Transport 2000 Canada Hot Line

3 April 2009

This is the Transport 2000 Canada Hotline, issue number 1014, for 3 April 2009.

In this issue...

1 - Transport 2000 Calendar

2 - Transport 2000 campaign to restore passenger rail service in New Brunswick

"Iain Dunlop's timely letter to the Bugle-Observer for March 10, on behalf of Transport 2000, regarding the need to bring back rail service to Western New Brunswick, is a wake-up call. Transport 2000 encourages the use of energy efficient public transportation. It believes that "congestion, air and noise pollution, and traffic fatalities and injuries can be reduced by environmentally sound public transportation," the Woodstock Bugle-Observer reported on March 31.

Transport 2000 should now be supported in its efforts to restore Via Rail passenger service on the Canadian National "freight" line which crosses New Brunswick diagonally from Moncton to Edmundston and beyond, reconnecting with the main line near Quebec City. The line is in excellent condition and, as we know, it has been used for passenger service in the recent past.

http://bugleobserver.canadaeast.com/opinion/article/619898

3 - UPass voted down in Regina but has not gone aay: Catherine Verrall, Transport 2000

"Transport 2000 was quite involved in trying to help the students who desperately wanted this. Despite disappointment at the result the vote inspired a lot of attention on public transit. The possibility of someday getting the UPass has not gone away," says Catherine Verrall, Transport 2000 Canada Western Vice President.

According to CBC News on March 27: "Students voted Wednesday and Thursday on a referendum that, if it had passed, would have meant bus passes for all students, meaning they would have to pay an extra $69 per semester. Students who live out of the city would have been exempt. ... it wasn't even close: out of 2,666 votes, 1,887 said no and 779 said yes.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2009/03/27/regina-bus.html

4 - More airports get more free customs service: Seattle-Vancouver train must pay

Transport 2000 Canada has written to the Minister of Public Safety, Peter Van Loan and to Minister of Transport John Baird to protest preferential treatment given airports over Amtrak. This week CBSA announced six airports will be getting free Canadian Border Services Agency Clearance while the agency continues to call for Amtrak to pay a $1,500 per day fee for inspecting one extra train from Seattle to Vancouver.

The letter to the Ministers cited Transport 2000's Access to Information application, which revealed the CBSA took two years to acknowledge Amtrak's first request to discuss. In developments coming shortly after the letter was released, Transport 2000 has learned the Washington DoT, Amtrak and CBSA will meet again within a week. As well, the Vancouver Sun reported this week the CBSA may inspect the second train during the 2010 Winter Olympics but not beyond.

"... The second train is expected to generate US$18 million visitor expenditures, which means about US$765,000 revenue in GST for the Federal Government. So the Federal Government makes a profit even if we assume the dollar at par," John D. Bakker, President of Transport 2000 BC and Professor Emeritus at the University of Alberta says.

5 - Transports en commun: Une charte pour les usagers

Des groupes d'utilisateurs du transport en commun souhaitent la mise en place d'une charte des usagers, qui consacrerait les droits des voyageurs et obligerait les sociétés de transport à leur offrir un service ponctuel, sécuritaire et fiable," QMI a rapporté le 29 Mars.

L'idée a été lancée par Transport 2000 Québec, un organisme qui fait la promotion des droits des usagers, après une tournée provinciale au cours de laquelle ont été rencontrés 75 organismes socio-économiques.

«Pour ceux qui n'ont pas le choix d'utiliser le transport en commun, ou qui choisissent de les emprunter, se déplacer doit être un droit et non un privilège», explique le directeur général de l'organisme, Normand Parisien.

http://lejournaldesherbrooke.canoe.ca/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=90803&id=103&classif=En+manchettes

6 - Transport 2000 Ontario congratulates the McGuinty government for funding transit

Transport 2000 Ontario congratulated the McGuinty government for announcing $9-billion in real transit funding for Greater Toronto on April 1. This funding will kick start the implementation of several Metrolinx proposed transit improvements and fortunately will not be delayed by any requirement for matching federal or municipal funding.

Transport 2000 Ontario is particularly pleased that the first major project within the City of Toronto will be the restart of the long delayed line on Eglinton with a direct connection to Pearson International Airport. This clearly reduces, if not eliminates, the need to build the Air-Rail link from downtown to Pearson, especially if not electrified from the outset.

Given the current recession Transport 2000 Ontario urges the government to investigate with the unions and construction firms whether a two-shift work schedule during the day and/or weekend shifts would be possible. Once negotiated, such an accelerated schedule would put more construction workers back to work and offer an earlier completion date.

7 - Calling out the stops: Some passengers depend upon it: David Jeanes, Transport 2000

"A Canadian Transportation Agency ruling in effect that says all OC Transpo drivers must call out major and requested stops. Since drivers are doing that, some people are questioning why the city is moving to an "expensive high-tech upgrade" to do the same thing," CFRA reported on April 1.

An informal survey of O-C Transpo users Wednesday suggests more than half of drivers are still not calling out the stops, which will be a problem for the transit company if caught. David Jeanes with Transport 2000 says moving to the automated system will remove the concerns that it's hit and miss to have drivers do it, adding for some riders, it's a vitally important feature.

