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| Transport Action Hotline - 26 March 2010 | |||||||||||
In this issue...This is the Transport Action Hotline, issue number 1065, for 26 March 2010.
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1 - Calendar
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2 - $5 billion for the Detroit River International Crossing: Panel discussion tomorrowTravel demand forecasts by the DRIC team looked 30 years into the future and stated that from 2004 to 2035, for the Detroit and St. Clair River crossings combined, passenger car traffic will grow by 57% and truck traffic by 128%. They did not take into account the impact of depleting oil resources and climate change. The forecasts were made before the current economic downturn.For the governments of Ontario, Michigan, Canada and the United States to spend $5 billion on DRIC is wasteful and irresponsible Transport Action Ontario says. In a brief released on March 24 the group points to a package of alternatives including better use of freight rail capacity, high speed rail, passenger rail, old CN Rail Port Huron-Sarnia tunnel, better Windsor-Detroit transit, bicycle lanes, a second span for the Ambassador Bridge, ferries and transportation demand management. A Transport Action Ontario panel will be debating DRIC tomorrow (March 27) at Toronto's Metro Hall (55 John St.) Room 302 at 1:30 pm. For information: Natalie Litwin President, Transport Action Ontario n.litwin@sympatico.ca or Tony Turrittin, Vice President turritti@yorku.ca
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3 - 2,767: Road user fatalities the year before, the year before last yearOn March 24, 2010 Transport Canada reported: "The 2007 Canadian Motor Vehicle Traffic Collision Statistics reveal a 4.4-per-cent decrease, from 2,889 to 2,767, in road user fatalities from the year before. ... 'Although fewer lives are being lost on our roads every year, remaining vigilant about safety is still key,' Transport Minister John Baird said."QMI media reported: "52.2% of those who died were drivers, 22% were passengers and 13.6% were pedestrians." Transport Action remains concerned by the data lag. Transport Canada's stale stats and soft-pedalling of "road users" deaths are not signs of safety vigilance in the transportation watchdog's book.
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4 - Ontario budget cuts contributions to Toronto's Transit CityIn a note to Premier McGuinty, Steve Munro wrote, "Now your budget tells the GTA that transit must wait, and begs the questions "how long" and "for what". You owe the people who supported your transit vision answers."Do you still believe in transit? Do you mean only to defer Metrolinx projects beyond the current financial crunch to smooth the growth in provincial debt, or has "The Big Move" gone the way of so many other grand schemes for transit networks? Will you ever return to funding local transit system operations, or are these at the mercy of priorities and financial pressures of municipal governments?" Munro wrote on March 26, the day after the Ontario budget. "Is a real commitment to transit too rich for your taste? ... (If so) how do you explain wasteful spending on a subway to Vaughan? How do you explain discrepancies between the scale of infrastructure spending and demand projections in the Georgetown corridor and the actual claims of your own agency about likely future service? How do you explain a farecard project whose cost projections have tripled and which shows no sign of implementation?," Steve Munro wrote.
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5 - Startling statistics: 106 people have died at railway crossings over a 15-year period"Stephen Thorne's Canadian Press story of March 17 notes railway-highway crossing deaths are at the top of the federal Transport Safety Board lists of concerns: 106 people have died over a 15-year period. That's seven per year all across our country. On our Canadian highways, about 2,700 people die through accidents every year. But that's a provincial jurisdiction. It's too bad Ottawa and our provinces couldn't get some perspective on the issue and work together on this much more serious problem," Transport Action Atlantic's John Pearce March 22 letter to editor of Halifax Chronicle-Herald said.http://thechronicleherald.ca/Letters/1173454.html
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6 - Churchill train uncertainty: Fly to see the polar bearsOn March 20 Transport Action's Dale Wilson reported: "The cut to 2 times a week for Winnipeg - Churchill schedule was never implemented due to a Train Service Agreement, which supposedly ended in February, with the owners of the line from The Pas to Churchill, the Hudson Bay Railway. It is believed negotiations with the Hudson Bay Railway and VIA Rail Canada are ongoing but tour operators who use the train in the fall for Polar Bear Season are switching to the airlines as group space will not be reserved by VIA Rail Canada at this time."http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/via-leaves-north-in-lurch-69638347.html
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7 - Nova Scotia Premier understands the importance of rail link to Cape BretonOn March 23 the Halifax Chronicle-Herald reported Premier Darrell Dexter was in Sydney, Cape Breton speaking about the plans to develop Sydney harbour into a world class container port. Jim Wooder, chairman of the Sydney Marine Group said that access to rail transportation is integral to the vision for the port. A renewal of a 5-year provincial government subsidy for that rail connection is still being negotiated between its owners and the province. Rail America has said it will need about $2 million annually for the next 5 years to keep the line in operation.Premier Dexter responded positively saying "We have to make sure that we are reaching the best possible kind of agreement that we can. As I tried to indicate here today, I understand the importance of that rail link to the island of Cape Breton.....not just because of my conversations with the many businesses who currently use that link, but I understand its role in the future economy of the province as well," Laura Fraser wrote for the Chronicle-Herald.
