TransportAction is published bi-monthly by Transport 2000 Canada, a national federation of consumers devoted to the public interest in transportation.
Publié à tous les deux mois par Transport 2000 Canada, une fédération nationale d’usagers dont le but est de voir à l’avancement de l’intérêt public en matière de transport.
Bureau National Office
Suite 100, 117 Sparks St.
Ottawa, ON
P.O. Box 858, Stn. B
Ottawa, ON. K1P 5P9
President Harry Gow
Office Mgr. Bert Titcomb
Membership Martin Collicott
Editor Bert Titcomb
Tel. (613) 594-3290
Fax. (613) 594-3271
Hotline 1-800-771-5035
EMail: t2000@transport2000.ca
Web: www.transport2000.ca
In This Issue ....
Urban passenger rail transport in the U.S. has come full circle. The damage done during the 1950s and 1960s, when scores of U.S. cities abandoned their often extensive urban rail networks in favour of the private automobile, is now being repaired. At the nadir of U.S. urban rail contraction, only nine cities had rail systems. Today the number has reached 25, and it is still rising.
As far as light rail is concerned, there are now 17 systems in service, of which seven are being extended. Three new systems are under construction, work will start soon on two more projects, and others are being planned or studied.
There is little doubt about the success of light rail where it has been introduced and its ability to get people to leave their beloved cars behind and take public transport. St. Louis, for example, expected 17,000 people per weekday to use the 29 km Metrolink LRT line in its first year of operation. But it averaged nearly double this number at 30,000 riders per weekday.
Traffic now tops 42,000 trips a day and is still growing. What is more, about 80% of Metrolink riders used to travel by car. Unlike bus, Metrolink is also able to attract higher wage earners as around half of its passengers earn more than $US 35,000 a year and a quarter have salaries above $US 55,000.
The City of Portland, Oregon, has used its MAX light rail system to regenerate the city centre, which was in a spiral of decline. MAX has been the key to redeveloping the city area by area to provide new amenities and housing. The city even demolished a multi-storey car park and replaced it with a plaza, whereas without MAX eight additional multi-storey car parks would have been needed in the city centre plus extra lanes on each major road linking the suburbs with the city centre.
The success of systems like MAX, and the realisation that urban areas cannot survive let alone prosper with a total reliance on road transport alone, are spurring other U.S. cities to develop their own LRT systems.
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Canadian transportation officials should
travel to the U.S. and discover the
changes in urban transportation
The Minister of Transport, at the end of a year-long process came up with $402 million over five years for VIA Rail Canada (even if no extra operating funds were allotted). The new money will go to “new” trains, improved track and signals, retention toilets, and station rebuilds (especially Tornto Union Station). Without additional operating funds, VIA Rail will have to await the effect of new efficiencies before the current penury can end. Many communities hope for the return or improvement of rail service. They should request the government for additional operating funds.
Transport 2000 Canada did obtain an operating grant and $2 million for heavy renewals on the Chandler-to-Gaspe rail line, which was hit hard by the closure of the pulp and paper mill in Chandler, Quebec. VIA Rail’s Chaleur operates on this line.
Another issue that has our phone ringing off the hook is the Air Canada - Canadian Air Lines merger. Transport 2000 had supported the idea of rationalizing Canada’s airline system; too much wasteful duplication was leading to unnecessary pollution and high financial costs. At the same time, we advocated a passengers’s Bill of Rights and an airline ombudsman, in cooperation with our coalition, the Canadian Association of Passengers (CAAP) and the help of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC).
The Ombudsman, a Transport 2000 idea, has now been adopted by Minister Collenette and also by Air Canada. This happened after we went before the Standing Committee on Transport of the House of Commons on May 3rd, and insisted on the need for such a watchdog. We also asked for amendments to Bill C-26 which proposed weak protection for airline passengers. The Committee imposed 13 amendments!
The media have focused on problems associated with the merger; reduced frequency to regional airports, confusion at Pearson Airport, lost baggage, late and cancelled flights. We have had numerous interviews with the media, wherein we explain what is going on (note a 25% increase in air traffic over last year is part of the problem!) and advocate enhanced consumer protection.
This enhanced protection has also been called for by Bob Runciman, the Minister of Consumer Affairs for Ontario, with whom we have worked quite closely in recent months.
Transport 2000 has been invited repeatedly by national, provincial and other governments to participate in or to chair events on transport. We have been involved in the organization of an Ottawa Transit Summit and an Outaouais Sommet des Transports. We continue to provide consumer and technical input to the Ottawa Diesel Light Rail Project, for which ground has been broken!
