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 ....
How to Lose Rail Passengers
President’s Message
Le projet de “Train léger”
Cape Breton Tourist Train
Canada’s Airlines Swamped
VIA Parcel Service in N. Quebec
VIA Results
VIA Train Derails
Public Transit in PEI
Raise Speed Limit on Highways
Proposed Name Change
Tough Action on Air Rage
One in Four Trucks Fails Test
APSG News
VIA Rail Customer Relations
Montreal
Dear Sir:
I am a regular user of your services, to the extent that some months back you sent me something called a “VIA Preference Premier” card. I have lived in Kingston for eleven years and have repeatedly chosen the train over the bus because even though it’s more expensive, I like it better. I may be about to change my travel habits.
I buy my VIA tickets from Odyssey Travel in downtown Kingston. They are very helpful and courteous. They know me, my travel needs and it’s easy to buy train tickets from them. The VIA station is on the edge of town and, being a don-driver, it would be very inconvenient for me to buy tickets there.
Last week I bought a no-discount return ticket to Toronto. Odyssey told me they have recently been forced to apply a five dollar service fee to all VIA sales. Their stated reason was that their commission had been adjusted by VIA. This bumped the cost of my return fare from $128.40 to $133.40. I called the bus station and learned that their non-discount return fare to Toronto is $82.44, some 38 per cent lower than I will now be forced to pay for the train.
I resent having to pay for the privilege of buying a train ticket. I always try to buy advance tickets, even though your discount has been reduced from 40 per cent to 25 per cent. But sometimes my work forces me to buy a ticket well after the five-day advance purchase deadline. As it stand, I’m now paying a full fifty dollars more for the train than the bus. Despite my preference for the train, this is unsustainable. I could save hundred of dollars by switching to the bus. This is particularly galling in light of the several hundred million dollars in new subsidy that VIA recently received from Ottawa. Being a train supporter, I was glad to hear that news. Being a train user, I was, as you have now gathered, not so glad to see that this subsidy will not help me out.
What do you suggest I do? Please do not advise me to reserve tickets on the internet, as I am not on-line and even if I were, I would be very unlikely to use such a service.
Yours sincerely,
Jamie Swift
(In a discussion with a local travel agent in Ottawa, the above information was confirmed regarding revised commissions for VIA Rail tickets) Editor
The Air Canada - Canadian situation can be called “organized, predictable confusion”. A number of dis-satisfied travellers have called our office and other groups to complain about such matters as cancelled flights or lost luggage. We have been able to help them cope with the complaint process, but we hope that the government’s appointment of a Complaints Com-missioner and Air Canada’s naming a Consumer Ombudsman will help travellers more.
We are still waiting for an Air Passengers’ Bill-of-Rights from the airline or the MOT! The legislation in this area remains weak and mandated air consumer protection is nearly non-existant.
Transport 2000 Atlantic has raised questions about the “fit” between proposed Euro Nightstock trains and the Gaspé and Halifax services. A visit to Montreal is planned at the end of August to see the three coaches and to to obtain answers to some of our concerns.
The freight railroads have had a setback recently. The freeze placed on the CN - BNSF merger was enough to lead both railways to cancel the deal. CN and CP were angered by a government rollback of grain rates and they seem to have decided to “get even” with Ottawa by putting most of the access trackage to the VIA Station in Ottawa up for sale or abandonment. Sale price is in the 10 to 20 million dollar bracket. In the 1960’s, the federal government upgraded these tracks at public expense. Now, the railways want to hold up VIA for this publicly created infrastructure.
To make matters worse, CN has ripped up half the trackage in the Ottawa Station to make way for some big-box stores and office buildings which will served by the automobile. Not only is this land use incompatible with a railway station, it will take up space that Ottawa’s LRT service will need in a later phase.
The latter is a good example of anti-planning, very anti-rail in its effects, and was done by a Canadian railway!
The office can now produce computer-generated income tax receipts. Our web site has had to wait while Martin, Rafi and Eugene labour to set things right. Thank you for your help and patience.
Dans le cadre de ce projet pilote d’une durée de deux ans, le train léger circulera depuis le secteur sud à la station Greenboro du “Transitway” et l’ouest des plaines Lebreton, près de la rue Scott. En tout, cinq stations seront opérationnelles. Ce circuit est jugé important pour mieux desservir des marchés clés tels que les bureaux à l’angle de Carling et de Confederation Heights ainsi que l’université Carleton.