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8 - Le retour des repas chauds toute l'année à bord du train Montréal - Gaspé, dès le 24 mars« À la suite d'une réunion avec les dirigeants de la région de la Gaspésie en février, VIA Rail Canada a annoncé qu'elle rétablira à l'année l'offre de repas chauds dans la voiture-restaurant du train Montréal - Gaspé. De plus, un groupe de travail VIA-Gaspésie a été créé afin d'étudier les moyens de bonifier le service sur la liaison Montréal - Gaspé et de promouvoir le tourisme dans la région » Via Rail a rapporté le 23 Mars 2010
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9 - Hot meals on board the Montréal - Gaspé train starting March 24"Following a meeting with Gaspé regional leaders in February, VIA Rail Canada has announced that it will reinstitute hot meals in the dining car of the Montréal - Gaspé train on a year-round basis. In addition, a VIA-Gaspé region joint working group was created to study ways of enhancing service on the Montréal-Gaspé line and promoting tourism in the region," VIA reported on March 23.Transport Action members followed Rural Dignity's lead in the campaign to get the service back.
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10 - Austin Texas opens 32-mile MetroRail line"Texas' state capital joined the ranks of U.S. cities with rail service Monday as Austin's oft-delayed 32-mile Capital Metro Red Line opened for service. ... Surviving years of attacks from Austin anti-rail partisans and several changes in plans, a concept for diesel multiple-unit (DMU) service emerged, then struggled to find its political identity, with the Federal Railroad Administration ruling that the new service fell under FRA safety guidelines and was not a (diesel) light railway operation," Railway Age reported on March 23.http://www.railwayage.com/breaking-news/austin-s-cap-metro-finally-launches-metrorail.html
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11 - Edmonton LRT pumps up transit volumes"Even before the opening of the south side's anchor LRT stations at Southgate and Century Park, the ongoing extension of the light rail line has boosted ridership 28 per cent in 2009 from the previous year, and contributed to a jump of four per cent in overall Edmonton Transit ridership. Edmontonians commuting north to the university and the city centre, who have witnessed first-hand the extraordinary change, must be starting to wonder what the crowds will look like when the final leg of the current expansion opens next month," a March 23 Edmonton Journal editorial said.http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/gains/2714226/story.html
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12 - A streetcar network for Vancouver"The Olympic Line streetcar project can be built for one quarter the cost of any SkyTrain extension. The city owns most of the right-of-way that would allow a streetcar to run between the Clark Drive SkyTrain station, the Canada Line Olympic Village station and Granville Island. It wouldn't be that difficult to secure a right-of-way all the way to Arbutus Street. This routing would tie together all the SkyTrain lines and service the densest part of the Broadway corridor. A rapid bus line from Arbutus could adequately continue to service UBC. ... A $15-to $25-million-per-kilometre streetcar line operating at grade on existing rights-of-way is a relatively inexpensive alternative to the $100-million-per-kilometre cost of elevated or subway SkyTrain technology," Bob Ransford wrote in the Vancouver Sun on March 20.http://www.vancouversun.com/Vancouver+city+hall+should+this+streetcar/2706753/story.html
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13 - Detroit Bridge owner sues everyone: Unknown impact on $1.6-billion Windsor parkway"Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Moroun has filed a federal lawsuit in Washington against the Canadian and U.S. governments and several prominent government officials in the Obama administration claiming interference with his plan to build a twin span. It was unknown what impact Moroun's lawsuit will have on plans under DRIC for the $1.6-billion Windsor-Essex Parkway -- a six-lane below-grade freeway to be built as a new border feeder route in the Huron Church Road-Talbot Road corridor. The provincial government is leading construction for the project," Dave Battagello reported for the Windsor Star on March 25.http://www.windsorstar.com/business/Bridge+suit+targets+feds+officials/2723280/story.html
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