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| Transport Action Hotline - 18 June 2010 | |||||||||||
In this issue...This is the Transport Action Hotline, issue number 1077, for 18 June 2010.
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1 - 157 Canadians were killed in air, rail and marine transportation incidents in 2009"Overall in 2009, there were 157 deaths in air, rail and marine, six fewer than 2008 and 15 fewer than the five-year average.While the TSB does not investigate all air, rail and marine accidents - or any motor vehicle accidents, which still account for most of the nation's transportation carnage - it's a propitious and important trend, says David Jeanes, president of the urban transportation advocacy group Transport Action Canada, formerly Transport 2000," the Ottawa Citizen reported on June 16."(Jeanes said) But it's not necessarily a reason for us not to continue to be vigilant. The government is making a lot of regulatory changes to transfer safety systems management to the railways and the airlines and to de-emphasize the role of government inspectors. The impact of that change would not yet have shown up in multi-year statistics," Ian Macleod wrote for the Ottawa Citizen.
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2 - 2,767 Canadians were killed on-the-road in 2007, 194,177 injured, $80 billion in costsMany road safety advocates want money spent on the "timely data" issue. The most recent official statistics are for 2007, the year before the year before last year. Advocates argue a real-time toll of the dead would add urgency to the mission. Many Canadian police forces already have real time data for road deaths and injuries in their jurisdictions. According to Transport Canada the annual estimated total costs of motor collisions top $80 billion.
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3 - Report de la hausse de tarif pour les usagers du métro de LongueuilL'association Transport 2000 Québec a accueilli avec soulagement la nouvelle du report de la hausse de la tarification au métro de Longueuil. Les usagers pourront utiliser la CAM habituelle pour accéder au métro jusqu'en janvier.« Nous considérons ce sursis comme une demi-victoire, a expliqué le directeur général de l'Association, Normand Parisien. Cependant, nous conservons notre objectif de départ qui est de maintenir le tarif de la CAM, soit 70 $ par mois, à Longueuil et de l'instaurer à Laval.» Le métro est le moyen de se déplacer le plus efficace aux heures de pointe et est l'un des moins polluants, maintient Transport 2000 Québec, et c'est avant tout pour cette raison qu'un prix fixe pour encourager son utilisation et la maintenir devrait être instauré. Selon les derniers développements, les usagers de la station de métro Longueuil pourront bénéficier du tarif de la CAM jusqu'en janvier prochain plutôt que juillet 2010. En janvier, le tarif deviendra celui de la TRAM 1, soit 84,50 $ par mois. Le tarif augmentera en janvier 2012 à celui de la TRAM 3 à 111 $ par mois.
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4 - TransLink in the black thanks to Olympics ridership surge"TransLink's operating budget turned in a $ 24 million surplus in the first quarter of 2010. Originally, TransLink forecast a $ 10 million deficit. The organisation credits Olympic ridership and VANOC payments for Olympic-related services, higher than forecast post-Olympics ridership, and cost cutting for the $ 34 million budget shift. At the June 15 "2011 Transportation and Financial Base Plan" public consultation meeting, TransLink's CEO stated that surpluses were unlikely to carry through the rest of the year. TransLink expects to draw down on its cumulative surplus as the year progresses," Transport Action's Rick Jelfs reports.
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5 - Make bus bays work, David Jeanes says"The City of Ottawa should put down the jackhammers and rethink its slow campaign to eliminate bus bays, transit activist David Jeanes says. The city has been gradually eliminating the cutouts in the curbs of some major roads where buses pull out of traffic so passengers can get on an off, on the grounds that buses often have trouble getting back into traffic afterward," the Ottawa Citizen reported on June 15."I think that bus bays perform an important role and they should be made to work. And if they aren't working, then there should be a report (to) city councillors about why they aren't working," said Jeanes, the president of Transport Action Canada," Claire Brownell wrote for the Ottawa Citizen.
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6 - Un système qui allierait le train léger et l'autobus : David Jeanes« Selon (Alex Cullen, le président du comité de la Ville d'Ottawa sur le transport en commun,) l'étude amorcée par la Commission de la capitale nationale (CCN) sur le transport en commun interprovincial n'est qu'un début. « Il y a plein de bonnes idées dans les airs, mais encore rien de précis pour l'instant », a-t-il déclaré » Pierre Dufault a rapporté pour Le Droit le 11 juin.« David Jeanes, le président du groupe Transport Action, est en faveur d'un système qui allierait le train léger et l'autobus. Il milite pour la remise en service du pont ferroviaire Prince-de-Galles et plus d'autobus sur le pont Cartier-MacDonald. « Les deux systèmes sont complémentaires. S'ils sont bien intégrés l'un à l'autre, ils créeront des liens rapides et efficaces », a expliqué M. Jeanes au Droit. »
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7 - LRT affordability talk in OttawaOn June 15 Talk Ottawa's Peter Raaymakers reported: "(David) Jeanes offered quite a bit of insight into a number of issues, from the cancellation of the 2006 north-south rail line to the reality of Ottawa's commuter system inevitably changing and the end of the no-transfer ride. What he was most passionate about, though, was that whether or not this plan is affordable isn't our most pressing question: He said that the 12km of light-rail track in this plan pales in comparison to the 120km of rail track his organization (Transport Action Canada, then Transport 2000) recommended back in 2003. He recommended the city find some way to better stretch the funding they've secured in order to get more kilometres per dollar."http://www.transitottawa.ca/2010/06/lrt-affordability-on-talk-ottawa.html
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8 - $400M Windsor-Detroit rail tunnel: $5 billion DRIC vote next week"Backers of a proposed $400-million Detroit River rail tunnel announced Thursday they have launched the first steps toward construction. CP Railway, Borealis Infrastructure and the Windsor Port Authority have joined together to work on building a new double-stack high-clearance tunnel to replace the existing rail freight tunnel constructed in 1909," the Windsor Star reported on June 18."The existing tunnel -- which annually carries 350,000 cars and $21.5 billion in trade -- was enlarged in 1994, but cannot be expanded further. The number of larger cars -- many originating out of the Port of Montreal -- has reached the point where a new tunnel is a necessity in Windsor to get freight into the U.S., said rail tunnel proponents," Dave Battagello reported for the Windsor Star. "The announcement reflects the latest border investment in Windsor following the launch of the $1.6-billion Windsor-Essex Parkway and recently completed $8.8-million improvement project for the Windsor-Detroit truck ferry. The state of Michigan is expected to decide next week whether it will join with Canada to build a long-awaited downriver bridge in Brighton Beach known as DRIC," the Windsor Star reported. http://www.windsorstar.com/news/Rail+tunnel+promises+jobs/3168454/story.html
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9 - The Teamsters and the Tories: Amendments to the Railway Safety Act"The Teamsters and the Tories see one thing the same: public safety when it comes to Canada's railways. Our union has been advocating tighter rail safety controls for almost a decade," William Brehl president of Teamsters Canada Rail Conference's Maintenance of Way Employees Division wrote in the Edmonton Journal."Sadly, the role of third-party watchdogs at Transport Canada was reduced in the late 1990s and derailments increased. ... The railways have proven they cannot police themselves when it comes to protecting public safety, so this government (with urging from us and others) has stepped in to give third-party watchdogs more teeth," Brehl wrote for the Edmonton Journal on June 16. http://www.edmontonjournal.com/story_print.html?id=3159650&sponsor= | |||||||||||
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