Pendant les jours de semaine, un service est offert toutes les quinze minutes de 6h30 à 23h, et toutes les demi-heures de 23h à 24h. Les samedis les trains circuleront toutes les demi-heures de 7h à 10h, toutes les quinze minutes de 10h à 18h et toutes les demi-heures de 18h à 24h. Les heures proposées pour les dimanches et les jours fériés ont une fréquence d’une demi-heure entre 7h30 et 23h.
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I faxed a letter on June 15th to Transport Minister David Collenette on VIA Rail passenger service on Cape Breton Island. Perhaps other Cape Bretoners will send their opinions to the minister on this topic.
I am a regular traveller on VIA Rail from Ontario to Nova Scotia. On June 14th, I saw for the first time in 10 years a VIA Rail train pass through Wentworth Park. It gave me a feeling of great pleasure to hear the train’s whistle and to know that some form of passenger rail service is returning to Cape Breton.
The Bras d’Or is a tourist train which will bring tourists and their dollars to the island. Unfortunately, this train service is once a week and seasonal, takes 10 hours one way, and is expensive.
I travel for work reasons, not for pleasure. I enjoy travelling by train. I have seen great improvement in the overall service offered by VIA Rail in the corridor and in the Maritimes, and I would greatly prefer to travel from Truro to Sydney by rail than by bus (or Halifax to Sydney to Halifax by air or bus) if the option was available.
I feel that regular passenger rail service to Cape Breton would greatly enhance the transportation alternatives on the island (especially with the loss of Canadian Airlines), and would also assist in ensuring the continued exist-ence of a rail link on the island until the economy improves to a point where more freight traffic occurs.
Captain Ron Gallant
Sydney, N.S.
Air travel complaints are piling up in Ottawa like never before as Air Canada struggles with a labour dispute and its busiest summer ever. Written complaints about all airlines that fly within Canada or internationally are already up 59 per cent in the first six months of this year compared to all of last year, says the Canadian Transportation Agency.
In all, customers have fired off 257 written and e-mail complaints about everything from poor service and lost baggage to flight delays and skyrocketing airfares from January to the end of last month. In 1999, travellers filed 162 formal complaints to the agency.
VIA Rail Canada announced the introduction of a pilot project to enable customers to send parcels to northern Quebec. Starting July 5th, VIA trains on the Montreal - Senneterre and Montreal - Jonquière lines have begun carrying parcels in their baggage cars.
“Rates are very affordable, from $10 for an envelope less than 1 cm thick to $25 for a parcel weighing up to 23 kg,” explained Benôit Laporte, VIA Rail Product Manager (Northern and Eastern Quebec). A flyer containing full details of rates and instructions regarding packing and wrapping is available from participating VIA stations.
The easy-to-use service is available at the following stations: Montreal, Joliette, Shawinigan, Hervey, La Tuque, Parent and Senneterre on the Montreal - Senneterre line; and Montreal, Joliette, Shawinigan, Hervey, Rivière-à-Pierre, Chambord, Hébertville and Jonquière on the Montreal - Jonquière line.
VIA recommends that customers bring their parcels to the station at least 45 minutes before the train’s departure. Recipients can collect their parcels as soon as the train arrives at the destination station.
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Transport 2000 Canada congratulates VIA Rail for inaugurating this new service. How soon will the service be expanded to other parts of Canada?Perhaps Canada Post might consider sending mail by rail again? Transporting mail was once a major source of revenue for Canadian railways. Service was quicker and less costly than present intercity mail service. In the U.S.A. Amtrak’s Mail and Express business achieved revenues of more than $40 million for the period January through April 2000.
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Revenues for the past five months of 2000 are six per cent higher than they were last year during the same time period. Ridership follows the same trend with the number of passengers increasing by 2.9 per cent compared to last year. In the month of May, VIA carried 8.2 per cent more passengers than it did last year.
VIA’s average on-time performance for the year is 81.5 per cent.
A VIA Rail passenger train was derailed west of Toronto on July 9th when it somehow left the main line and crashed into freight cars parked on a siding. No serious injuries were reported. A VIA Rail official, Malcolm Andrews, said there were 180 passengers and five crew members aboard Train 683, bound for Sarnia from Toronto, when it was diverted to the siding between Rockwood and Guelph at about 6:45 p.m.
Seven people, including a crew member, were taken to hospital for observation after reporting minor injuries, he said. Others were taken to a community centre in Rockwood. Buses were provided to take passengers to their destinations.
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There appears to be a very serious lack of safety within the railway industry in Canada. When are the railways going to correct this situation? Two VIA Rail engineers were killed in one such accident.
How is it that the densely populated province in Canada has an $800 million bridge, but no public bus system anywhere? Do Islanders really not need public transport? Or can’t we afford it? Or do people think it simply won’t work here? The need certainly exists. Islanders pay more per capita than other Canadians for transportation in terms of personal income spent commuting to and from work.
