Transport 2000 Canada Hot Line

3 October 2008

This is the Transport 2000 Canada Hotline, issue number 988, 3 October 2008.

In this issue...

1 - Calendar

mardi le 7 octobre - consultation par Transport 2000 Québec quant aux droits des usagers -- Gatineau, Québec

1st November: Transport 2000 Canada Board meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia

2 - Transport 2000 entreprend une tournée des neuf plus grandes villes du Québec

L'association Transport 2000 Québec effectuera, du 30 septembre au 22 octobre, une tournée des neuf plus grandes villes desservies par transport en commun urbain. Le but de cette tournée est de rencontrer les comités d'usagers, d'inviter les sociétés de transport à leur présenter leur plan stratégique de développement (PSD) de même que leurs politiques en matière de relations avec les clientèles. De son côté, l'Association dévoilera les résultats d'une recherche sur la situation des droits des usagers au Québec.

Aussi, l'Association souhaite faire consensus sur l'importance du droit à la mobilité, la pertinence d'une charte de l'usager. ... Enfin, les trois groupes de villes visitées sont les suivants : Montréal Québec et Gatineau; Laval et Longueuil; Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières, Saguenay et Lévis. Une table nationale est prévue en novembre. Renseignements: Normand Parisien, (514) 932-8008

3 - Nova Scotia rural transit system gaining passengers quickly

"As noted in the recent CUTA congratulation to Charlottetown Transit on its 3rd Anniversary, it takes 2 or 3 years to show consistent growth in transit and get people to get into the transit habit," Transport 2000's John Pearce reports.

After exactly one year in operation the new West Hants (Brooklyn-Windsor-Wolfville) extension of Kings Transit is beginning to show a steady growth trend. Passenger numbers are as follows: 2007: Sept. 2075, Dec. 1331; 2008: Jan. 1664, Aug. 2654.

New schedules, routes, and a campaign for summer bike rack and student riders helped. Total 12 month revenue (passes, seniors, and full fare of $3 per trip) was $46,586 or $1.90 per rider," Pearce reports.

4 - Ontario's Inaugural Road Pricing Forum

Traffic congestion. Lost time. Crumbling roads. Increasing emissions. Few transportation choices. Can road pricing play a role in improving mobility, air quality and the state of the nation's transportation infrastructure? Or is it just a cash grab?

The forum will be held on Nov. 13 at Hart House, University of Toronto. Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario, Labourers' International Union Local 183 and the Ontario Professional Planners Institute are involved in the event.

http://www.rccao.com/events

5 - Canada falling behind in road safety

"Canada is falling short of its goal of reducing traffic deaths by 30 per cent, and in some areas, road safety is getting worse, government and road safety officials were warned yesterday," the Waterloo Region Record reported.

"The country is unlikely to meet its target of reducing road deaths cutting fatalities by almost a third between 2001 and 2010" Paul Gutoskie of Transport Canada told the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators.

Deaths were 2,900 in 2006, down from 2,966 in 2001; serious injuries were 15,900 down from about 18,000. Canada needs to drop to 2,100 fatalities and 11,600 injuries by 2010 to meet its stated goals.

6 - Message in the bottles: truckers need help

"Unsightly bottles filled with a familiar amber coloured liquid, line the highway. Their numbers keep rising, although a woman in Wawa tries her hardest to get the practice stopped," the Sault Star reported.

"Karin Grundt has written letters to various government agencies for help since 2005, but to no avail, she says. ... She compares Wawa to a garbage dump for people travelling through," the Star reported on Oct. 3.

Work by Transport 2000's Harry Gow and Barry Wellar suggests the issue also needs to be addressed from the perspective of the health and safety of truck drivers.

7 - Ottawa, Pontiac, Pembroke commuter rail test

"As the drive for a commuter rail service ... through Pontiac and Renfrew Counties into Ottawa continues to build momentum, details have emerged concerning an initial pilot train. Mayors and public officials from numerous municipalities on both sides of the Ottawa River confirmed Sunday, Oct. 5 as the date for a demonstration run. 'All municipalities are onside with this initiative,' says SADC Pontiac Community Futures executive director Louise Donaldson. 'We need a pilot train to get a sense of distances, times and specific issues,'" Spareboard reported.

Using standard and existing rail equipment, the Ottawa Central Railway pilot train is scheduled to leave Walkley Yard and proceed north-west on OCR track on the Beachburg Sub, ... into Quebec at Fitzroy Harbour, skirting Shawville and Bristol before crossing back into Ontario ... (it) continues north-west through Beachburg and into Pembroke, Ontario.

http://www.railways.incanada.net

8 - Calgary Airport: Infiltrated by organized crime

"As organized criminals allegedly take advantage of slack security at Calgary's airport, there seems to be no one agency claiming responsibility for ensuring measures are in place to prevent them from doing illegal business there," the Calgary Sun reported.

Liberal Senator Colin Kenny said RCMP reports 54 organized-crime groups operate in Alberta with three active at the Calgary International Airport.

"But Kenny, who is president of the Senate committee on national security and defence, said when he raised the alarm with Transport Canada, he was told nothing is being done to address reports of organized criminals bypassing security to move everything from drugs to weapons" the Calgary Sun reported on Sept. 28.

9 - No LRT on the Ottawa River Parkway: Barry Wellar

"The transit debate in Ottawa has a long and troubled history, and the notion of light rail in the (Ottawa River) Parkway adds another disturbing paragraph. This letter contains six evaluation criteria that may induce the NCC and the City of Ottawa to drop the bizarre notion of using the Parkway for LRT," Barry Wellar, Transport 2000 Canada's resident Distinguished Scholar wrote in the Ottawa Business Journal.

"I have not seen one persuasive argument to put LRT along the Parkway, but many compelling arguments can be arrayed to put it somewhere else. The NCC should negate the foolish Parkway idea now so that our municipal politicians can focus their wits on choices that make long-term economic, financial, geographic, planning, and environmental sense," Wellar wrote in the Ottawa Business Journal on Sept 29.

10 - Metrolink: Second engineer, positive train-control

"Under new pressure to swiftly increase safety measures, Metrolink will begin adding a second engineer to some of its commuter trains in the first visible reform since a deadly crash in Chatsworth," the LA Times reported.

Backup engineers will come from a pool of employees normally used to replace primary engineers who are on vacation, sick or out on training. This comes after a Metrolink train failed to heed a warning light on Sept. 12 and crashed head-on into a Union Pacific freight train in Chatsworth. Twenty-five people died and 135 were injured. Early indications are that human error caused the crash.

"A rail safety bill the House of Representatives passed this week requires railroads to equip their trains with positive train-control systems by 2015," the Times reported on Sept. 27.

11 - Senate backs Amtrak

On Oct. 1 the Senate passed the passenger train/rail safety bill passed by an overwhelming 74-24 vote. In a statement this afternoon, a White House spokesman said President Bush will sign the bill," Ross Capon, Executive Director National Association of Railroad Passengers reported.

http://www.narprail.org/cms/index.php/news_releases/more/nr08_22/

12 - Californians to vote on a $9.95 billion high-speed rail bond

Proposition 1A on the Nov. 4 ballot would authorize the sale of $9.95 billion in bonds to help start construction of an 800-mile high-speed rail network that would send electric trains zipping between Northern and Southern California at up to 220 mph.

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

www.transport2000.ca.