The national office has recovered from the two burglaries which took place in the spring. Our revised web site is behind schedule, however we hope that the investment of time and effort by Rafi Ulla Gasi and Eugene Wong will help get it and our data base up-to-date. Thanks also to VIA Rail for their help.
Your continuing support is much appreciated.
Harry Gow, President
Aviation news in Canada in 1999 focused on the economic sustainability of the industry, particularly that of the second largest carrier, Canadian Airlines Inter-national, purchased in December by the largest carrier, Air Canada. Absent from the hundreds of metres of newsprint on the topic was any discussion of the environmental sustainability of aviation.
Of all transport modes, aviation is the least environmentally sustainable at present, and shows the least promise of becoming sustainable.
Indeed, if industry projections of world aviation activity come to pass, aviation will become a more important contributor to potential climate change during the next few decades that either personal vehicles or trucks, which are presently the two main transport contributors. Climate change is the major - but certainly not the only - factor in environmental unsustainability. According to the Boeing Corporation, the number of aircraft will quadruple between the years 1990 to 2030.
Two factors are likely to curtail the growth in the aviation industry. One is the need to sharply reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and thereby avoid further climate change. The other will be the lack of availability of low-cost aviation fuel.
As a consequence, the kind of growth predicted by the industry is unlikely to happen. A more likely scenario is that aviation activity will actually decline over the next 30 years. The current rate of investment in airport infrastructure will be found to be unjustified.
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However this approval includes shipment of gypsum forty kilometres to Point Tupper using 250 round trips by heavy ore trucks. This means one truck every three minutes (counting both directions) for a 24 hours a day for 20 years over already crowded highways. The route will use the two-lane non-controlled Trans-Canada highway with significant grades, and a busy suburban part of highway 4 along the Strait of Canso between Port Hastings, Port Hawkesbury, and Point Tupper.
Compared to the privately operated rail alternative, trucking presents serious problems with deaths and accidents on public roads, noise, road damage, and FIVE times the fuel consumption and polution of rail. But another longer term problem is yet to be appreciated.
With the pending closure of coal and steel industries in Cape Breton County, rail traffic will slow to a trickle. Two or three daily round trips by gypsum trains would do a lot to retain the economic base for the rail line. Loss of the line will put an end to hopes for restoration of year-round passenger rail service and excursions along the Bras d’Or Lake for Sydney’s growing cruise ship trade. Also hurt would be hopes for development of other heavy industry along the rail line.
It’s difficult to understand how, despite repeated protests, the environment and transportation departments in two different provincial governments have approved such a damaging transport alternative.
John Pearce
President, T2000 Atlantic
The South Australian, Northern Terrirtory, and federal governments had previously earch pledged $A 100 million towards the project. However, in final negotiations with the preferred bidder, Asia Pacific Transport Consortium, the three governments have provided a further $A 180 million. The consortium will contribute $A 800 million towards the scheme, which will involve laying 143,000 tonnes of rail and 2.3 million concrete sleepers, and is due to be completed in 2003.
Revenue rose 8 per cent to $1.4 billion from $1.3 billion a year earlier. The company’s operating ratio - expenses as a percentage of revenue - improved to 72.2 per cent from 76.8 per cent.
Owned by Scandlines of Denmakr, the Max Mols is a catamaran type vessel that can cross the Gulf in three hours compared to the average five to six hours by Marine Atlantic’s Smallwood and Caribou.
The new ferry could be renamed for the Newfoundland ferry service during her lease period to Marine Atlantic for this tourism season, can accommodate 800 passengers and up to 220 cars. It has no sleepers as they won’t be needed with the fast crossings between Port aux Basques and North Sydney. It can’t carry trucks, so in 2001 the Stena Challenger will enter service. Marine Atlantic paid $58 million for this ferry.
John Pearce, president of Transport 2000 Atlantic, believes that in the face of spiralling fuel costs and a shrinking airline industry, federal Transport Minister, David Collenette, should beef up Canada’s money-starved VIA Rail with $30 million in additional operating revenue and $400 million in equipment funding.
When that happens, T2000 Atlantic will renew its campaign to have Ottawa reinstate the VIA Atlantic along its Halifax to Montreal route through Saint John, says John Pearce. Once Maine begins its Boston to Portland Amtrak train next year, Mike Murray, executive director of Maine’s Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, wants to see it extended to Brunswick, Augusta and then Bangor. At that point, the authority will look at expanding the route into Canada, he said.