But surely every Islander can drive? Far from it. Nearly a quarter of the adult population do not have a driver’s licence. These include disabled persons, seniors, single mothers, young people and many other Islanders who, with personal incomes a fifth lower than the national average, can’t afford to own and operate a private motor vehicle. Still, those who can drive do so because they must. And so a population of 138,000 operates 70,000 vehicles, yearly consuming 1,000 litres of gasoline per person (20 per cent above the Canadian average) and spending $630 million on private transportation - a whopping 30 per cent of our Gross Provincial Product.
Drivers cruising along Canadian highways like the 416 and 401 should be able to travel at speeds 30 km/h faster than the existing limit, according to an expert on advanced traffic management. “I would be comfortable with 130,” says Baher Abdulhai, a civil engineering professor at the University of Toronto.
He explains that a 30 km/h increase would serve as a “practical limit” for motorists already driving faster than 100 km/h on major highways like Highway 401. Lower limits could be imposed near areas where there are “geometrical constrains,” such as sharp curves, in much the say drivers are required to decrease their speed when taking a freeway exit ramp.
Mr. Abdulhai adds that “there is no evidence that high speed limits will lead to more accidents.” In fact, that was one of the findings of a study sponsored by Transport Canada, which reported that “It cannot be decisively concluded that changing the posted speed limit will result in a change in collisions.”
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Higher speed limits mean higher fuel consumption which in turn produces more air pollution. According to the Canadian Medical Association, 16000 Canadians die prematurely due to smog related problems. The transportation sector is already responsible for over 25 per cent of green house gas emissions. What happened to the agreements made at Kyoto by the federal government to reduce green house gas emissions?
Lower speed limits would help to conserve our natural resources of petroleum. Future generations in Canada might appreciate having fuel to use in their cars and homes.
The same experts who advocate higher speed limits will be among the first to cry when fuel prices increase as our natural resources of petroleum are depleted.
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Names
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1
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2
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3
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Transport 2000 Canada
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40
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6
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7
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Transport 21
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6
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5
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4
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Transport 2100
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4
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2
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4
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Transport 20/20
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3
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1
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3
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Transport Probe
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1
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4
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1
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Transportation Probe
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2
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2
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2
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Transport Vision
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5
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7
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7
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Transportation Vision
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1
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2
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2
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Transport 2000 + (plus)
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9
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14
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5
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Transport Solutions
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1
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6
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9
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Transport Options
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0
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5
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1
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Transport and Environment
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4
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5
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5
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Transport Policy Group
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2
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0
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4
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Transport Reform
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0
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1
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1
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Transport Focus
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1
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2
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4
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Based on the above results, a strong majority want to retain our existing name. Several members casted all three votes to retain it.
In the rush to include the survey in the last issue of TransportAction, I accidentally omitted the choice of TransportAction in the above list. Your editor takes full responsibility for this omission.
In doing a search of registered names, David Jeanes has determined that Transport 2000 Canada had registered “Transport Action” (2 words). Therefore the steering committee has decided to hold a second ballot with the following names only.
Transport Action
Transport 2000 Canada
Transport 2000 + (plus)
Transport Vision
Transport 21
Transport and Environment
“We’ve had a visibly pregnant flight attendant punched in the stomach. We’ve had flight attendants kicked, punched, urinated on,” said Denise Hill, president of the Airline Division of the Candian Union of Public Employees. “We believe that violent passengers shouldn’t be able to fly on any Canadian carriers for a time period after their offence.”
Recently, in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Chicago and Boston, flight attendants handed out leaflets to passengers in airports. Flight attendants also campaigned in Paris, London, Mexico City, Taipei, Oslo, Stockholm, Lagos in Nigeria, Zurich, Frankfurt and Buenos Aires.
Flight attendants are asking for international regulations that would put stiff penalties on disruptive or aggressive passengers. One aggressive passenger can put the safety of everyone on the aircraft at risk, said Fred Jones, vice-president of operations for the Air Transport Association of Canada.
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About one in four commercial trucks were pulled off the road during a random inspection blitz at the Nordel weigh scale in Delta on June 6 - 8. Inadequate securing of loads and brake problems were the most common reasons.
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http://www.airportnet.org/depts/regulatory/rules/part139nprm.pdf
On July 10th, Transport Minister, David Collenette, announced that the Airports Capital Assistance Program (ACAP) had been renewed and increased to $190 million in funding to Canadian airports for safety-minded projects over the next five years. Mr. Collenette also announced that ACAP eligibility had been expanded to accommodate the proposed Aircraft Emergency Intervention Services (AEIS) regulations.