Breton Post reported on March 3."The UARB was also told Cape Breton companies and citizens require the extra bus run to move environmental and medical samples to Halifax in a timely manner, and that 11,000 students at colleges and universities across the province need affordable transportation to and from school," the Post's Tom Ayers wrote. http://www.capebretonpost.com/index.cfm?sid=330860&sc=145
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3 - Dignité rurale: Le train gaspésien reprend du galon« VIA Rail rétablira d'ici Pâques un service permanent de repas chauds dans le wagon-restaurant du train Montréal-Gaspé. Ce retour à un service aboli en octobre constitue le premier résultat d'une rencontre tenue jeudi entre le président de VIA Rail, Marc Laliberté, et des meneurs gaspésiens » Le Soleil a rapporté le 26 février.« Le comité régions-VIA Rail devrait tenir sa première réunion sous peu en Gaspésie. Cynthia Patterson, de Dignité rurale, se réjouit de cette ouverture, mais elle signale qu'elle avait approché le transporteur en 1992 à ce sujet. «Le comité permettra d'échanger et de corriger des situations qui ne fonctionnent pas [...] VIA avait besoin de se faire pousser et nous l'avons fait [...] VIA est réticent à implanter de l'animation dans le train, ou des forfaits. Nous pouvons nous occuper de ces aspects et constituer le lien. VIA pourra traiter avec un seul intermédiaire», note Mme Patterson » Gilles Gagné a écrit pour Le Soleil.
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4 - 305-kilometre Soo-Sudbury rail line: No backing from governments yet"Sault Ste. Marie MPP David Orazietti (Liberal) says the province is continuing to work with the federal government to sign the Canada-Ontario Provincial-Territorial Base Fund Agreement. Signing the agreement will leverage about $175 million in infrastructure money that would be distributed by the province," the Sault Star reported on March 5."'Those funds are directed by the province and is a decision the minister's office would make upon agreement for projects that are eligible,' Orazietti said" the Star's Elaine Della-Mattia wrote. http://www.saultstar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2478644
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5 - 483-kilometre Sudbury-Smiths Falls rail line: No backing from governments yetRenfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant "noted that CP Rail has announced that the Ottawa Valley Rail line from Smith's Falls to Matawa is to be abandoned. ... Gallant is urging the province to sign the base funding agreement so that money can flow to all short line rails," the Pembroke Observer reported on March 4."Ms. Gallant said Ontario is the only province that has not signed onto the base fund agreement. 'We have been waiting for the province to sign onto that agreement since 2008, and make a similar commitment as the federal government to railways,'" the Observer's Anthony Dixon wrote. The story reports federal, provincial, municipal leaders will be meeting on March 11 in Petawawa. http://www.thedailyobserver.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2476259
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6 - Transport 2000 réclame un tarif unique« Le groupe Transport 2000 Québec recommande d'établir un tarif unique pour l'ensemble du réseau du métro, à Longueuil, Laval et Montréal. Dans une lettre envoyée au maire de Montréal, Gérald Tremblay, déposée mercredi à une séance du conseil d'administration de la Société de transport de Montréal (STM), l'organisme estime aussi qu'une tarification du métro par zone comme celle des trains de banlieue «n'a pas sa place dans le contexte actuel » Bruno Bisson du La Presse a rapporté le 5 mars.
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7 - 765 voitures de métro : La STM balayerait la proposition de Zhuzhou« Le président de la Société de transport de Montréal (STM), Michel Labrecque, a suggéré hier que la STM rejettera la proposition du constructeur Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive de troquer les voitures de métro sur pneumatiques contre des voitures sur roues d'acier » Le Devoir a rapporté le 4 mars.« Le porte-parole de Transport 2000, Normand Parisien, a quant à lui mis en doute la «fiabilité» du matériel roulant au-delà de 2012, faisant remarquer que le parc de voitures de la STM trône au second rang du palmarès des parcs les plus âgés de la planète, tout juste derrière celui de Buenos Aires en Argentine. «Avec l'extension des délais qui est à prévoir [...], se dirige-t-on vers une impasse totale? » Marco Bélair-Cirino a écrit pour Le Devoir. http://www.ledevoir.com/politique/montreal/284159/zhuzhou-dans-le-metro-malgre-tout
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8 - 2nd Seattle-Vancouver train: New trainsets"On Friday, the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) announced it negotiated the purchase of two new passenger trains from Talgo-America for $36.6 million. The 13-car trains will be used for Amtrak Cascades service between Eugene, Ore., and Vancouver, British Columbia... Since 1994, Amtrak Cascades ridership has increased 823 percent," Progressive Railroading reported on March 2.Transport Action says the decision is a sign the second daily Amtrak Seattle-Vancouver is here to stay. The additional service began as a temporary measure last year as a result of pressure from many people and organizations including Transport Action. http://www.progressiverailroading.com/news/article.asp?id=22679
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9 - Olympic legacy: Light rail from Surrey to Chilliwack"Certainly it was the SkyTrain and Canada Line that did most of the heavy lifting for the Games. Roughly 600,000 more people per day than expected used the system, which carried about 1.6 million daily. However, it's a tiny 1.8-kilometre Olympic streetcar demonstration project between Granville Island and the Olympic Village that may prove to be the key transit legacy -- especially south of the Fraser," the Province reported on Feb. 28."The False Creek service also drew more riders than expected and, from day one, it's been very much "a streetcar named desire" for those in the Valley who call for just such a service on the former Inter-urban rail corridor from Surrey to Chilliwack," the Province's Brian Lewis wrote. http://www.theprovince.com/news/world/Streetcar+named+desire+shows+transit+future/2623789/story.html
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10 - Olympic legacy: Extend train service"The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics are soon to be a memory and so too will be the weekend and late-night service of the West Coast Express commuter train. So that begs the question, why not continue at least some vestige of that service?" the Maple Ridge News asked in an editorial on March 2."Oh no, CP Rail will respond ... TransLink will dismiss any extension of the WCE, which before the Olympics was already reaching capacity. No money, it will say. Other priorities. ... What voters and commuters in Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge need is, at the least, an extra train in the morning and evening, plus a return midday trip," the editorial said. "Forget about weekends for now. Just offer this minimum extension of service, which already costs taxpayers next to nothing compared to the acres of concrete needed to build roads and bridges for motor traffic," Maple Ridge News editorialized. http://www.bclocalnews.com/opinion/86037227.html
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11 - Colloque ferroviaire du Groupe TRAQ, Québec 2010: 27-28 avril 2010
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