Transport 2000 Canada Hot Line

14 September 2001

This is the Transport 2000 Canada Hotline, issue number 619, recorded on 14 September 2001, our 25th anniversary year, Harry Gow reporting.

In this issue...

In this issue, World Trade Centre, Pentagon and Pennsylvania. horrors' transport aftermath.

1 - Air passengers diverted to Canada after U.S. terrors

Thousands of airline passengers stranded in Canada by Tuesday's terror attacks swapped stories and bided their time Wednesday as they waited for permission to continue their journeys.

Canada reopened its airspace to allow over 240 airplanes diverted by closure of US airports to resume their flights, but said the passenger jets will require clearance by US FAA before they were allowed to take off.

From St. John's, Newfoundland to Vancouver, airport tarmacs have been filled to overflowing by wide-bodied planes as passengers crammed hotels and makeshift shelters. Officials said over 30 000 passengers were diverted to Canada after the United States airspace closed following the deadly air attacks on the World Trade Centre (New York) and the Pentagon (Washington).

In Newfoundland, airports may not have enough aviation fuel to fill up dozens of extra planes.

In Vancouver, which received up to 6000 diverted passengers, heavy security was also in place for the arrival of several cruise shops carrying thousands of US passengers.

At Toronto's busy Pearson International Airport, spokesman Peter Gregg said 86 aircraft were parked, including 19 diverted airplanes. All loading gates were full while the overflow aircraft were parked on the tarmac.

Note: passengers were often spending the whole day sitting in parked aircraft given the overload on Customs & Immigration and other reception services. Communities like Halifax and Moncton had hundreds of homeowners taking in stranded passengers.

2 - Condolences from T2000 Canada

On your behalf, Transport 2000 Harry Gow sent messages of condolence to sister passenger associations NARP and IASA in Washington D.C. and New York respectively.

Ross Capon for NARP and Lyn Romano for IASA expressed their appreciation for the Canadian support.

3 - Disruptions from the Disaster

The disaster in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania had an immediate effect on air, rail and other transport. See trains.com and NARP websites News sections for full USA details. Suffice it to say that on Sep. 11th many services were shut down completely in the US Northeast, including Amtrak, commuter trains and subways. Hardest hit was PATH métro through the WTC; this is still shut down of course. Other services reopened late in the day. By Wednesday Amtrak was reporting heavy loads in the NE Corridor, as people sought an alternative to shut-down airline service. VIA Rail did not shut down and added extra cars in the Québec-Windsor corridor, but did not up frequency. Long lines of diverted passengers were reported for every VIA train in Ottawa. GO Transit ran extra early trains to take people home early from Toronto. At US-Canada border points Amtrak passengers were transferred to buses to complete their trips on Wednesday but on Thursday Luc Coté spotted an Amtrak North East Direct liveried Amfleet train in la Gare Centrale de Montréal, not at all the usual Adirondack consist!

4 - Nova Scotia train success; Night Star No Frills

No word on effects of the crisis upon rail passenger carryings outside the corridor, but John Pearce reports that traffic on VIA's Bras d'Or continues strong. Service will continue to October 17 with bookings expected to grow for fall foliage in October. Trips with 60 to 100 passengers are reported to be break-even. VIA expects to run next year based on tripled ridership this year. Rail America is rumoured to have requested federal help to shore up waterside trackage with deferred maintenance.

Another source reports a rumour that we may have to forget dome or glass-roofed Night Star cars and that 6 simple pre-packaged-food "diners" may be used on Easterly services.

5 - Canadian airport security privatisation concerns

Airport security expert Peter St. John of Winnipeg stated Sept. 12th on national CBC TV that Canadian airport security was downgraded by the removal of RCMP officers and the substitution of rent-a-cops and that the bottom-line focus of airport authorities has also contributed to this loss of security. For a moment your president thought he was seeing a re-run of an analysis of the British Rail privatisation disaster and subsequent crashes. And to think that the cement-heads (Margaret Atwood's words) that wrote the CTA review report want more of this cheapened dangerous downloading (of VIA Rail for example) to be foisted on Canadian passengers.

Ed. Comment: Are we expected to put up with the risk like lambs to the slaughter in order to accommodate an outdated economic dogma?

6 - Airline safety and the future of intercity rail

The following was submitted by David Garon:

Given yesterday's shocking and tragic events in New York and Washington, one can only speculate as to what enhancements in security precautions will be implemented in the immediate and medium- term future to achieve a more effective measure of control over who boards commercial aircraft. Regardless of what additional measures are imposed, there can be no question that they will increase waiting times on the ground and in the terminal for passengers, lengthen aircraft turnaround times, and generally reduce capital productivity in a marginal industry while increasing costs. And then there are overheads... like higher insurance premiums.

Has the high noon of domestic passenger air services has now passed in North America? Before yesterday's events, there were already innumerable safety, economic, environmental and logistical problems troubling that industry. Now it's clear that the industry is dangerously vulnerable at many levels. It's arguably time to de-emphasize domestic and particularly intercity air transportation, and to aggressively substitute enhanced and accelerated rail passenger service.

How many innocents must be killed by terrorists or in maintenance- related crashes, how much economic abuse must we suffer from national and regional monopolies, and how much more atmospheric pollution, loss of invaluable farmland and waste of non-renewable resources must we accept? When will governments recognize the folly of the current priority given to commercial air transportation? Our historic experience with the automobile does not provide us with much encouragement.

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