"Blind people depend a lot on following regular routes and memorizing geography. So if a bus driver puts you off at the wrong stop, for a blind person, it may be catastrophic," Jeanes tells CFRA News. The automated system won't be ready for a while yet, so it falls upon the drivers to help OC Transpo stay in compliance.

http://www.cfra.com/?cat=1&nid=64181

8 - Calin Rovinescu: Air Canada CEO

"CAW President Ken Lewenza is calling the appointment of former chief restructuring officer Calin Rovinescu as Air Canada CEO a disturbing choice for the country's national air carrier as it struggles to rebuild," Canada Newswire reported on March 31st

"It is hard to understand that Air Canada would bring back someone who headed up the last restructuring attempt, when it is very clear those efforts not only failed, but also helped create the financial turmoil currently plaguing the company," said Lewenza.

"Today Air Canada is weakened as a result of selling off profitable sections of the company and leaving the core business so vulnerable. ... Of particular concern to CAW members is the Air Canada pension plan, which currently faces a major funding shortfall ... .

9 - STM: On craint une explosion tarifaire de 10%: Normand Parisien, Transport 2000

L'administration Tremblay a aussi confirmé qu'en raison de la crise financière, elle ne sera pas en mesure de combler le déficit anticipé de 40 millions $ à la Société de Transport de Montréal (STM). Une situation qui laisse présager le pire pour les groupes de défense des usagers du transport en commun," Agence QMI a rapporté le 26 Mars.

«C'est impossible que la STM ne touche pas aux services aux usagers, Le pire risque d'arriver en janvier 2010. On craint une explosion tarifaire de 10%», affirme le président de Transport 2000, Normand Parisien. La Ville souhaite d'ailleurs que le gouvernement du Québec vienne à la rescousse de la STM en mettant en place de nouvelles solutions de financement pour le transport métropolitain.

http://www2.canoe.com/infos/quebeccanada/archives/2009/03/20090326-125715.html

10 - Canadian Pacific presents to Transport 2000 Ontario AGM

Transport 2000 Ontario's Annual General Meeting on March 28 included a presentation by Canadian Pacific Railway. CP's Don Mitchell outlined a number of recent steps taken by the railway to improve passenger services including:

11 - U.S. $13 billion for high-speed rail.

With the (LRT) Tide under construction in Norfolk, Va., and new interest in the project from Virginia Beach, 2009 will be a defining year for light rail in Hampton Roads, according to an editorial this week in The Virginian-Pilot. But there's another opportunity racing toward the region: a chance to connect to a national high-speed rail system.

"The idea of extending high-speed service to cover the entire East Coast has been rattling around Washington, D.C., for more than a decade, but without the dollars needed to widen, straighten and relocate tracks to accommodate faster trains. A convergence of economic, energy and environmental challenges has pushed rail higher on the list of national priorities, and the renewed attention has brought promises for significant federal investment. President Obama's budget and stimulus plan include a total of $13 billion for high-speed rail," Railway Track and Structures reported on March 30.

"Thirteen billion big ones ought to capture regional leaders' attention, but so far they've been distracted by other projects and by provincial tensions. On the infrequent occasions when the project has come up in past years, it generated internecine disputes over whether the rail line should enter the region from the Peninsula via the existing CSX rail corridor or through South Hampton Roads, following U.S. 460."

12 - Metrolinx Marries GO, Dumps Pesky Politicians: Steve Munro

"Today the Government of Ontario announced that GO Transit and Metrolinx would be merged together in one agency. Some sort of takeover was contemplated in the original Metrolinx legislation which proposed that GO become a division of Metrolinx, but this part of the bill was never proclaimed," Steve Munro reported on March 30.

What will be the effect of this merger? In the short term, many things are unknown, but there is good reason to worry that Queen's Park may actually have derailed the very agency that was on the verge of building a regional network.

Even though Metrolinx is a regional agency, many of its proposed services are local in nature. GO itself will evolve beyond recognition once it operates frequent, all day, two way service on its major corridors. Neither Metrolinx nor GO shows much interest in local, off-peak, and non-core-oriented services, but these will be essential to the success of the regional network.

If the new Metrolinx chooses to meet mainly in private, to become a little club for people with some but not much actual knowledge of the region and its transit needs, to enter into contracts without benefit of public scrutiny, then we will have made a huge step backwards. The new Metrolinx has a chance to engage the public, and it should do so, meaningfully, at every opportunity.

http://stevemunro.ca/?p=1939#more-1939

13 - Public meetings for AMT commuters behind schedule

"In January, as he struggled to defuse growing anger over unreliable service and overcrowding, the head of the agency that operates Montreal commuter trains promised something unheard of at the AMT - 10 annual public meetings at which commuters could vent, ask questions and make suggestions," Andy Riga reported in the Montreal Gazette on March 30.

Tuesday is the last day of March and no meetings have been held, nor have any been scheduled. And the five promised permanent committees - one for each of the AMT's five train lines - that were to be the meetings' centrepieces have not been set up.

The AMT made big promises to calm "grumbling customers," but "after the storm passed, the door seemed to close again," said Normand Parisien of advocacy group Transport 2000. Town-hall meetings are a good start but the AMT board should also meet in public, he said.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Public+meetings+commuters+behind+schedule/1445680/story.html

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

www.transport2000.ca.