Transport 2000 believes rail-based surface shipping is unfairly undermined by competition from the trucking industry. Transport 2000 notes the trucking industry requires the public to cover many of its costs including carbon emissions, road maintenance and about 600 lives a year nationally.
Transport 2000 questions how results will be measured. The most recent statistics for road safety are from 2005. In 2007 Ontario introduced new rules increasing the number of hours truck drivers can work in a week. There are no safety results yet available on the impact of the "Hours of Service" regulation.
L'an passé, nous avons organisé notre 12e colloque ferroviaire et avons traité du thème spécifique TGV. ... Cette année, notre 13e colloque ferroviaire du Québec qui se déroulera encore une fois à Québec, traitera spécifiquement des «trains de banlieue», surtout ceux à venir dans la région de Québec.
Le président d'honneur sera nul autre que M. Joël Gauthier, président directeur-général de l'AMT (Agence métropolitaine de transport). Les consultants Canarail feront une présentation également sur le tramway. Quelle belle activité ferroviaire! Le maire de Québec ne viendrait pas aux dernières nouvelles, les sociétés de transport non plus et c'est comme çà. ... Nouvelle de dernière heure, Mme Pauline Marois, députée de Charlevoix, viendra nous rencontrer avec quelques députés du Parti québécois le mercredi 29 avril.
"British Columbians should be furious. After all, $3 million of their tax dollars helped provide extra rail capacity for this initiative. In addition to the B.C. government and Amtrak, the train has support from Tourism B.C., the State of Washington, and the Vancouver Olympics Committee," Metro's Derek Moscato wrote.
"Last month, I wrote to John Baird, Canada's Minister of Transport, to find out more about Ottawa's role in this. I have yet to hear back from him. But I have heard back from Quebec-based Harry Gow, a tireless rail advocate and government watchdog who is the founding president of the group Transport 2000. Over the past year, he and Transport 2000 colleagues have chased down politicians and bureaucrats connected to this saga. And what they have uncovered is deeply troubling. According to Gow, documentation returned from Access to Information requests shows the CBSA took two years to respond to correspondence from Amtrak about arrangements to clear international passengers."
http://www.metronews.ca/vancouver/comment/article/212284
High Speed Rail Canada founder Paul Langan says: "Please join us for the second in our Canada-wide series of public symposiums on high speed rail. A wide variety of speakers will present, including: representatives of High Speed Rail Canada, representatives of engineering firms Alstom, Bombardier, and Siemans; Member of Parliament Dean Del Mastro, and Keynote Speaker Greg Gormick, Contributing Editor, Railway Age. Mark Farwell of AM 740 News will moderate the event.
"There are mechanisms and technologies that the city could implement on a test basis similar to what Ottawa did early in this decade, which is to have a LRT system that would use diesel powered light rail vehicles on existing freight railway tracks. An ideal location is the CPR line that runs from Sutherland, past the university and through the downtown to Confederation. Such a modest system would gauge the impact of LRT and how much utilization such a system would have. The cost of this pilot project would be relatively low ...".
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/story_print.html?id=1490461&sponsor
"In studying the potential for the Peterborough train, it's pedal to the metal. We're doing this as quickly as we can,' he said. Ontario and the federal Conservative government committed as much as $150 million each in the Building Canada Fund agreement toward the Peterborough commuter rail line in July, contingent on the results of the Metrolinx study. Metrolinx is targeting for a fall 2009 completion, Howe said. 'It's a target date that our federal and provincial government partners have also been anticipating,' he said."
http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1518954
"The consulting firm says 589 kilometres of urban and rural roads in Norfolk need $132-million in repairs before the entire system can be classified as "adequate." Norfolk spends about $4.4 million a year on upkeep. McCormick Rankin says this has to rise to $15 million a year over the next decade to maintain the status quo," the Reformer reported.
Norfolk's quandary is typical of Ontario municipal infrastructure, and unfortunately, also of Ontario's short line railway tracks. While Québec acted some time ago to address both issues, Ontario has been slower to come to the table for rural municipalities. It has totally ignored the needs of its short lines. Currently, the Huron Central Railway, the Ottawa Valley Railway and the western end of the Ottawa Central are all in danger of abandonment absent any assistance from the Province of Ontario.
http://www.simcoereformer.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1520915
"The project to promote a commuter service that would potentially encourage new business opportunities, create jobs, provide alternatives to the thousands who commute to the city on a daily basis, as well as contribute to the development of the Ottawa Valley and the Pontiac, is now ready to move to the next stage in development (with) Rail Future Group Inc. ... compiling information from online surveys to determine if a three-year pilot project will become a reality.
"... MP Lawrence Cannon has been supportive of the project since its preliminary run on Rail Day on Oct. 5, 2008, and resolutions were signed by the municipalities of Pontiac and the Ottawa Valley".
The public survey is available in both official languages at either of the following websites:
http://www.commercepontiac.ca/
« Fondamentalement, le développement du nouveau CHUM est un beau projet. Loin de nous l'idée de vouloir le retarder ou le handicaper. ... Or, comme le nouveau CHUM est au centre-ville, il répondra à deux des critères essentiels tels que définis par la commission Johnson-Mulroney en 2004-2005: un, son accessibilité maximale par transports en commun; deux, sa capacité à répondre à des services de proximité dans un secteur qui en a bien besoin en termes de santé et de services sociaux » Parisien a écrit dans La Presse
« Une opinion largement répandue dans le journal La Presse ces derniers jours donne à croire que les espaces de stationnement - et leur révision à la hausse - sont essentiels au développement du projet, qu'il faut ainsi éviter via un débat additionnel d'en évaluer la pertinence sinon l'opportunité même, compte tenu des besoins allégués à cet égard.
...
« Bref, où doit-on investir les rares ressources que laissera derrière elle la construction des infrastructures: dans les services de recherche spécialisée et dans la livraison des services, ou dans le stationnement (qui coûterait au bas mot entre 50 et 100 millions)? Oui, nous croyons qu'un minimum de débat public s'impose à ce sujet et on ne saurait en faire l'économie par divers subterfuges » Parisien a écrit dans La Presse.
"John Pearce, past-president of Transport 2000 Atlantic, questions the wisdom of spending $4 million per kilometre to expand the road network when the province already has a tough time repairing the cracks and potholes in the existing system. If Nova Scotia followed the Saskatchewan model of interurban and rural transit, we could have a provincewide bus network for the annual cost of only one or two kilometres of new two-lane road.
The Chronicle-Herald's Roger Taylor quoted an email from Pearce: "If Nova Scotia followed the Saskatchewan model of interurban and rural transit, we could have a provincewide bus network for the annual cost of only one or two kilometres of new two-lane road."