Transport 2000 Canada Hot Line

12 December 2001

This is the Transport 2000 Canada Hotline, recorded on 12 December 2001, our 25th anniversary year, David Jeanes reporting.

In this issue...

If you can make a donation, please mail before year end, for a tax receipt, to PO Box 858 Station B, Ottawa K1P 5P9, or donate by Visa or Mastercard to (613) 594.3290 during working hours.

The office will be closed from December 24 to January 1 inclusive.

Federal Budget

The Federal Budget on 10 December committed to spend $2.2 billion on security measures for Air Travel. The actions are generally in line with proposals made to the government by Transport 2000's Air Passenger Safety Group. The costs will largely be borne by air travellers, paying $24 per round trip, starting next April. Security at Canadian Airports an on aircraft will be the responsibility of a new federal authority.

The budget also allocates $2 billion for a Strategic Infrastructure Foundation, including urban transit, but only from next March and only if there is a budget surplus of at least $1.5 billion. City spokesmen were optimistic about this new funding, which could bring the federal government back into an area which it has neglected for years. Most other national governments in developed countries do invest in urban transit. Transport 2000 is concerned that this is a soft commitment and that projects to use it cannot begin in earnest until March. In fact, $2 billion allocated to infrastructure in last year's budget is still a few months away from actually being spent.

There is to be $600 million investment in access to border crossings, but this will only benefit the road mode and is primarily for speeding up border crossings by truck. It includes new truck processing centres at border crossings.

Air Transport Association Opposes Security User Fees

New charges for airport security announced in Monday's federal budget are unfair to travellers and the industry and will end up driving customers away says a group representing airlines. The chair of the Air Transport Association says the extra user fees are unfair. "It's not an airline issue, it's a national security issue, and should be paid for by the government, not by the consumer." The Americans charge travellers a security user fee of only $3.95.

Council for Canadians with Disabilities still opposing Via Renaissance cars

On Tuesday December 4 the Council for Canadians with Disabilities again attacked Via for its purchase of the new Renaissance car fleet. At a Toronto press conference, representatives of the organization again criticized the vehicle outside dimensions, their European origin, and their supposed non-compliance to North American safety requirements. The substance of the complaint is now focussed on the desire for travel with full-sized motorized wheelchairs, which has never been possible by bus, air, or rail sleeping cars in Canada. Via have indicated that they have always and will continue to comply with voluntary codes, and will transport full-sized motorized wheelchairs in the same train with the passenger. CCD has taken an adversarial position to Via for more than a year, including CTA challenges, rather than working with Via to ensure the best solution within their budget constraints. Transport 2000 sees the 139 Renaissance cars as a major improvement in Via's overall capacity with state-of -the art equipment which could not have been achieved otherwise without a much larger cost.

Busway Proposal for suburban Toronto

On December 10, 2001 It was reported that the Greater Toronto Services Board in its final report before disbanding, urged the province and Greater Toronto leaders to set up bus-only arteries linking suburban centres with each other and with major Toronto subway stops.

They claimed that bus rapid transit with hundreds of buses running in exclusive lanes on existing roads and highways or along specially built routes including hydro corridors would give a bigger bang for the buck than with any other transit mode. While the disbanded board will leave it to others to decide on their exact locations, the busways would typically run along east-west routes across the top of the city.

A pair of north-south busways could also be built as extensions of Toronto's subway line through York University to the Vaughan city centre.

Costing an estimated $530 million to $785 million, the busway project could be built for less than half the price of a private sector light rail plan proposed earlier this year for $1.8 billion. It is claimed to be more flexible than rail for low density suburban areas since buses could also travel right into suburban neighbourhoods.

The board also claimed that a bus rapid transit network could be set up almost immediately, starting with reserved bus lanes.

Bus rapid transit is not new. It's been used in Ottawa, for nearly 30 years and with reserved busways for 10 to 20 years. However Ottawa's system, which is still not complete, was set up to transport suburban residents to a compact Central Business district. It does not work well for suburb to suburb commuting, and Ottawa is now starting to deploy Light Rail on existing tracks at far lower cost that the Toronto proposals.

Winnipeg Mayor pushes for creation of Rapid Transit

4 December: Winnipeg Mayor Glen Murray is reviving a plan to build a rapid transit corridor. Quashed by past city councils because of a hefty $74-million price tag, the cost has been chopped in half and Murray wants to see construction start as early as next summer. Winnipeg is one of the few cities in North America with more than 500,000 people without a rapid transit system.

