Transport 2000 Canada Hot Line

11 January 2009

This is the Transport 2000 Canada Hotline, issue number 1002, for 11 January 2009.

Visit www.transport2000.ca or call toll-free 1-800-771-5035 to read earlier editions or listen to this hot line. This week's edition was re-edited and recorded by David Jeanes.

In this issue...

1 - Calendar

2 - In Memoriam, Jean Pelletier

Former VIA Rail Chair and Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Chretien, Jean Pelletier died of cancer on January 10. He was dismissed from VIA Rail in 2004 over the sponsorship scandal and remarks made about former Olympic champion Myriam Bédard, though was later vindicated by the courts. As Quebec Mayor for 12 years, he restored rail service to the historic Palais Station and gained world heritage status for the city. He served on the 1992 Ontario-Quebec Rapid Train Task Force and was a champion for new investment in VIA Rail.

3 - Rail caucus leader wants high-speed rail

Dean del Mastro, the Conservative MP who leads the non-partisan rail caucus in the House of Commons is pushing a new high-speed rail plan, a super-fast link between Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. "If you start a line that connected these three major centres, it would be well-supported, would offer economic benefits, and obviously significant environmental benefit" says the Peterborough, ON, MP. Paul Langan, founder of the advocacy group High Speed Rail Canada and organizer of the January 31 symposium on high-speed rail, in Kitchener, said "In 20 years, there has never been more potential for a high-speed rail project and for rail renewal. There is no logical argument not to have high-speed. It just boils down to the political or public will." This report from Canwest News Service, Jan. 7.

4 - New buses for Montreal transit

The Montreal Gazette reported Jan. 5, 50 new and improved low-floor buses added to the MTC's fleet of 1,245 buses ... to boost service during peak hours by 10% on the 26 most-travelled MTC bus routes. Backing up the 50 new buses later this year will be 250 more new buses, including 58 articulateds. The Quebec government and city of Montreal are splitting the $300 million cost. "This is a real turnaround' said (Normand) Parisien, executive director of Transport 2000 Quebec .. "Years of pressure for better service is finally paying off"

5 - Infrastructure spending: Improve rail service

The Halifax Chronicle-Herald, Jan. 9, says "Rail service improvement is a popular idea among readers who have contemplated what the government could do when it starts a new round of infrastructure spending, aimed at heading off a major recession." Pat MacCoy of Sydney believes rail is the way to go but laments that the rail service to Sydney was discontinued years ago. She believes that increased truck traffic on Highway 4 to Sydney has caused deterioration of that highway and asks if it wouldn't be cheaper to have a rail service, with less pollution than diesel trucks, than the cost incurred in repairing the highways? and that that even subsidizing the rail service would cost less than money spent on building roads". Longtime rail advocate John Pearce, past president of Transport 2000 Atlantic, says that Nova Scotia should tap federal funding for fast rail. He points to Quebec, which has been modernizing its rail system with the help of federal funds.

6 - German Rail: 800 Bombardier coaches

International Railway Journal reported Jan. 5: that GERMAN Rail (DB) and Bombardier have signed a framework agreement worth up to Euros 1.5 billion for the supply of 800 double-deck coaches. DB says the coaches will help it to bid for contracts to operate regional services, several of which will be tendered this year. For the first time Bombardier will be able to supply the coaches as powered or unpowered vehicles, meaning DB will be able to specify electric multiple unit or locomotive-hauled according to operational requirements. The vehicles will also be compatible with previous generations of double-deck coaches, more than 1600 of which have been delivered to DB since 1994.

7 - A pitch for mass transit

The New York Times editorialized on Jan. 4 that Mass transit has always played second fiddle to the automobile, so president-elect Obama will need strong allies. Ray LaHood, Mr. Obama's choice for transportation secretary, must be not only an ally but a champion for mass transit. A Republican and former member of Congress from rural Illinois, LaHood's résumé on transportation issues is thin, and we fear he may need some coaxing in this new direction. Another important ally should be James Oberstar, a Minnesota Democrat, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. For years, the division of transportation money in Washington has heavily favored cars and trucks — more than 80% of the big transit money from gas taxes goes to highways and bridges, and less than 20% to rail or mass transit. Mr. Oberstar is leading the charge to change that formula and divide the money more evenly. This will not be easy. Automobiles will be with us a long time, and old spending habits die hard. But as part of the stimulus package now under discussion for transportation, Mr. Oberstar is proposing $30 billion for highways and bridges and $12 billion for public transit, certainly a far healthier mix.

8 - US stimulus cash will flow through state road departments

The Washington Post's Neil Post warned on Jan. 4 that the stimulus bill congressional committees are considering, as part of an overall $800 billion package that Obama might sign by later this month, seems heavily weighted to very large but relatively unimaginative expenditures. Long-neglected school, water system, transit and rail expenditures, for example, do represent important new departures and the draft legislation does include critically needed tax credits for renewable energy, plus steps toward an extensive technological health database. But if the package has one serious flaw, it's designating, without clear rules, huge infrastructure dollars to flow through state transportation departments. Critics claim the lion's share of funding will go to highway construction, especially exurban and suburban highways. South Carolina, for example, wants $2.4 billion to construct a new interstate highway through one of the state's most rural sections.

9 - CN Chicago rail purchase approved

On Dec. 24 CN welcomed the decision by the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to approve CN's purchase of lines of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway near Chicago. E. Hunter Harrison, president and chief executive officer of CN, said: "While we are pleased that the STB has approved the transaction, we are disappointed that the STB has mandated significant additional mitigation beyond recommendations in the Final Environmental Impact Statement issued by the STB's Section of Environmental Analysis with respect to the grade crossings in Lynwood and Aurora. CN is carefully reviewing the STB's decision".

10 - US Department of Transport: Raise the federal fuel tax

Associated Press reported Jan. 2 that the federal commission that oversees financing for transportation is talking about increasing the federal fuel tax. A 50% increase in gas and diesel tax is being urged by the commission to finance highway construction and repair, until the government devises another way for motorists to pay for using public roads.

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