Murray’s rail authority has set January 25th of next year as its target date for the first Boston to Portland train that Maine has seen in 34 years. The authority has been working for several years to upgrade a succession of rail short lines to carry its future passenger train at speeds up to 79 miles per hour.
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For $7000 a head, wealthy European and U.S. tourists - or business executives - will travel in style in the same vintage cars that Louis St. Laurent, King George VI and the just married Prince Philip and Princess Elizabeth used for their famous cross-country tours.
“It will be a very high-end product,” said Fred Green, CPR’s vice-president of marketing. “It will be modelled on the Orient Express.” Tourists will be served elegant railway-style dinners on linen tabelclothes, with genuine CPR china and silverware, the same kind that royalty used 50 years ago.
The business cars will be the genuine article, refurbished from top to bottom. The Killarney car has been restored to its 1916 splendour, along with the Mount Stephen, the 1926 car that prime ministers favoured for their cross-country electioneering. That car seats 12 people in executive splendour on its rear platform, with an all-round view of mountains and rivers of Banff National Park.
The federal Export Development Corporation (EDC) secretly loaned $1 billion to the U.S. railroad agency Amtrak* while the federal govern-ment sharply cut passenger rail funding to VIA Rail. This loan allowed the U.S. government-owned Amtrak to sidestep a Congressional cap on capital grants, and gave Bombardier Corporation an undisclosed edge over rival bids to build Amtrak’s $2.6 billion U.S. “Acela Express” high-speed trains.
Details of the loan package has been a closely guarded secret. The amount owing climbed from $690 million to $1 billion as of the end of 1998. Amtrak is currently spending more than $50 million to promote the electrified trains as a sleek, sophisticated alternative to car and plane travel. They are designed to reach speeds of 265 km/hr and Amtrak hopes to earn $200 million per year once all 18 trains are operating. Full service of the Acela Express has been delayed months while Bombardier and GEC Alsthom try to solve some serious problems with excessive wear on the wheels. The consortium is facing stiff penalties - up to $13,500 per day per train - for not delivering the trains on time. Delivery is now about 6 months late.
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Canada has yet to build an airport with a rail connection to the nearest city. And yet our airport managers keep referring to our major airports as “world class”! Transport Canada officials recently travelled from Vancouver to St. Johns to hold one day hearings in eight Canadian cities on the Transportation & Climate Change Issue Table. Presentations were made by several T2000 members at these hearings, however the report prepared by Transport Canada contained several examples of misleading information.
(* Note: NARP states the money went directly to Bombardier)
LRT systems offer a number of advantages over bus transitways, such as:
The new legislation will make it easier for passengers to obtain satisfaction for complaints. In addition, the MOT will appoint an air ombudsman for the “transition period”. Absent from the bill was any reference to a passenger bill-of-rights, however Robert Milton, Air Canada CEO, has announced that Air Canada will promulgate its own version. The airline will also appoint its own internal ombudsman. Transport 2000 Canada first proposed these ideas, through the Canadian Asssociation of Airline Passengers (CAAP).
Harry Gow
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One of our Swedish colleagues, himself an expert in this field, recently told us: “It is hard to believe you have it like this in a developed country. Sounds to me more like some parts of Africa than North America!” APSG has been fighting for higher standards for more than a year now, against industry pressure to scrap this protection for passengers against relatively rare, yet potentially catastrophic crashes and fires. The Minister’s final intentions in this area are expected shortly.
APSG comments were quickly sought by various media contacts but have not been reported. We wonder if this because we have been too fair-minded on this complex issue. APSG is sensitive to the legitimate needs of manufacturers to get safe products to the market without undue delay.
APSG also recognizes that Transport Canada has been delegating large portions of its regulatory functions to the aviation industry since the mid-1970s and that, for the most part, this arrangement has worked fairly well.
However, APSG is very concerned that any delegation of TC’s safety oversight authority must be balanced by effective checks and balances to ensure that market pressures and commercial conflict of interest are not brought to bear on company engineers and inspectors. One need only look at the NASA management pressure brought to bear on engineering staff which led to the Challenger disaster. Transport Canada’s imprecise assurances of safety in this area do not impress or satisfy APSG.
Are we getting soft on industry? APSG does not exist to be hard or soft on the industry, the regulator or anyone else. Instead, we try to consider all arguments. Thus, APSG finds itself agreeing with industry on airport noise management but disagreeing on Emergency Response. We and our IASA colleagues are setting the agenda on electrical system concerns and playing a moderating role with respect to aircraft certification.