Transportation Safety Board concerned about cockpit safety

Dec 10: officials are calling for an industry-wide review of the way emergency instruments are displayed in airplane cockpits. A safety advisory obtained by Canadian Press under Access to Information suggests that the instruments are small and placed out of the usual line of vision. The pilots on board Swissair Flight 111 which crashed off the coast of Nova Scotia in 1998, killing all 229 people, might have had trouble reading their backup instruments during the flight's final minutes. Just before crashing, the plane had a massive electrical failure that knocked out the autopilot and primary instrument displays, forcing the crew to rely on secondary instruments. The board wants manufacturers and regulators to look at their placement and an independent power source.

Bombardier European units win major Italian Contract

Bombardier received a $280 million contract to supply 100 electric locomotives to Italian Railways.

The locomotives are to be delivered at the rate of four a month over a two-year period starting in May 2003. Italian Railways had previously awarded Bombardier a contract for 140 of the locomotives. Bombardier has already delivered 80 of those. The new locomotives will be made at Bombardier's Vado Ligure plant in Italy. Other Bombardier facilities in Germany and Switzerland will supply the electrical equipment and propulsion.

Air Canada calls for single Canada-U.S. airline market

Dec 6: Air Canada is calling for the creation of an "unrestricted, single aviation market" with the United States to increase competition in the Canadian airline sector. The first phase of the airline's proposal would permit U.S. carriers to fly between Canadian cities as long as they stop at least once at their American hubs. Similarly, Air Canada would be allowed to fly between U.S. cities via Canadian centres.

For example Canadian consumers could travel between Canadian points on United Airlines and American Airlines, as long as they went by way of Chicago. Similarly, Northwest Airlines could fly Canadians between two Canadian cities via Detroit and Minneapolis, and Delta Air Lines via Cincinnati.

American consumers would have access to travel between U.S. points on Air Canada, as long as the flights went by way of Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver. Air Canada's long-term plan calls for unrestricted access - Canadian airlines would be able to fly between U.S. cities and U.S. airlines would have access to all-Canadian routes.

Under current rules from the 1995 Open Skies Agreement, Canadian and U.S. airlines are only allowed to serve cross-border routes. Milton outlined his plan in letters to Canadian Transport Minister David Collenette and U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Minetta.

Collenette appeared cool to Milton's suggestions Thursday and said he raised the issue recently with Minetta and there appears not to be much interest on the part of the United States for a modification of the Open Skies Agreement. Collenette was also skeptical whether Milton's proposal would help out Canadians living in smaller cities.

Resist 're-regulation,' Air Canada urges Ottawa

Dec 10: Air Canada said it has written to Transport Minister David Collenette, arguing that an "unrestricted" shared marked with the United States is the best way to help consumers. "We would not support re-regulation if it involved any expropriation or indirect transfer of our market share, routes or assets," the airline's chief executive Robert Milton said in a statement.

"We do not believe a truly competitive environment can be developed in Canada by resorting to outmoded regulatory remedies such as limiting the number of carriers allowed to serve a market or a particular route, imposing frequency, capacity or pricing restrictions or nationalizing the flag carrier," he said.

WestJet to add more eastern cities by end of 2002

Dec 3: WestJet Airlines said it will expand service in eastern Canada by the end of next year. adding service to Toronto, Montreal and Halifax. In the spring of last year, the predominantly western Canada-oriented carrier added service to Hamilton, Ottawa and Moncton.

WestJet's expansion announcement comes as Air Canada gears up to launch a low-cost competitor to WestJet in western Canada. Air Canada, the country's dominant carrier, also launched Tango, another discount carrier, on Nov. 1 to serve eastern Canada. WestJet criticized Air Canada's discount services as unfair competition.

New Brunswick requires brake status indicators for all school buses

Dec 4: All school buses in New Brunswick will be equipped with a new indicator showing the status of their brakes. The province has a zero-tolerance policy for school buses with brakes that are out of adjustment. Education Minister Dennis Furlong says the visual indicator will allow a fast and accurate test of the brakes before a bus is used. He says the devices should all be installed on all school buses within two months.

Thank you for calling the Transport 2000 Canada Hotline. For additional information, please contact our web site at:

www.transport2000.ca.