Transport 2000 Canada Hot Line

6 May 2001

This is the Transport 2000 Canada Hotline, issue number 600, written 6th May 2001, our 25th anniversary year, David Leibold reporting.

Due to the past weekend's Transport 2000 Canada meetings, this Hotline was written and recorded later than normal.

In this issue...

1 - Transport 2000 Canada Board and General Meeting Concludes

Transport 2000 Canada completed its Board and Annual General Meetings in Ste-Foy, Québec over the 4-5th May weekend.

TRAQ also held a colloquium on rail safety and security on Thursday, 3rd May, in the same venue.

This was an opportunity for members to visit the Québec City region, including a Friday tour hosted by pro-rail group TRAQ. This tour consisted of transport-related sites in the area, including the CLN/SAFETRAN facility at Charny, the ferry between Québec and Lévis, and sights of various current and former rail facilities.

Guy Chartrand, former Transport 2000 Canada President, was honoured for his long-standing contributions to the association.

Michael Jackson, a founder of Transport 2000 Canada, was on hand for the Annual General Meeting and Presentation on Saturday 5th May. He gave a closing speech to the day's events, which mark Transport 2000's 25th anniversary.

We thank participating TRAQ members, especially Louis-François Garceau, for a successful and entertaining time.

Your Transport 2000 Canada executive for the coming year is:

President: Harry Gow
Vice-President West: John Bakker
Vice-President East: Luc Coté
Treasurer: Bill Linley
Secretary: Bert Titcomb

Note that we welcome Bill Linley from Transport 2000 Atlantic as our newest national Board member. We thank David Jeanes, who will continue to be active in the association, having completed 12 years of dedicated service as Treasurer.

This is a preliminary report of the proceedings. Any remaining details from the AGM and Board meetings will be included in the subsequent Hotline.

2 - Québec Central Railway to open full network

The Québec Central Railway expects to have all of its rail trackage in service by the end of this year. The rail network links Sherbrooke, Charny, St-Georges-de-Beauce and Lac-Frontière. The short line is actively seeking business from communities along the route. One of its customers is the Chaudière tourist train.

3 - 2001: a space tourist odyseey

An American millionaire is back to Earth after making history as the first-ever paying passenger on a space flight. Dennis Tito paid up to USD$20 million to board a Russian rocket and spend 8 days in space including a visit to the international space station.

American authorities, particularly NASA, were upset that a private citizen could become a space tourist. Tito did receive space training prior to blast-off into the final frontier.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, the Canadian-based Da Vinci Project hopes to win an international prize for its space rocket prototype. The goal is to launch the rocket at least 100 km above the ground.

Related sites:

http://www.xprize.org

http://www.davinciproject.com

4 - Open access to CN tracks rejected

The Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) rejected applications by the Hudson Bay Railway Company and Ferroequus Railway Company Limited to open up access on Canadian National's tracks.

The short line operators applied in February under section 138 of the Canada Transportation Act. They wished to run trains on CN's lines, and also to seek freight business for these trains.

On 3rd May, the CTA concluded that the open access request was beyond the scope of the Canada Transportation Act.

5 - Roots Air is grounded

After mere days in the air, the much-hyped Roots Air announced last week it is going out of business. The Canadian start-up air carrier may have the dubious distinction of being the shortest-lived airline in history.

6 - Airline passenger counts increase

The Air Transport Association of Canada (ATAC) announced January air passenger numbers in Canada were up almost 7% over the previous January. Passenger increases were reported to be strongest for those airports having a strong presence of competing airlines such as WestJet and CanJet.

7 - Federal committee hearings into trucking hours

The House of Commons Transport Committee will be holding hearings into proposed work hour limits for truck and bus drivers, in an announcement made 30th April.

Both safety group CRASH and industry group Canadian Trucking Alliance welcomed the committee hearings, but their agreement on the issue ends there. CRASH is concerned that the new proposals would lead to excessive driver work hours. Trucking industry interests say the proposals should not cause a problem.

8 - Bus crash kills American students

Early morning 27th April, a bus carrying students from the U.S. left the road near Sussex, New Brunswick. 4 on board were killed.

9 - CP re-integrates eastern network

The St Lawrence and Hudson railway is expected to be formally re-integrated into Canadian Pacific's operations. This means the St Lawrence and Hudson identity will disappear in favour of a CP identity.

10 - Lévis VIA station

The City of Lévis, Québec, after supporting the replacement of passenger rail service with a bike path, is offering $1 for VIA's former station facility. VIA is expecting considerably more compensation.

Despite local petitions in support of retaining rail service, the tracks were pulled, and therefore the VIA Ocean route stop.

11 - Calendar

Thursday 10th May in Toronto: Transport 2000 Ontario is sponsoring a public forum on the future of transit with keynote speaker Dr Chris Kennedy, from University of Toronto. Place: Metro Hall, 55 John St, Toronto, rooms 308/309. 6:45-9:30pm, free. Information: Natalie Litwin (416) 498.0612, or e-mail nataliel@tor.axxent.ca.

Thank you for calling the Transport 2000 Canada Hotline. Thanks also to Harry Gow for additional items. For additional information, please contact our web site at:

www.transport2000.ca.